Summary:A modern!AU entailing a sneak peek of what a road trip with the Sea Three would be like
Word Count:1,819
Warnings:Like one swear word and that’s it
It was an item on their bucket list since they were little kids: take a road trip across America. None of them knew at the time that they’d be crossing that item off the list together, but they were incredibly glad they were. Uma longed to see all of the beaches. She frequently visited the tiny shore on the outskirts of her hometown, but she hadn’t seen anything near the palm trees and white sands and crashing waves she dreamed of. There’s so much to do at a beach. She could lay in a chair and relax, falling asleep with the warm rays beaming down on her bronzed skin. In the more popular cities, she could take a quick stroll across a boardwalk for an ice cream cone or a local outworldly fair snack of some kind. If she was feeling extremely playful, she could wade around in the ocean with her two favorite boys because she knew there was no way they’d stay still with such a large, wet and blue playground out in front of them.
Harry was pumped to see the big cities. They didn’t necessarily live in the middle of nowhere, but you’d have to drive hours to see any kind of skyscraper clump. He’s always been so enamored with the idea of something being big. He had heard of beautiful brick buildings with modernized furniture and movie theaters larger than a football field. Harry especially longed to visit the largest mall in America, located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Does he need an entirely new wardrobe? Not necessarily. But is he going to get one anyway? Absolutely. Thoughts of the night life zoomed through his brain. All three of them were 18, there were likely multiple night clubs that they could get into. A booming, music filled environment with colorful lights and a crowd more accepting of their relationship and his extravagant personality than many of the people in their grassy suburbia.
Gil was excited about many parts of the trip, but it would be the little things that would make him the happiest. From the wacky tourist attractions they would visit along the way to the local family owned restaurants they would stop at for the occasional meal, Gil realized that the smallest parts of the trip would make the biggest memories for him. Not to mention that there was something interesting to him about sleeping on and comparing multiple hotel beds.
As Harry placed the last of their things into Gil’s hand-me-down SUV, he felt Uma’s small arms hug around his waist in excitement. “I can’t believe we’re finally doing this. Gil and I have been working doubles at the Wingstop for at least two years.” Harry closed the trunk and quietly chuckled as he turned to face his girlfriend. They had been working quite a bit for this. They knew it would be expensive, and they definitely knew that their parents weren’t going to help much. So, for the past two and a half years, the three of them had been doing everything they could to earn some money for their trip. Harry was not only playing more gigs with his ‘band of pirates,’ but he finally persuaded his boss at the local boxing gym to make some extra cash teaching self defense. Gil had a hard time keeping a job, his lack of awareness usually making him late. But after Uma put in a good word for him at her mom’s burger and wing joint, he did everything he could to look like a good employee. Uma started working so many doubles that she rarely had time for anything other than school and work. It put a bit of a damper on their relationship, especially since Harry didn’t see Gil and Uma outside of school and his occasional visits to the Wingstop. But at the end of the day, they knew that all of this hard work would pay off in two months worth of time with each other.
“Well, it’s happening. All of our work is finally paying off, duckling,” Harry replied, gently pushing one of Uma’s ombred braids away from her face and behind her ear. Harry went to kiss Uma’s lips when the two of them were interrupted by a boyish, excited shout coming from Gil as he ran towards Harry and Uma with open arms and a lion plushie in his hand.
“Road trip! Road trip!” Gil chanted, beaming with joy as he held Harry and Uma in a warm hug. “We gotta get this thing started! If we don’t leave now, we’ll be getting into Dallas really late and then Uma over here will be a sleepy, grumpy mess.” Gil chuckled as he wrapped an arm around Uma and leaned in to give her a quick kiss on her head.
“The only reason you’re not as sleepy as the rest of us is because you’re knocked out in the backseat before we even leave town.” This was the longest trip the three had ever taken, but it definitely wasn’t their first. One specific trip was when the three of them were in their freshman year of high school and they had to travel 6 hours by school bus for a state theatre competition. Despite the rockiness of the bus and the screaming high schoolers, Gil was knocked out before thirty minutes could pass. Not only that, but he stayed asleep the whole ride. “Speaking of which,” Uma spoke as she went to open the door to the driver’s seat. “You’re driving first.”
Gil groaned childishly and gave Uma his signature ‘puppy-eyed’ look. “Why?”
Harry walked to Gil and wrapped an arm around him. “Uma’s made a little bet. You drive two straight hours with no caffeine and no pulling over for a nap, and Uma and I each owe you $5.”
“And if I don’t?” Gil cocked his head to the side in subtle confusion.
“You owe each of us $5. Either way, someone’s getting money out of this. What do you say?” Uma quickly shifted her glance to Harry. The two had made a little bet themselves. Uma believed that Gil would never give up the chance to sleep for something as small as $5. Harry knew that Gil had a strong competitive streak in him from sports and other activities they shared with each other. Whoever was wrong had to sit in the back seat all by themselves for as long as Gil was able to drive.
“You know what? I’ll do it. You guys are gonna be so broke by the time this trip is over.” Gil chuckled, confident that he would win this tiny little bet. Harry smirked and looked to Uma as if to say ‘I told you so,’ and watched as she slowly opened the door to the backseat.
“Alright, boys, let’s get this show on the road.” She mumbled, partially disappointed that she had lost her little game. But truthfully, she was more excited than anything to spend two months alone with the best boyfriends in the world.
The trip started off as right as rain. Traffic in their town was relatively light, and they crossed the state line within 45 minutes. Harry, being in the passenger seat, had the privilege of picking the music. Hard electric guitar and strong lyrics about being ‘original losers’ and ‘underrated youth’ blared through the car, making it easy for Gil to stay awake. But, just as quickly as Uma was able to find a comfortable spot to rest her eyes amongst the luggage she shared the backseat with, Harry’s hardcore modern punk died down to slow Nirvana grunge that was easy for him to chill to. As suburbian highways turned to blank, near stranded roads, Gil needed something to keep him awake and aware. “Hey…Harry, are you awake?” Gil asked, his eyes darting from left to right in an effort to prevent zoning out on the road.
“Uh, yeah?” Harry looked up from his phone and over to Gil. Harry could tell that his boyfriend was doing anything to keep himself awake. A part of him was conflicted. He could either pretend to nod off and leave Gil to lose the bet, or he could keep Gil company out of fear of what would happen if he were to fall asleep at the wheel. Thankfully for the three, he chose the latter. “How long do you think you’ve been driving?” Harry asked, using his words to keep Gil awake.
“Honestly, I don’t know. The GPS said the drive was going to take 6 and a half hours. So I told myself that once it hit 4 and a half hours, I could start looking for a gas station to pull over and switch spots, you know?” Harry nodded his head, but he became nearly bug-eyed when he saw the GPS said they would arrive in 7 hours. No…no this couldn’t have been right. They’ve been in the car for at least an hour and a half.
“Gil, sunshine, can I see your phone for a moment?” When Gil nods his head, Harry grabs the phone from the magnet nearly plugged into the AC vent in Gil’s car. He rolled his eyes as he realized what was wrong: Gil had either missed an exit or taken a wrong turn, extending their already long road trip. “Jesus fucking Christ…Gil, take the next exit and find a gas station.”
“Wait, why? We’re perfectly fine on gas.”
“Because you clearly don’t know how to follow a GPS. I’ll wake Uma.” Harry turned his body and slightly climbed over his passenger seat to lightly tap Uma on her leg, causing her to slowly stir awake and sit up.
“Are we here?”
“Hate to wake you, darling, but you’re riding shotgun. I’m gonna drive.” When Uma responded with a confused expression, Harry grabbed Gil’s phone from the magnet and showed it to Uma. She was just a confused and similarly shocked as he had been when he first saw that Gil had gone the wrong way.
“Jesus, Gil, tell me you didn’t do this to get out of your bet.” Uma flatly asked as Gil pulled into a nearby gas station and began to unbuckle his seatbelt.
“I didn’t even realize that I had done something wrong until Harry said I did.” Gil innocently shrugged his shoulders and switched to the back seat, an area that had been warmed from Uma’s sleeping body. Harry got into the driver’s seat and began to drive.
Gil smiled as he snuggled into a nearby pillow tucked into the backseat. Did he fake getting lost to get some shut-eye? Maybe. Was he going to end up owing Uma and Harry money for this? Possibly. But the only thing that mattered was that he was getting to spend two straight months travelling the country with his sleepy girlfriend and his flourishing, overdramatically Scottish boyfriend.
Author’s Note: So I was reading back through my Sea Three content and realized that I never wrote HCs for Modern!Sea Three. So here they are. Also a reminder that my requests are open! Send in any headcanons or oneshots you want!!!
- First off, this is going to be for a high school!Modern AU because in canon the three are 16/17 in D2 and 17/18 in D3. So there’s that.
- Let’s start with how they met. Harry and Uma had lived in the same neighborhood since they were practically in diapers.
- They’d meet up at the park down the road every day to play pirates (Uma was always the Captain) in order to escape the stuff they had going on at home.
- They were the kind of childhood friends that made the “if we’re both single at 25 let’s get married” pact.
- Turns out they couldn’t wait until 25, because they started dating around the 8th grade. Harry came to her front door with one of his flannels in his hand and when Uma asked why he was giving it to her he said “well if we’re gonna be dating, you need to have some of my clothes.” and Uma just shrugged and went “okay, thanks babe!”
- Once high school came around, the pair were practically unstoppable.
- Uma was an active member of the Black Student Union and Student Council. If so many of the kids at school weren’t so biased towards Mal, she would’ve been voted Most Likely to Become President.
- Harry took on high school from a more rebellious angle. His freshman year was FILLED with spray paint on lockers, petty fights with people who looked at Uma the wrong way, etc.
- Harry had also become the lead singer and guitarist for an indie rock band called The Lost Revenge. If people at school liked him, it was usually because of his music.
- By the time they were sophomores, people were inspired by Uma’s leadership and either scared or intrigued by Harry’s love for trouble.
- Then, the unthinkable happens.
- Gil moved to Uma and Harry’s high school from a different state, so they had NEVER seen him before. But when they did, they realized they had to know him.
- So, Uma volunteered to give him a tour around the school and the two clicked instantly. She invited Gil to one of Harry’s upcoming gigs so that Harry could meet him too.
- Harry had already come out as pan, but since he’d only dated Uma, he had no experience with guys. None. At all.
- So when Gil came up to him, all sunshiney and muscular and sweet with his “Wow, you guys did awesome tonight!” He had no idea how to respond.
- The three started to hang out together more and more. Uma and Gil would go to every single one of Harry’s gigs, Gil and Harry would visit Uma at her job at her mom’s local seafood restaurant, and Uma and Harry would ALWAYS go to Gil’s football games (despite Harry’s small hatred for football).
- How they started dating was kind of sad, but also kind of sweet when you think about it.
- Uma’s sitting in her room, chilling, listening to Janelle Monae (yes, she’s a Janelle Monae fan, fight me) when Harry calls her.
- “Hey, Uma, is your mom home?”
-“Nope. She’s got a double at the restaurant. Why? Looking for some alone time?”
-“Actually, Gil’s here with me. Something’s happened. We’ll be there in 5.”
- Uma. Was. TERRIFIED.
- Her fear grew even stronger when she opened the door to Gil bruised, crying, and under Harry’s arm.
- Turns out, Gil was bi. Openly bi. Some of the football players didn’t like that very much.
- “I don’t understand…They were so nice to me before, then I told them about an ex boyfriend from back home and they all just..ganged up on me.”
- They iced his bruises, gave him a blanket to snuggle into and a shoulder to cry on. Suddenly, Gil leaned up and kissed Harry.
- Nobody really knew how to react at first. Gil immediately got scared because he knew how jealous Uma could get sometimes, and Harry thought that he had just cheated on his girlfriend and his best friend.
- But when Uma leaned down and slowly began to kiss Gil, it’s like something switched in all three of them.
- When Uma and Harry saw Gil that first day, they didn’t just want to know him, they wanted to love him. So the two became three. They promised to always love, support, and protect each other.
- But first, Uma and Harry had to get even with the football team.
- Harry simply just fought most of them in the school parking lot, getting his bandmates to help out. But Uma? Uma snapped. She slashed three tires on all of their cars and made sure that every girl in school knew what they had done.
- “Homophobes don’t deserve cars…or girlfriends.”
- While this may have gotten Uma kicked out of student council, she didn’t feel an inch of regret.
- So, throughout their Junior and Senior year, this throuple became known as the “C Three.” What did the C stand for?
- “Chaos. Pure, impulsive, rebellious chaos. But at least we know we have each other.”
