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"Who's brilliant idea was it to fly with fucking Ryanair?" Grantaire bites as he tries to slam his hand luggage into the over head carriers.
"It was all we could afford, you're the struggling artist remember" Jehan replied, smirking and slipping into his seat window "you're just upset you don't get to hold on to enjy when we set off" Grantaire just glared and repeated his attempt of trying to get his fricken hand luggage into the stupid holders. Who even made them so small?
The air hostess finally stepped in and managed the task with ease, which only added to Grantaire's annoyance as he then wedged himself between two strangers.
If there was one thing he hated more than flying it was sitting next to people he didn't know whilst flying. But apparently Ryanair had taken to seating everybody away from each other, and despite several outraged complaints by several passengers (admittedly the majority were from Les Amis) and after Enjolras was threatened not to be let on the flight, the gang had no option but to sit and glare at the back of other people's heads.
All bar Combeferre and Courferayc, the lucky bastards seemed to be the only ones sat together. It was a small comfort for Courferayc who could already feel a panic attack rising in his chest. "I second Grantaire's frustration of flying with this air line!" He piped up, receiving an awkward backwards high five from the artist whom was sat on the row in front. "If I wanted an adrenaline rush from the terrible landing experience I would've gone Blackpool for my holiday and taken to the pleasure beach." Making no attempts to keep his voice down he gained glared from several flight assistants and Combeferre.
"Courf, we are going to be fine." He reassured, fastening his seatbelt and then continuing to fasten his friends "there see? I fastened your seatbelt for you, now you can pretend we are on the Big One ok?" His light mocking cause Courferayc to scowl and turn away.
Thirty minuets after the initial introduction to the seating arrangement the students realised that they were scattered around a variety of seats but weren't too far away. As the flight set off Joly had only had one panic attack and a reassuring hand squeeze from Jittering Marius sat across the isle seem to help his nerves. It came to their attention that none of them particularly liked flying.
"Do you want my to hold your hand too Enjolras?" Grantaire called to their leader situated in the seat in front
"I'm perfectly ok Grantaire thankyou. Though you yourself might benefit from the contact"
"Don't be ridiculous I'm fine with flying" he laughed, even though they all knew he was lying through his teeth and his hands clasped themselves as the plane set off.
Jehan quietly read his poetry book, one of the few who was not afraid of the flight, Feuilly dozed off on the shoulder of a rather annoyed passenger, Bahorel chatted to the lovely group of girls on a girly trip and Bousset grappled with his broken arm rest. Whilst Cosset handed out mints and Enjolras really did try not to start an argument.
Joly had brought along some sleeping pills in hopes of sleeping through the flight but concerned about the side effects decided to leave them. Courferayc however did not, and an hour into the flight was out cold on Combeferre's shoulder.
The three hour flight was mostly uneventful after the initial arguments and panick. Bousset had managed to get locked in the toilet and Marius had almost chocked on Cossets mints, really it was a mild outing for them.
Well until the final 15 minuets.
The decent into the foreign country started off fine, and then there was turbulence and then some more. Grantaire gripped onto Enjolras hand, Jehan put his book down and Marius helplessly held a brown paper bag out for Joly. All Combeferre could think was how glad he was that Courf was still asleep.
Maybe that had been wishful thinking. As the usually brave man woke from his peaceful slumber and almost immediately started screaming. "Courferayc, please stop" Combeferre shook his friend "there's no need to be scared remember? Remember last week when we were citing off the statistics?"
"Not really all I remember is the flames!"
"Please be a little less dramatic." Combeferre tried not to sigh, he really did. "You're as safe as you are in a car. And you love driving"it seemed to be working, repeating the words Courferayc had said to Combeferre only a few night before seemed to be effectively calming him down.
The landing however only got rougher. Combeferre was a logical man of science who also enjoyed moths. He knew that this was a perfectly normal thing to happen. This did not stop him from gripping onto his friend and sharing his panic.
When the plane came to it's final stop Grantaire was in the brace position, Enjolras was tightly gripping onto the arm rest, Feuilly lazily opened his eyes, Bahorel was soothing the spooked ladies and Marius was still trying to calm poor Joly whilst Cosset streched three rows to try to help Bousset collect the last of the recently spilled mints. Courferayc and Combeferre's hands remained in a tight lock.
As the other passengers clapped the pilot on landing the plane and Grantaire mumbled something about "well done on poorly doing your fucking job" Combeferre turned and said "who the fuck decided to fly with Ryanair?" Earning a laugh from the majority of his friends and lifting the spirits slightly.
They didn't realise they were still holding hands until they got to baggage claim.