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kat_lair***
Title: Carpe Diem
Author: kat_lair / Mistress Kat
kat_lair / Mistress KatFandom: Craig and Bruno's Great British Road Trips, Strictly Come Dancing RPF
Pairing: Craig/Bruno
Rating: G
Word count: 7x100
Disclaimer: Very not true
Summary: Little moments on the road.
Author notes: This was written for the Carpe Diem challenge, each drabble corresponding with the daily prompt. Posted on AO3 at the time but because I also like to have my fics on my DW, here it is.
Carpe Diem on AO3
"Isn't it gorgeous? Just look at this!" Craig says for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes. He's leaning on the hotel balcony, a glass of wine dangling precariously between his fingers.
Bruno quirks a smile, aiming for sardonic but landing on fond instead. "I am looking." And it is gorgeous. The dramatic sweep of Cornish coastline spreads out before them like a painting, jagged cliffs dropping sharply into the mirror-still sea.
And yet, with Craig next to him, loose-limbed and bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, he’s having difficulty keeping his eyes on the scenery.
***
He loves everything about the experience; the breath-taking Yorkshire Dales, the hairpin turns, the control and precision needed to keep the car on the road instead plummeting over the edge… The man next to him, half-covering his eyes with one hand.
“Oh my god!” Craig moans. His other hand is clamped tightly around Bruno’s thigh. “We’re going to die!”
“We’ll be fine, my friend.” Bruno pats Craig’s hand with his own. “I am very skill— Oops!” The car swerves.
“Put your hand back on the wheel, are you crazy?!” Craig screeches.
Bruno grins but does as he’s told. For safety.
***
Their fear of heights is the same. Their courage in facing it is not.
There’s a part of Bruno that wants to beg Craig not to risk it, to stay with him, but even he isn’t that self-centred.
Watching Craig balance on a highwire walkaway above a thousand feet drop makes his knees shake, his stomach plummet to the rocks below. Greater than any of that, however, is the fierce sense of pride, of awe.
It’s merely a confirmation of what he already knows. Out of the two of them Bruno may be brasher, but Craig has always been braver.
***
Bruno listens to the story about Craig’s grandfather’s short-lived criminal career, thinking about the infinite series of chances and choices that has led to this moment right here. If he’d never left Italy, if Craig never left Australia, if neither of them said yes to a series in the UK… The probability of them never even knowing about each other was so much higher and yet…
Here they are, sitting side-by-side on the same sofa, in the same country, at the same time. As friends too, rather than strangers, never knowing what could’ve been.
Whatever the odds, they’ve beaten them.
***
Unsurprisingly, given who they are, it turns into a competition of sorts, albeit unacknowledged. Craig finds a pub that serves the best local wine, Bruno finds another for Craig to get his BBQ master on. Bruno takes Craig to play cricket, Craig takes him to drool at some classic cars. Both delight in researching local beauty spots, presenting them to each other like postcards you send just because they caught your eye and reminded you of the recipient.
Bruno doesn’t see any reason to reflect on the reasons. After all, friends give each other gifts all the time.
Don’t they?
***
“You’ve got to hit harder,” Craig says. “Really put your back into it.”
Bruno suppresses the first three responses that crowd the tip of his tongue (this is, after all, technically a family show). “Show me again?” he asks instead, ignoring the actual, professional blacksmith who is very visibly smirking at him.
Craig huffs but raises his hammer and brings it down hard and precise, the glowing-hot iron curving gracefully. Even the blacksmith nods her head in approval.
Bruno should be annoyed at how easily Craig has picked this up, but he’s too busy appreciating the visual to really complain.
***
Craig drives him home, claiming it wouldn’t feel right to finish the journey in separate cars.
Bruno wants to invite him in but doesn’t. Like pulling a plaster, quick and decisive.
His phone pings with an incoming email. Barely two paragraphs in he’s dialling Craig’s number.
“Did you see it?” he asks, breathless.
“I saw it,” Craig says. There’s a slam of a car door outside.
Bruno throws open his front door before Craig has a chance to knock. “We’re doing it, right?”
Craig grins, bright and wide. “Europe, darling! Yeah, we are!”
Bruno laughs. Nothing’s over, everything’s just beginning.
***
"Isn't it gorgeous? Just look at this!" Craig says for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes. He's leaning on the hotel balcony, a glass of wine dangling precariously between his fingers.
Bruno quirks a smile, aiming for sardonic but landing on fond instead. "I am looking." And it is gorgeous. The dramatic sweep of Cornish coastline spreads out before them like a painting, jagged cliffs dropping sharply into the mirror-still sea.
And yet, with Craig next to him, loose-limbed and bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, he’s having difficulty keeping his eyes on the scenery.
***
He loves everything about the experience; the breath-taking Yorkshire Dales, the hairpin turns, the control and precision needed to keep the car on the road instead plummeting over the edge… The man next to him, half-covering his eyes with one hand.
“Oh my god!” Craig moans. His other hand is clamped tightly around Bruno’s thigh. “We’re going to die!”
“We’ll be fine, my friend.” Bruno pats Craig’s hand with his own. “I am very skill— Oops!” The car swerves.
“Put your hand back on the wheel, are you crazy?!” Craig screeches.
Bruno grins but does as he’s told. For safety.
***
Their fear of heights is the same. Their courage in facing it is not.
There’s a part of Bruno that wants to beg Craig not to risk it, to stay with him, but even he isn’t that self-centred.
Watching Craig balance on a highwire walkaway above a thousand feet drop makes his knees shake, his stomach plummet to the rocks below. Greater than any of that, however, is the fierce sense of pride, of awe.
It’s merely a confirmation of what he already knows. Out of the two of them Bruno may be brasher, but Craig has always been braver.
***
Bruno listens to the story about Craig’s grandfather’s short-lived criminal career, thinking about the infinite series of chances and choices that has led to this moment right here. If he’d never left Italy, if Craig never left Australia, if neither of them said yes to a series in the UK… The probability of them never even knowing about each other was so much higher and yet…
Here they are, sitting side-by-side on the same sofa, in the same country, at the same time. As friends too, rather than strangers, never knowing what could’ve been.
Whatever the odds, they’ve beaten them.
***
Unsurprisingly, given who they are, it turns into a competition of sorts, albeit unacknowledged. Craig finds a pub that serves the best local wine, Bruno finds another for Craig to get his BBQ master on. Bruno takes Craig to play cricket, Craig takes him to drool at some classic cars. Both delight in researching local beauty spots, presenting them to each other like postcards you send just because they caught your eye and reminded you of the recipient.
Bruno doesn’t see any reason to reflect on the reasons. After all, friends give each other gifts all the time.
Don’t they?
***
“You’ve got to hit harder,” Craig says. “Really put your back into it.”
Bruno suppresses the first three responses that crowd the tip of his tongue (this is, after all, technically a family show). “Show me again?” he asks instead, ignoring the actual, professional blacksmith who is very visibly smirking at him.
Craig huffs but raises his hammer and brings it down hard and precise, the glowing-hot iron curving gracefully. Even the blacksmith nods her head in approval.
Bruno should be annoyed at how easily Craig has picked this up, but he’s too busy appreciating the visual to really complain.
***
Craig drives him home, claiming it wouldn’t feel right to finish the journey in separate cars.
Bruno wants to invite him in but doesn’t. Like pulling a plaster, quick and decisive.
His phone pings with an incoming email. Barely two paragraphs in he’s dialling Craig’s number.
“Did you see it?” he asks, breathless.
“I saw it,” Craig says. There’s a slam of a car door outside.
Bruno throws open his front door before Craig has a chance to knock. “We’re doing it, right?”
Craig grins, bright and wide. “Europe, darling! Yeah, we are!”
Bruno laughs. Nothing’s over, everything’s just beginning.
***
no subject
on 2021-12-20 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2021-12-20 09:38 pm (UTC)shipsrowboats I'm costeering on occasion... Glad this entertained!