Public Outcast//Closed

The way Atlas looked at him– like he was some precious perfect thing– was an answer in itself. He held him close, arms tight around him, and he was leaning in for a kiss as the car jolted to a stop. He pulled away with a sigh and a grumble, spilling out of the car and pressing three crumpled twenties into the driver's palm as everyone else followed him towards the blue glass entrance of the aquarium.

Atlas sighed as he sat up and handed the driver 2 fives, a 10, and a few ones. He then hopped out and ran to catch up to Emrys. He lightly grabbed Em's hand and laced their fingers. "Oh this is gonna be great!" He said as the got to the door. He opened the door, still holding Em's hand, and held it for him, closing it before Cadmus and Harley could get through.

Cadmus squawked mutedly, but Harley just led them inside, catching up to Emrys who had lagged behind long enough them to catch up.

"Awfully rude of you, Atlas," he commented quietly, kissing Cadmus on the hand to calm him down. "I was gonna buy your ticket, but I guess it's just gonna be me Cadmus and Em hanging out while you watch through the windows."

"Heyy! I thought you guys were further back behind us and I didn't want to wait holding the door for, like, a minute. Please, Harley, it's an honest mistake." Atlas said with a pleading look. Honestly, he did see that they weren't super far away, but he didn't think they were as close as they actually had been.

Harley gave him a once over before he clapped Atlas on the back– forgiveness in its quietest form. "Sure, Fox. Just don't make it again, yeah? Now let's go to ticketing, that line's at least a thirty-minute wait."

"Thank you so much. And yeah let's get there before moe people do. I mean, I bet some people in that line would give up their place in line to meet us, but I'm not about taking people's places at an aquarium. Imma wait in line like a regular-ass person…" Atlas started almost ranting. He stopped, realizing there was no point. "Um, and there was no point in that no one said anything about taking people's places…"

Emrys laughed and pecked him on the cheek while Cadmus tossed an arm around his shoulder, yanking him forward step in step with the rest of them. "That's ok," he comforted cheerfully, patting Atlas with a little too much energy. "We love you anyways, foxie. Even if you do slap doors in our faces."

"Oh that's good to know, princess. Can I slam doors in your face on purpose? Or is that too far?" Atlas asked with a giggle and a silly smile. And oh was Harley right, even though it was a weekday, there were so many people in line for tickets. Of course it must be a great aquarium, just by how many people are in line and from the size of it.

Cadmus bumped his hip with a lazy smile. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, foxie. Maybe next time it'll be Em and I closing the door on you, ever think of that you smug fucking dumbass?"

"Awe, you wouldn't do that, Em, would you? Of course, I'd expect it from Cadmus. But I bet I could still go through the door of it was just you. You may be a (insert what instrument he plays here since I forgot) player, but I was the capitan of the swim team and I can still swim just as fast or faster than I did then." He explained, elbowing Cadmus in the side. Atlas looked over at Emrys, smiling and hoping he'd take Atlas' side.

Cadmus was also pouting over at him, with Harley in the background shooting him a ho don't do it sort of look. of course, he lived for giving Harley grey hairs, so he immediately grabbed Atlas' hand with a wide smile. "Oh I'm with you 100% I say when we get back to the hotel we wait for Harley to get inside and then we just slam the door in Camus' face."

"You two faced whore! I thought we were friends!"

Em blew him a raspberry. "All's fair in love and war!"

"Oh I knew I could count on you, love." Atlas giggled before pecking Emrys' cheek. "I think that's a great idea, but know that Harley knows our plan I don't think it'll be that easy anymore. We'll just have to catch them at a different hotel once they forget." He said quieter into Em's ear.

Em snickered, ignoring the disappointed sigh/headshake combination Harley tossed at him and the nearly deadly stinkeye he was getting from Cadmus. "You're right, we'll have to seriously up our defenses. I think a strategy meeting will be in order once we get back to the hotel room."

He laughed before planting a soft kiss on Emrys' lips. Atlas let go of Em's hand and instead wrapped an arm around his waist and rested his head on Em's shoulder. "I think that is a great idea, this is a matter of war, couple against couple. We better be careful, who knows what they'll plan against us."

"Yeah, I'm a little nervous about what Cads'll get his hands on." He turned back, laughing when he saw Cadmus and Harley with their heads together, murmuring softly with matching gleams in their eyes. Those two would be the death of him and he couldn't even bring himself to be mad about it. "Hopefully we'll be able to beg for mercy, but I think our odds of succeeding are pretty low."

"Well, we just have to outsmart them… which I'm not sure we can do, but we can always try. We don't have Harley and he's very smart and Cadmus is very passionate and puts his all into things. So we're basically screwed." Atlas rambled on. He glanced to the other couple as well, letting a light sigh escape his lips.

"Eh, we'll probably be able to beg for mercy aster they prank us a few times, and anyways… oh. Oh, it's time to pay, Harley!'" He tugged on Harvey's sleeve lightly directing him to the rather appalled looking lady behind the desk. She probably recognized them.

Scratch that, she definitely recognized them. As they were wandering over to the actual enterance she got them to sign an aquarium brochure for her niece.

Atlas smiled at the lady, happy to see a fan of them, from time to time he forgets how popular they are. He had removed his arm from around Emrys as they continued into the aquarium, hoping someone hadn't already taken a picture and a rumor that they were dating was already going around. Not that he didn't want the fans to know, it was just management that he didn't want finding out.

Em took his hand hesitantly, hoping whoever saw could chalk it up to them being friends and not wanting to get lost in the gigantic aquarium. Harley tucked the tickets away in his wallet and then gathered them around with a stern glare. "Alright, we're meeting up at the penguin exhibit in exactly two hours, and if you don't make it you don't get any souvenier money. Sound good?"

"Works for me, see you two in two hours and one minute," Atlas said before looking at Emrys. He smiled, glancing down at their hands and laced their fingers. "Where do you wanna go first, Em?" He asked, smiling brightly and very excited.

Harley rolled his eyes and grabbed Cadmus by the hand, grumpily towing him off towards the sharks. Cadmus couldn't look more thrilled, barely pausing to wave goodbye to his other bandmembers before he was off.

Emrys gave Atlas a soft smile and pecked him on the cheek. "Anywhere you want."

"Oh man, why do you have out the decision on me?" Atlas said, unable to take the smile off his lips. "I guess we could just wander?" He asked, looking at Emrys. There was so much to see and it was hard to decide, especially if Atlas didn't even know what all was there.

"Alright, alright, maybe jellyfish then?" Em pulled him over to one of the many maps, lighting up when he found the exhibit. "They're on the third floor, and I'm sure they'll be totally adorable!"

Atlas smiled. "Oh that sounds good! I bet they will be!!" He said, pecking Emrys' cheek without thinking much of it. He had to be a lot more careful in a very populated place like this, of course, he was used to being in the hotel and in private.

Em winced slightly when the same thought occurred to him, but he didn't have it in himself to be mad. He liked Atlas' affection, he didn't want it to stop because he decided to chew his boyfriend out over a couple tiny kisses. "Well let's get going then! We've only got two hours, and I'm sure that's not gonna be the only interesting thing they've got in here!"

Atlas gripped Emrys' hand tighter and ran to the nearest flight of stairs. "C'mon, love!" He said as he started going up the stairs. By the time they got up the first flight though, he was already tired and he settled for walking up the stairs like everyone else.

Em let Atlas drag him up the stairs, laughing breathlessly as he was forced to slow down. He was tired too, but he worked out often enough that he wasn't too worked up. "Maybe we should walk, Atlas. This is a public area, it's not exactly polite to go sprinting around willy nilly."

"Well, you said it yourself, we only have two hours, and there's five stories worth of things to see," Atlas said, taking a lot of breaths, still trying to catch his. "I mean, kids run around all the time, why can't we? Adults don't need to be so serious all the time."

"Adults in globally acclaimed bands with strict managerial staff do." Em tugged him up the stairs, hooking a left at a big shark statue and heading for the jellyfish cove he'd found on the map. "And it doesn't look like you're holding up great. I think it'd be nice to walk. We'll see more stuff that way."

Atlas sighed. "Yeah, you're right. That was too much work." He said with a small giggle. His eyes caught sight of the jellyfish, already amazed. As they got closer, the jellyfish just got cooler.