Having turned off the car, Amber turned to shake Eric but he was already slowly blinking, sitting up and rubbing at his face. Most times when they woke up together, Amber was jumping out of bed at the ring of the alarm clock or it was a day off and they started to kiss and touch while still half-asleep. It was strange to see Eric waking up from a nap, disoriented, looking around like he had no idea where they were. Strange and wrong. Eric was sharp, not a confused sheep bumbling about.

"Terrible," Amber supplied, jerking the door open. Her stiffness and impatience made her steps out of the car stilted, almost wobbly. "No one else should drive, ever." Amber threw her hands up over her head and stretched, reaching for the sky. The movement made her trapezius ache, but in a good way. A few more steps and she felt less canned sardine and a little more human. "I need one of those helicopters, then I could just fly over the traffic."

With her family mere miles away Amber couldn't quite smile, but it was impossible not to melt into Eric's touch. Just the brush of his arm against her back released some of the strain and she found herself leaning into him. She could almost forget he'd be the one under her family's scrutiny before long. "It's alright; it would've been long no matter what." It was amazing, how gentle he could be under the circumstances. Amber closed her eyes at the press of his lips, reveling in the reminder that good things existed, too. "Yeah-- you can build your own salad here. Go get a lot of everything. I'm going to go get changed." It didn't matter that they'd been traveling for hours, her mom simply wouldn't approve of wrinkled clothes.