It's been a good week thus far. They hadn't run into any zombies in a few days, the Caddie was packed full of food and water, and the gas tank was full with extra fuel containers strapped on the overhead luggage rack. With full bellies, the boys weren't so testy, getting into arguments about something that Tally had started; all was quiet and peaceful. It was as if the shit of Zland didn't affect them anymore, they had everything they could need right around them.

Columbus had his feet propped against the dashboard, not without Tally's mumbled protests about 'disrespecting his darlin'. Col had his curled head leaning against the window while he slept, fogging up the window where his warm breath danced across it.

Tallahassee had the stereo on quietly, listening to a CD that they had found a while back that contained country music. He hummed along quietly, thrumming his fingers on the steering wheel to the time of the music.

The sky in front of them was beginning to turn many different shades of pink, purple, and even yellow, transitioning over from the darkness of the night into the lightness of early morning. Tally made sure to look out his window at the stars before the light hid them from his view.

He'd always loved the stars, astronomy, cosmology, he'd always been fascinated by them. He had never taken any classes on the subject because he 'had an image to maintain' but he checked out books from the local library and had even stolen a telescope from the science department at his high school. Tal would take his astronomy books and telescope up onto his roof every night and watch the stars, finding constellations.

Orion was his favorite; Orion, the Hunter with the red Supergiant Betelgeuse in his shoulder. No matter how long Tal watched Orion, he never became bored or tired of it; it grew in beauty the longer he looked.

Since the zombie apocalypse started and the world ended, he hadn't just looked up at the stars like he used to. He felt a strange pang in his heart when he thought about the old days and the stars. He blinked, clearing his eyes before the tears that were beginning to accumulate spilled over.

He looked over at his sleeping boyfriend, which brought a small smile to Tal's face. He reached over and laid a hand on his curls, ruffling them slightly, but gently enough so not to wake him. If the world hadn't ended, then Tal never would have met the little dork, to whom he's grown so accustomed to that it would be wrong if he was suddenly gone.

Shortly after the sun had risen completely over the horizon, they arrived at a small town in the middle of flat no-where. There were no cars or bodies on the street, hell, there wasn't even litter around. It was odd, but not unheard of, small towns completely evacuated to what was thought at the time to be a better location to be.

Towns like these rarely have any zombies in them, seeing how there was nothing to attract them there, not to mention that no humans where there to start with to turn even if a zombie did get to town somehow. These kinds of towns are actually extremely nice because the threat of a zombie attack is so slim you can relax a little bit.

Tal pulled the Caddie into a bakery's parking lot and visually examined the building and surrounding areas before doing anything else. Everything looked like the rest of town, completely evacuated with no cars or human litter.

The store was pretty small, still a little too big to be a mom and pop though. The façade would have been cute before the apocalypse, but now it was stained and beginning to crumble in some places due to negligence.

Tallahassee put the SUV into park and turned it off before he leaned over the center divider and placed a kiss in Columbus' dark hair. He pulled his head back, rubbing his right hand through his curls, waiting for Columbus to wake up a bit more before speaking.

Col rubbed his eyes before stretching, which made his shoulder pop. He looked around as Tal spoke,

"Easy snack, wanna come with?" Columbus raised an eyebrow at the older man, saying,

"You think I would actually let you go in by yourself? You're more delusional now than when I went to sleep." Tal pressed a kiss into Columbus' left temple, saying,

"That's the spirit! Let's go!" With that he threw his door open and jumped out before walking around to the back of the Caddie, joined a moment later by the still slightly groggy Col. Tal opened the back and began rifling through his assortment of melee weapons, eventually settling for a metal baseball bat, seeing how he didn't think they would even find a zombie.

Col was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with the underside of his brown hoodie's sleeve when Tal closed the door. Tal smiled as he draped an arm around Columbus' shoulders and buried his face into his dark curls, saying,

"You know, if you're tired you can just go back to sleep." Col wrapped his arm around Tal's waist, shaking his head slightly,

"No way, you can't get rid of me that easily." Tal smiled to himself as they walked up to the store still wrapped up like that.

As Tal thought, the store was untouched and didn't hide any zombies, even after a thorough sweep of the entire building, back storage and all. Col disconnected himself from Tally's side and grabbed a shopping cart and rushed around the store with it, making little 'vroom' sounds as if he were a car. Tal just followed close behind rolling his eyes and making little huff's occasionally even though he had a smile on his face.

Tal suspected that the only reason Col was doing it was because he thought it would annoy him, but Tally thought it was the most adorable thing he'd seen him do all week. Col's plan was a miserable failure, but even after he noticed that Tal was enjoying himself, he didn't stop.

Tallahassee grabbed a Twinkie box off the shelf and tore it open to pull out the golden deliciousness that is a Twinkie. While he happily ate his Twinkie, he saw Col start throwing various goodies into his car/cart, one of which was a box of Snow Balls.

Tal just narrowed his eyes slightly and gripped his box tighter, protective of his Twinkies incase Col tried to take them away and replace them with those vile, pink, and coconut covered fluff balls again.

Col, several steps ahead now, opened a Snow Ball wrapper with his teeth before biting into one of the two. He looked back at Tal and smirked when he saw the look on the taller man's face.

Tal walked up to Col and reached around him to put his box on the flop down seat thingy before putting a hand on Col's neck to pull him into a kiss. Col returned it, but a moment later Tal pulled his head back, with a strange look on his face, saying,

"Ugg, coconut." Columbus just burst out laughing and doubled over, gripping Tal's hip with his left hand so he wouldn't fall down. Tal rolled his eyes, but Col straightened and mashed his Snow Ball into Tally's face, still laughing. Not just on his mouth, but everywhere, smearing it all over his face.

Once Col finally pulled his hand back, Tal reached up and wiped the destroyed Hostess off his face and out of his eyes. He kept all of the goop in his hand and once he was able to see again, he smeared it right back into Col's face, getting a surprised yelp in response.

Columbus wiped it out of his eyes and looked up at Tal with slightly pursed lips, debating on whether or not he wanted to start a sweet's war with him. He decided that that would be an unwise endeavor, so he settled for leaning in and kissing him.

He could hear, or rather feel Tal protest the coconut, but Columbus didn't let him go. He would never let the man go; he couldn't imagine his life without him anymore. Tallahassee had been there for him for so long that he was a part of Col and he knew that Tal felt the same way; neither will ever let the other go, they love each other and they both know it.