Chapter Text
Luke scrunched his nose when he saw the telltale signs of someone having pressed their nose to the plastic window that his own face was only inches away from. He just wanted to take off already—he was getting fidgety. The oval-shaped window that the plane provided would likely continue to bother him later when it’d prove to be too small to see out of.
‘I need to stop being so bitter,’ he thought to himself as he tried to put things into perspective. Looking to his left, he saw that Han had already fallen asleep. Rolling his eyes but smiling, he reached out a hand to gently intertwine their fingers (without waking the man now snoring softly) and leaned back in his seat.
He was getting a chance to travel the world.
He was getting a chance to travel the world with his boyfriend.
He was getting a chance to travel the world with his boyfriend, who’d planned the entire trip himself as a surprise to the younger man.
Luke stilled his feet as they’d been tapping relentlessly on the floor beneath him out of nerves. He’d only been told about the trip two days ago (thanks to Han), but he already felt like he’d waited forever. He just wanted to GO. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to close his eyes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two days ago, he’d no idea he’d be about to embark on a journey like this.
Two days ago, the only thing he had planned was a trip to the National Mall on Saturday.
Two days ago, he came back to their apartment from work, dropping his bag at the door and tossing his keys in the bowl on the table. He walked to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, toeing his shoes off along the way.
He’d been sitting on the countertop, legs crossed at the ankles, tea in one hand and a copy of Newsweek in another when he heard the door open. He leapt down from his perch and, shuffling into the front room, greeted his boyfriend by wrapping his arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek.
Han smiled down at Luke and held him by the waist. When Luke went to retreat from the embrace, Han held fast. Luke looked up at him quizzically.
“I have a confession to make,” said Han, positively grinning now.
Luke was suspicious. The last time Han had said those words to him, he’d lied to Luke about going with him to the Smithsonian on a Sunday afternoon; instead, he took him to paintball.
“Oh, damn,” Luke moaned, breaking out of Han’s arms and walking over to sit on the countertop again. “I swear to God, Han, it took an hour to get that shit out of my hair last time—“
“No, no. It’s nothing like that, I swear, you’ll like this,” Han said almost giddily as he strode into the back hallway, out of sight for a moment before he returned with a thin black binder. He handed it to Luke wordlessly.
Luke reached out and took it, still suspicious. He eyed Han, considering him before opening the front cover.
There, in horrible bright orange Comic Sans font were the words “Luke and Han’s Grand Adventure: Europe” with little clip-art mountains and cities and planes. Luke smiled, trying not to giggle. At this point, he thought Han had made an imaginary scrapbook or something along those lines and didn’t want to appear as though he was scorning it. He flipped to the next page.
There was a divider with a pocket on the front that held four plane tickets. Two of them read “WASHINGTON DULLES INTL TO LONDON HEATHROW INTL” in both Han and Luke’s names. Luke’s eyes started to widen and he could feel his heart beat accelerate. The dates were for March 21st. Luke almost dropped the binder. Today was the 19th. His head snapped up to look at Han, who’d been watching his every move with excited hesitation.
“Is this real? This can’t be… there’s no way this can be real! Two days. Leave in two days, I have work, YOU have work, oh God our work. Is this a joke?” Luke spluttered, hands shaking slightly. He wanted so badly for it to be real, but he just couldn’t see how.
Han had expected this reaction. He smiled, trying not to laugh at his little boyfriend as he looked at the culmination of Han’s hard work.
“Keep looking,” instructed Han. “We’re gonna be gone for a lot longer than those tickets say. Turn to the next few pages.”
Luke was having trouble breathing as he looked at the tickets coupled with the tickets to London. They read “LONDON HEATHROW INTL TO DUBLIN INTL.” Knowing that more lie ahead in the binder, he only had time to gasp at the word “Dublin” before stuffing all four tickets back into the pocket and turning to the next divider.
In the other four dividers, he found plane tickets to and from places all over Europe along with rental car reservations, hotel transcripts, and receipts for activities like bungee jumping, a wine tour, and the Neapolitan Opera. Then, when he flipped past the last divider, he saw a last pocket taped to the back cover. It had a packet that had been handwritten (by Han, judging by the handwriting) detailing the excursions in detail and chronology.
It also had two more tickets… for the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Tears were starting to fall down his face as the feeling of excitement escalated to a level that his body could not physically handle. He realized how much time and effort Han had put into this and started to cry in earnest. Han was laughing a bit, but still trying to hide it from Luke. Luke gently placed the binder on the counter as he hopped off and threw himself into Han’s arms.
Han rubbed his back, without saying anything, and waited for Luke to calm down. He still didn’t really know what the kid thought about it yet. He knew it was incredibly risky. What if he’d just blown this astronomical amount of money and time to have Luke say no? He was still as nervous as he’d been when he walked in the door, waiting for Luke’s response.
Luke pulled away, face red and eyes still running a bit, but he was beaming up at Han. ‘That has to be a good sign,’ thought Han, hopefully.
Luke punched him lightly on the shoulder.
“Why the HELL didn’t you tell me earlier?!” Luke yelled. He was full of adrenaline, he wasn’t really angry or upset, he didn’t know what he was. He knew he had a lot of energy and needed an outlet. This was a question he meant to ask anyway, why not add a little zest?
“Jesus kid, you know why! You’d obsess and obsess until you didn’t want to go! Then you’d change your mind and decide otherwise. You fixate on stuff and let yourself get worked up so much that you don’t enjoy things properly!” Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Luke felt immediate regret after he yelled. He knew Han was right. He got fixated easily. He was emotional. He’d obsess and nit-pick.
“You’re right,” Luke conceded. “I’m sorry, this is amazing, but…”
Luke sniffed lightly before asking the question that was bothering him most; the most pressing issue.
“What about work?”
Han smiled again.
“I already took care of that.”
Luke stared, waiting for Han to elaborate. When he didn’t, Luke huffed.
“What does that mean? You have to explain, I’m not just gonna take off to Europe with my boyfriend without knowing for sure that my job is secure!”
Han rolled his eyes. When was Luke gonna learn that he always took care of everything? ‘Well… not everything. Slow your roll, hotshot,’ he chided himself.
“I MEAN that I’ve been in contact with your editor and she said that it’s a perfect way to incorporate international cultures into the magazine. She gave me a list of places we’d have to go for you to be paid for this, and I incorporated them into our travel plans. I also talked to my photography director and I told him what your editor told me. He said it sounded like a fantastic idea, one that could possibly ‘affect my perspective’ or whatever, seeing as though I’d be with you. He gave me a list of places, too… and a lot of them matched up with the ones from your editor.”
Han smirked seeing Luke pacing back and forth in their kitchen, knowing that he would go to great lengths to get more editorials. Sure, he’d be taking a pretty long hiatus, but he’d be back with great material.
“What were some of the places on the list?” Luke whispered, walking towards Han and raising his hands to Han’s chest. He still didn’t truly believe it all to be real. He kept his mind open to the idea that it still may not happen. He was trying not to fixate. Trying not to obsess. Trying not to nit-pick. Trying not to—
“Thailand, Zimbabwe, Palau, Peru, Hungary, Morocco. To name a few. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.”
Luke’s head snapped up again. The binder only mentioned places in Europe.
“But… but there’s only tickets in there for—“
“There are three more binders.” Han was grinning again as he watched Luke’s eyes widen comically. “Didn’t you see our last tickets are for the Trans-Siberian Railway? You think that makes a stop in D.C.?”
Luke leaned up against the counter weakly. He looked up at Han, face blank as he asked, “and just how many countries will we be visiting, DEAREST?”
“Fifty-five. Or fifty-six, I forget,” Han said simply, as though he were giving Luke weather information.
Luke started crying again and slid down the cabinets to the tile floor. Han calmly sat down next to him, crossing his legs. Luke had his head in his hands and the tops of his fingers were poking out of his hair.
“I want you to know, I AM excited. I’m so excited I can’t really breathe, but,” Luke’s shaky laugh was muffled through his hands, “how the hell do you pack for something like this?”