Chapter Text
May 31st, San Francisco International Airport
“Richard, love, wake up. They’re boarding soon.” Jared gently shakes Richard’s shoulder.
“Mrmm,” Richard says, burying his face deeper into Jared’s shoulder. He sounds like a cat being awoken from a particularly deep slumber. “It’s too early.”
And he’s not wrong. It’s 6:25 am, about 3 hours after Richard would normally go to sleep. (“That’s the worst thing about the West Coast,” Richard had said on the drive to the airport. “Our flights are too early.” “Really? I've always felt it was the legacy of the Mission Schools and associated genocide.” “Well that, that too.”) So Richard is tired and grumpy, and he blames Jared. Which really isn’t fair, because Jared told him multiple times he didn’t have to come, but Richard insisted. He’s a supportive boyfriend, after all.
“Richard, you have to wake up.”
Finally, Richard lifts his head and looks up at Jared. His hair is sticking straight up, and his eyes are red with sleep.
“Fine, I’m awake,” he grumbles. Jared chuckles, and places a kiss on Richard’s forehead. Richard whines and grabs at Jared’s jaw, pulling him into an actual kiss. A dangerous move on Richard’s part, because he knows how helpless Jared is when Richard kisses him.
Sure enough, Jared is quickly whimpering into his mouth, clutching at his hair. Richard finds it intoxicating, the combination of Jared’s lust for him and the taste of Jared’s tongue. He wishes this moment could last forever, but he knows he has to shut it down when Jared starts pawing at his chest.
“Jared, Jared,” he says, pulling away panting.
“What?” Jared says, chasing after Richard’s mouth.
“Now boarding our First Class passengers,” the flight attendant says into his intercom.
“That’s us,” Richard says. “Come on.” He grabs Jared’s hand and makes his way to the boarding line, ignoring all the dirty looks they’re receiving from other passengers. They’re just jealous, he thinks, that I’m making out with the hottest guy here and they’re not.
“Do you want aisle or window?” Jared asks as they board the plane.
“Window. Looking out helps with the nausea.” Richard slides into his seat and watches Jared push their suitcase into the overhead compartment. More specifically, he watches the sliver of skin revealed just above Jared’s waistline as his arms stretch above his head. It doesn’t matter how many times they have sex (and they’ve had sex many, many times), little things like this always get Richard excited.
As Jared takes his seat, Richard slips his hand into his.
“Are you nervous?” Richard asks.
“A little. But mostly I’m excited.”
Richard nods.
“It’s gonna be great, baby.”
Jared smiles and squeezes Richard’s hand. Richard rests his head on Jared’s shoulder and resumes his nap.
Ping! “You are now free to move about the cabin.”
“Richard,” Jared whispers, “wake up.”
“What?” Richard asks. He wipes some slobber off his chin.
“The fasten seatbelt is turned off,” Jared whispers. “Do you want to do, you know, the thing we talked about?”
Richard sits straight up.
“Wait, really? Are you serious?”
“Yes,” Jared says shyly. “I think it could be fun. Unless you don’t want to anymore.”
“No, no, I want to,” Richard says quickly. “I um, I really want to. Let’s, yeah, Let’s do it.”
“Ok,” Jared says, giving Richard that we-have-a-secret smile. “I’ll go to the restroom first, then you join me in five minutes.”
“Don’t you mean the head?” Richard asks.
“What?”
“You know, the head. That’s what they call it on ships.”
“We’re not on a ship.”
“Yeah, but- nevermind. Just go.”
It takes an incredible amount of self-control for Richard not to watch Jared walk down the aisle to the bathroom. He fixes his eyes on the window instead, pretending to be fascinated by the passing clouds.
In about five minutes, Richard unbuckles his seatbelt.
Gotta play it cool, he thinks, can’t let anyone know what we’re up to.
“Wow, I’ve gotta piss like a racehorse,” he announces. Judging by the face the woman across the aisle makes, this was the wrong call. He gets up and scurries to the restroom.
“Hey baby,” he murmurs, face pressed against the restroom door. He can hear the sound of water running. Jared must be freshening up for him. God, he loves how fastidious Jared is. He’s getting hard just imagining Jared washing his hands. “It’s me. Are you ready for me? I’m so ready for you, and your big, thick-”
The door to the restroom slides open revealing a man who is most decidedly NOT Jared.
“Hello?” the man says, brows furrowed. He glances down at Richard’s erection.
“Oh my God. Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I- I thought you were my boyfriend, I’m supposed to be meeting him in- I mean, we’re-”
The man points to a spot directly behind Richard.
“I think he’s in that one.”
Richard spins around to see another bathroom.
“Jesus, yeah, I’m so sorry-”
“No worries, bro. Have fun.” The man turns and walks back to his seat.
Richard waits until he’s sat down before turning back around and knocking on the other bathroom.
“Jared? Are you in there?”
Jared opens the door to the bathroom.
“Hey handsome,” he says in his most seductive voice.
“Oh thank God. Quick, let me in.”
Ten to fifteen minutes later, Richard and Jared leave the restroom together. They’re both lacking the mental faculties at the moment to even try to be subtle, so they can’t help but hold hands and giggle on their way back to their seats. The man from the restroom gives them a thumbs up as they pass him, which doesn’t even embarrass Richard.
The rest of the flight passes without incident. This really isn’t all that hard, because despite all of Richard’s complaints, the flight to St. Louis isn’t actually that long. However, the wait to get off the plane is entirely too long, in Richard’s opinion. He bounces his leg as he waits for the aisle to clear.
“We’re in first class,” he complains. “It just seems that, mathematically, we shouldn’t have to wait this long to get off the plane. I mean, if you consider the number of people in front of us.”
“Richard, they haven’t even opened the doors to the plane yet.”
“Right. Yeah, okay, fine. I guess that’s a good excuse.”
They eventually make it off the plane and they head toward the gates. Right before they get to baggage claim, Jared stops suddenly. Richard keeps walking for a good ten feet before he realizes Jared isn’t with him.
“Jared? What’s wrong?” Richard asks, walking back toward him.
“I’m not sure I can do this.”
“”What? Baby, no, you can definitely do this. Come on. I believe in you.” When Jared doesn’t seem to respond to that, Richard stands on his tip-toes and kisses him gently on the cheek. “Come on,” he says softly.
Jared smiles and grabs on to Richard’s hand.
“You’re right, I can do this. Let’s go.”
They walk into baggage claim together, and scan the crowd of people wait for their loved ones.
“Which one is she?” Richard asks.
“I don’t know. Do you think- Richard, what if she didn’t come?”
Before Richard can respond to that, he hears a voice from the back of the crowd call out “Jared! Jared!”
Richard turns to see a young woman with a long brown ponytail waving a sign that says “Jared Dunn”.
“That must be her,” Richard says, tapping Jared on the shoulder, “that’s Sierra.”
Jared squeezes Richard’s hand even tighter.
“Oh, wow. That’s my sister.”