[JoJo] Interstate

[petronia]

Ka asked for Giorno/Mista or Jolyne/Annasui, and I've already written 9,000 words of purported Giorno/Mista this year, so. Spoilers for the ending of part 6 (as in, the very last scene) and part 7, in a manner of speaking.

...I should upload this song as BGM. XD



Interstate (A Prologue)
for angrybabble


"Poor kid," said the girl named Irene, "he's asleep."

Her boyfriend retracted his hand from the radio's volume knob, with a sigh. "Are you seriously going to bring him in the car with us? All the way to New York City?"

"It's only right," said Irene. "He said he had nowhere else to go."

"You don't think we have enough to explain to your dad as it is? What if he's lying and there's an amber alert out for him? Someone could turn us in at the next gas station. We're going to spend the rest of winter break in a jail cell."

"I don't believe that," said Irene. "Besides, even if he ran away I'm not going to ditch him at some police station. I don't trust the cops that way. Don't worry about it, okay? We'll talk to Dad when we get there, he'll understand."

"That," said the boyfriend gloomily, "is easy for you to say."

"He won't do anything to you. Promise. I won't let him."

The boyfriend snorted but said nothing. He looked slightly mollified. They're a married couple already, Hermes thought, and craned her neck so she could peer into the back.

"New York?" she said. "Seriously?"

"I have family there," said Irene. "It's a road trip, we'll take you as far up the coast as you want as long as you pitch in for gas."

"I might take you up on that," said Hermes, "to Jacksonville." She looked at the third occupant of the backseat. "You?"

The storm had come and gone with the usual abrupt violence of the Keys. Now the sun had reappeared, and the large man and his knapsack were by far the soggiest objects in sight. He stirred, looked up with dark eyes.

"Montgomery," he said, "Alabama."

The boyfriend whistled. "You'll be wanting to get off this road, then."

"I'm in no hurry," said the man. He had a voice to suit the eyes, deep and warm, in which vowels moved like molasses.

They talked some more, quietly, in order not to disturb the sleeping child. The boyfriend's name was Anakis, and he majored in mechanical engineering at U of F. The large man's name was West; further information he did not volunteer. Hermes propped her elbow on top of the car door and gazed at the increasingly busy traffic outside, half paying attention to the low-key chatter on the radio. The Steel Ball Run carfree rally had departed Chicago that morning, and the pack leaders were currently rounding the lower edge of Lake Michigan.

"We'll be in NYC in time for the last leg," said Anakis. "Crazy bastards, it's already snowing up north. Can you imagine biking down the side of the interstate in weather like that?"

"Better than riding a horse," said Hermes. "Back when they ran the first one there was no interstate. It was cowboys taking potshots at each other out on the prairie."

"Yeah, now it's granola heads and extreme sports jocks with energy drink ads pasted to their ass," said Anakis. "God bless progress and the American dream."

"Amen to that," said West, in his warm deep voice. Irene sat up a bit straighter.

"One of my ancestors made the Run," she said. "The first one."

"Yeah? Did he win?" Hermes meant it as a joke, but Irene looked coy.

"Sort of."

"'Sort of'?"

"It's long and complicated. He... wasn't racing for the money, so it depends on how you define 'win'. It was a life-and-death situation, though."

"I'm sold," said Hermes. "This I want to hear." She glanced at Anakis, applying for support, but the latter only shrugged.

"I know the story already," he said.

"We don't," said West.

"I can tell," said Irene, "but I have to start at the beginning."

Hermes settled back into her seat. "We've got plenty of time," she said. "It's going to be a long drive."