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“Why in fuck’s sake do we need to be in the middle of nowhere for this?”
Dundee’s question wasn’t met with an answer, much like most of the other questions he asked in this conversation.
He was now driving past several city landmarks, much to his concern. Barry had pinged him a very specific location outside the borders of downtown Los Santos, which– to Dundee’s knowledge– concerns a road and some trees, probably some benches, but nothing else other than that.
“B?”
“Hm?”
Dundee lets out a sigh. “If you’re planning to kill me—“
“Shut the fuck up, cunt.” Barry chuckled at the other end of the line.
Dundee couldn’t help but give a giggle back, “I’m just saying if you—“
“Shut up, dickhead!” Dundee swore he heard Barry’s eyeroll through the call. “I’ll see you soon, aight?”
The call ended. Though, Dundee’s wondering didn’t.
Timing has always been so funny on the side of both Dundee and Barry. Things always seem to fall just perfectly, may it be for the better or the absolute worst.
Before Barry called, telling Dundee to go to the ping he would be getting, Dundee had also planned something along the same line; to ping Barry somewhere Dundee could give his gift and where they could just talk, just the two of them. Only difference is that Dundee didn’t plan for it to be in the middle of fucking nowhere.
If anything, Dundee didn’t really plan for it at all. He thought that he would just come up with the plan in the moment, unable to foresee how things were going to go during the city-wide Holiday gathering to plan in advance.
He had seen Barry multiple times at the party, wearing a plain blue dress shirt tucked into his denim jeans, the folds of his shirt draping lightly over his brown leather belt. In all the times Dundee had spotted him, he was in a conversation with someone or sometwo, as busy as he usually was with talks on the phone and even off it. Dundee wasn’t able to find the time that he felt was right to approach Barry, up until the man was nowhere to be found at the party anymore.
Dundee stopped the car at the exact point of the ping. He was right: it was indeed in the middle of nowhere with a road, some trees, and wooden benches, with Barry sitting on one of them, staring at his hands.
Dundee grabbed his phone and the gift from the passenger seat before turning off the engine and leaving the car.
‘Fuck, it’s cold.’ He lets out a breath, visible as smoke as white as the snow already piling on the sides of the road, atop the green grass and the leaves of the trees around.
The snow crunched beneath his feet as he walked. He was slipping and sliding on some steps, but he was grateful to not have met the ground yet. Spending 5 years back in Australia had Dundee forgetting how snow could be so pretty and also pretty fucking annoying at times.
Dundee’s eyes met Barry's through the man's aviators. He seemed to have only noticed Dundee’s presence after the shorter man had slammed his car door shut.
“Hey.” Barry greeted, the slightest smile on his face.
“You still haven’t answered me about why you picked here of all fucking places, Benson.”
“Well, I just don’t think it’s a question worth answering.”
Dundee raised a brow, “I’d still love to know.”
“It’s irrelevant, don’t worry about—”
“Irrele— How is it irrelevant?!”
Nonchalantly, Barry replied, “‘It’s not important,”
“Where even aRE WE?!”
“I TOLD YOU, NOT IMPORTANT!”
“BUT IT’S SO COLD HERE, CUNT!”
“WH— IT’S COLD EVERYWHERE !!!”
Dundee groaned in fake annoyance, taking a seat on the space beside Barry. “Now what?!”
Barry cleared his throat, “I uhh… I wanted to give you something.”
Dundee laughed, puzzling Barry.
“OOH, mate, we’re ‘bout to have our own fucking Secret Santa then.” Dundee grinned from ear to ear.
Barry blinked, “You’ve got something to… give me, too?”
“Yeah, mate! I was planning on giving it to you earlier but I couldn’t get a hold of ya. Your line’s very busy.”
“Fuckin’ ‘ell,” Barry muttered following a chuckle. “Yeah, sorry about that… people just like catching up and shit.” He mumbled, almost inaudible. “We’ll exchange gifts then.” He laughed softly, looking back at his hands.
Dundee couldn’t see much of whatever it was Barry was holding even if he tried. Barry had kept it faced down and almost entirely covered by his hand. All Dundee could see was two white edges peeking out.
Barry cleared his throat again, a habit that has never left the man when he’s about to give a speech or talk about something he’s unsure of. Occasionally, just like now, it’s both cases at the same time.
“I’ve uhh— I’ve been thinking a lot, ever since BBMC got RICO'd and I got sent back to Aus. And, uhh…” Barry ran his thumb over what he was holding, “They were kind enough to send all my shit back home with me, personal things and all that. And when I was decluttering my shit, I found,” Barry flipped his hand, revealing a Polaroid picture all too familiar to Dundee. “this.”
It was the picture of them wearing their pink and orange suits, having a dinner date at the lobby of MRPD. On the white space below the photo was the date ‘12.19.2021’, written with a marker, its color faded with age.
Dundee took the picture in his hand, looking at it fondly like he did back then in their car right after their date.
They looked so young; way younger than one would expect Barry and Dundee to look 6 or 7 years ago.
“Holy shit… this looks like it had been taken ages ago, mate.”
“Feels that way, doesn’t it?” Barry smiled, looking at the picture as well.
He took in a deep breath and let a beat pass before speaking again, “5 years in Aus is a lot of time to think and ponder about shit. And in the time I was there, I found this photo and thought about it a lot… thought about everything else surrounding it; the things that happened during then, things that happened before, and the things that happened after.”
Barry took a breath. “It was fun, those times. Probably the best of times I’ve had being in this fucking city. We weren’t the most accomplished, o-or the most established— we didn’t even know what the fuck to do most of the fucking time!" Barry laughed, "We just pulled out strats out of our asses, thought of plans on the fucking whim, played out ideas that were really fucking dumb on the book, but somehow made it all work."
Dundee chuckled as he nodded.
“Bombondabus? The Rainbow heist we did where you pretended to be a fucking police officer? All the two-man banks we did? Getting front-row seats on a PD shootout driving around in a fucking Reliant Robin in our bright ass suits like we’re just casually strolling in the park minus the occasional attempts to scavenge abandoned PD materials? All of that was stupid, Dee, absolutely fucking stupid. And I had a shitload of fucking fun doing it!”
Nostalgic, Dundee smiled. “I did, too.”
“A-And I…”
The pause made Dundee look up from the photo, expecting to meet Barry’s eyes. However, the latter had kept his gaze on the picture, lips no longer in a smile and soft creases forming between his eyebrows. Dundee didn’t say a word. He didn’t even make a sound. He just patiently waited, letting Barry take all the time he needed.
“I want to have fun again, Dee. And doing nothing for 5 years in Aus except merely fucking existing isn't even the thing that made me realize that. No, all it did was solidify the fact that I miss doing all of that, way before I even got deported. And even way before BBMC dispersed.”
Barry’s shoulder rose high and fell low as he took a deep breath in and let a heavy sigh out. “I want to start again. I feel like the 5 years have been enough to… chuck away the past and just start anew. Or restart, I think is a—is a better word for it.”
Dundee hummed. “Well… seems like that’s what the universe wants you to do as well.” He handed the paper bag to Barry, the one containing his gift. “Sorry, I didn’t wrap it in Christmas shit anymore.”
“Nah, you’re all good. I’ve seen you wrap presents before and you could not do it even if your life depended on it, mate.” Barry laughed as he tore the paper bag open.
Inside it was a Pißwasser cap, exactly the same as the one Barry had before.
“Aw, what the fuck?” Barry smiled, adoring that the cap was in good condition.
“I saw that while I was in the shop the other day, the one where we usually go to? I was surprised it’s still up after all these years when the other shops have already been replaced. I was even more surprised they still sell those. And that’s the last of the stock, so I think it really was meant for you, B.”
Dundee heard Barry mumble an ‘oh my lord’ before brushing his hair back and putting the cap on.
“My god— Does this still even suit me?” Barry giggled, pulling his phone up to look at his reflection. “Should I wear it forward, or backward?” He mumbled to himself.
“You look great either way,” Dundee muttered, almost inaudible to the ears. “Funny how that actually lines up with what you wanna do,” he said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I think this holds the stupidity I need to restart, thank you, Dee.” Barry giggled.
It wasn’t much of a lie, though, considering that his old Pißwasser cap was involved in most of the dumb things Barry involved himself in. It held memories, of both good and bad. Most of all, it served as a reminder of how Barry used to have the greatest of times, and how he wanted to have those again.
“This wouldn’t be enough, though, I don’t think…” He said, turning the cap backward. “'cause yeah I want to do dumb shit again, with this fuckin’ cap on and all,” He chuckled, “But… I don't just wanna be stupid again...”
Barry sighed warmly, shaking his head and bringing his gaze to Dundee’s. With lips in such a heartwarming smile that made Dundee’s insides go crazy, he continued, “I wanna be stupid again with you.”
No amount of adrenaline could possibly mimic the way Dundee’s heartbeat instantly quickened, hard and fast against his chest that it almost seemed like it pressured his lungs to work at the same pace.
Dundee wanted to say something, anything, but his mouth had run dry and his voice was suddenly nonexistent. His mind was in a puddle; thoughts that had been swirling inside his noggin just instantly melted along with his heart as soon as he saw that smile on Barry’s lips.
God knows how much he wants those lips against his right fucking now.
In Barry’s eyes, Dundee was a statue: unmoving, with a face seemingly sculpted from red inkstone with how flushed his face was at that moment. Barry couldn’t hold back a giggle, especially now that the weight that had been on his shoulders vanished after finally being able to let what he wanted to say out of his head and his chest.
“So,” he started, “What do you say?”
"I want to kiss you so fucking badly right now."
“Oh—“ Barry choked at the words that Dundee said as soon as he had found his voice “-mygod, w-well that was not a response I was expecting."
It also wasn’t a response he felt differently with.
Barry laughed, feeling a particular warmth on both his cheeks, one that he hadn’t felt for so long. “Wouldn’t it be grand if there was a mistletoe right above our heads right now? Maybe then we could make that happen.”
Dundee, as fast as he could, grabbed something from the snowed ground and held it up.
Barry scoffed, “That’s just a leaf, Dee!”
Dundee picked up another one from the ground and held both leaves in between the pinch of his thumb and pointer finger, once again holding it up above both of their heads. “Good enough?”
With a brief laugh, Barry cupped the side of Dundee’s face and pulled him in, pressing his lips against Dundee’s in the softest kiss they had so badly wanted and so badly missed. Both had their eyes closed immediately, wanting to feel even the slightest movement of each other’s lips as deeply as they could, and responding just the way they knew how the other wanted them to, something no amount of time could have made them forget.
“So,” Barry let out a giggle as soon he pulled away, caressing the side of Dundee's face. “Should I take this as a yes or…?”
Dundee rolled his eyes with a groan and then a laugh, “Go fucking figure, cunt.” He said before vigorously pulling Barry closer by the collar of his dress shirt and kissing him again, not having had enough.