#the romance...

hi jamie yes this prompt is 3 weeks old but i remembered our hieron amazing race au yesterday so here’s Them

6. walking through the woods

Something in Ephrim unwound as soon as the cameras were off. It wasn’t at all surprising that the crew had been keeping a closer eye on their interactions since their impulsive first kiss back in... God, the cities were starting to blur together at this point. The point was, it had been a long couple days, and whatever was between them was so heavily scrutinized that Ephrim was learning to appreciate every pause to change camera batteries.

According to Samol’s introduction of this leg, Bogotá was the highest altitude city of its population in the world, and the hills to its East were even higher. The hike had been unpleasant, then, especially since they were trying to do it as quickly as they could.

As soon as they’d agreed to pause, Throndir settled with his back against a tree. He was clearly trying to catch his breath, pulling his water bottle out from his bag and taking a swig. Ephrim didn’t realize he’d been staring until Throndir looked up and winked.

He chose to take that as an invitation. Ephrim stepped into Throndir’s personal space, laying his prosthetic hand on Throndir’s arm and leaning in to press a kiss to his jawline. He hadn’t gotten a chance to shave this morning, Ephrim remembered, and his face was scratchy against his lips.

Throndir glanced over to their crew members, still checking their equipment, before he set a hand on Ephrim’s waist. “Hard for me to believe this is nice for you,” he said, “I have to be sweaty.”

Ephrim rolled his eyes. “Like I’m not.”

“Yeah but you, like, make it work.”

“Literally what does that mean-“

“Howdy, lovebirds!” Ephrim sighed and turned away to see Adaire coming over the hill, followed by Hella and their two crew members. “You better keep moving, Hadrian and Ben are right behind us.”