Work Text:
Katsuki sat in the airport terminal in a relatively uncomfortable seat, anxiously bouncing his leg as he waited. He checked the status of flight 2137 every five minutes, always disappointed when the status of “on-time” didn’t change. Sure, he was racking up the cost of having his car sit in short-term parking, but he didn’t care. Was arriving at the airport an hour and a half a little overkill? Maybe, but he’d accounted for any possible delays by being early. Besides, traffic was always unpredictable, no matter how much Katsuki sped (only about ten over) and wove (just a little) between traffic.
Sitting in the terminal, he watched the electronic billboard of flights change as the minutes trickled by. He watched families reunite with distant relatives, lone travelers stumble on to their next destination and spouses greet each other after what probably had been months apart. He listened to announcement after announcement about lost items at security, flight updates, and cautionary messages about unattended luggage. He watched the clouds get hidden by the sun and then, shortly after, the sun bursting from behind unusually fluffy clouds.
The skies were clearer than they had been in a while. Flights arrived on time and unloaded in a matter of minutes. Time seemed to rush by and crawl slowly at the same time and Katsuki shifted again in the fabric covered plastic seat. Nearby, excited families and friends held signs and flowers for the passengers that had made it off their plane first. Katsuki ignored them all in favor of damaging his eardrums with a playlist of hard rock and heavy metal. His hands remained warm and balmy loosely clasped together in front of him, occasionally reaching up to skip tracks or lower the volume to hear a new announcement over the intercom.
At last, flight 2137’s status switched to “arrived”. Katsuki froze. His music was shut off, his ear buds wrapped and stuffed into his pockets. He stood from the chair, his eyes trained on the terminal entrance that lead to the gates and beyond. It was exactly twelve minutes and fifty-two seconds before passengers from flight 2137 came through the entrance.
Katsuki searched every face that came through, his heart thumping louder as each face passed him by. His hands felt overly sweaty and he dried them on his pants. When the bulk of the stream seemed to fade into the trickles of the slowest debarking passengers, Katsuki briefly feared that he’d stood up for nothing, that he’d stood too early, for the wrong flight. He checked his phone messages to double check if his boyfriend had actually gotten onto the plane and that he had the right flight number.
Then, someone tapped their finger randomly over his phone’s screen as he almost frantically searched flight information. “And here I thought I was going to get a hug at least when I got off the plane, and you’re playing on your phone...” someone said in a theatrically disappointed voice tinged with amusement.
Katsuki jerked his head up only enough to see a flash of red before his arms were already coming up to pull the other in a nearly bone-crushing hug. He pressed his face into his boyfriend’s shoulder and growled his response into the other’s cotton shirt. “Shut the fuck up. What took you so long?”
Eijirou smiled easily, returning the hug, letting go of his suitcase. “I had a seat towards the back and people seemed to have issues with their luggage in the middle of the plane,” he laughed, a sound that was better in person than over a video call or phone.
“Get a seat closer to the front then,” Katsuki grumbled, unwilling to let the other go quite so soon. Eijirou’s warmth seemed infectious and Katsuki could feel his entire body heat up the longer he was embracing Eijirou.
“Noted. Can we go home though? I need to take a shower baaaaadly,” he chuckled, patting Katsuki’s back as if he were a child. “I always feel a little gross after being on a plane. All the stagnant air, y’know?” Katsuki didn’t care but he drew back regretfully, sparing a smile for once, his ruby eyes shining. Just before he turned to head back to short term parking, he took Eijirou’s hand and pulling him into a kiss, one that seemed to slip everything back into place, a kiss that made butterflies flutter in his stomach, a kiss that he’d promised the last time the two had spoken on the phone.
“Sure. But you were gone too long so don't think you’re getting off easy just because you’re ‘tired’, Eijirou,” he huffed after breaking the kiss. He did not let go of Eijirou’s hand and practically started to drag the red-haired man in the direction of short-term parking.
Eijirou chuckled, stumbling a little when he was suddenly jerked into motion after a kiss like that. He looked a little dazed but his eyes were shining brightly despite the slight burn of fatigue in his eyes. “I wouldn’t expect you to go easy on me, of course, Katsuki,” he grinned, squeezing Katsuki’s hand in his own and following after him happily, his step falling into time with Katsuki’s.
Together, they walked out of the terminal, hand in hand, becoming one of the many lovers reunited after months apart. And Katsuki wouldn’t have it any other way.