Work Text:
“This seat taken?”
Adam looked up and tried not to swallow his tongue.
“Uh… no,” he managed to get out.
The man shrugged a backpack off his shoulder, and sat in the single remaining seat at Gate 22, currently packed with people making their way from San Francisco to New York. He looked tired. Not surprising since this was the red-eye, Adam thought.
Adam felt a bit lightheaded taking him in. He was tall and muscular with a shaved head and tattoos creeping up his neck and out from the cuffs of his shirt. His black jeans were ripped and his boots were scuffed, but Adam knew a designer shirt when he saw one, even if it was just a gray t-shirt several wearings past the point it should have been laundered.
Adam shifted his thigh to give the man a bit more room, and rebalanced his laptop on his legs.
Focus, Parrish.
He was finishing his emails for the day. No one would see them until the next morning as it was long past when any sensible person would be checking work email on the east coast, but he wouldn’t be able to relax on the flight if things were left undone. And he had big plans for the next six hours – a first class seat meant he’d have a glass of champagne, pop a sleeping pill, watch fifteen minutes of something random on the inflight entertainment system, and pass out until they touched ground again. More of a vacation than he’d had in the last three years.
Fucking heaven.
The man next to him stretched and Adam heard his neck pop.
“Fuck…” the man muttered under his breath, rubbing at the base of his skull.
“You OK,” Adam said, pausing in his typing and glancing over at the handsome distraction that he should probably try to ignore. Getting all horned up before a six-hour flight seemed like a monumentally poor idea. Especially when there was no chance in hell that the super model next to him would be interested in an exhausted attorney who basically lived in his office, and hadn’t been on a real date in a solid ten months.
Grindr didn’t count. Adam considered Grindr the sexual equivalent of going to the gym.
“I’m fine,” the man sighed, breaking Adam’s train of thought, “Just a long day and I really fucking hate flying.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Adam murmured. He cast around his mind for some way to keep the conversation going, and grabbed an open cellophane package balanced precariously on top of his suitcase. He thrust it toward the stranger.
“Want my ding dong?”
The man stopped rubbing his neck and gave Adam a startled look, “Sorry?”
Adam heard a muffled snort from the young woman sitting on his other side.
Adam closed his eyes and wished longingly for the ability to disappear into thin air. Or he could just get up silently, pick up his bags, and ride the airport’s moving walkway until he withered up and died of thirst and embarrassment.
“Would you like my last… chocolate cake thing? I’m not really hungry.” Adam managed to get out, still holding the package out tentatively.
A smile broke out on the stranger’s face, and Adam stopped breathing for a few seconds.
“Oh, ding dongs! Yeah, you sure? I haven’t eaten since breakfast… so…”
“Yeah, take it!” Adam placed the chocolate cake on the shared armrest between them.
“Thanks, man. Appreciate it.”
Adam watched as he unwrapped the confection – his large hands dwarfing the dessert – and popped the entire thing into his mouth. He coughed a little as he tried to swallow. The stranger’s cheeks puffed out and Adam realized he was trying not to cough crumbs all over the place.
Adam could feel the woman next to him shaking with poorly concealed laughter.
Adam suppressed his own laugh and reached into his laptop bag for a bottle of water, which he held out to the man still valiantly trying to swallow an entire cupcake in one go.
He grabbed the bottle and took a long swig, finally managing to get the choking under control. “Shit,” he said, his face red from embarrassment and lack of oxygen, “…that didn’t go well…”
Adam grinned, “You must have a really sensitive gag reflex.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he’d said and he desperately wished he could call them back. “I mean… uh…” he sputtered.
Adam thought he heard the woman to his left mutter what sounded like, “holy motherfucking shit…” in a disbelieving tone under her breath.
On his other side, the handsome stranger’s eyes had gone wide, and he let out a deep, surprised bark of a laugh that startled the people sitting around them, “Haven’t had any complaints…”
Adam could feel the heat rolling off his face, and he forced an awkward chuckle searching his mind for a way to steer the conversation back into safe territory, “Are you heading home, or do you live here?”
The man leaned back in his seat, “Neither. Both. I mean, I’ve been living here, but I’m moving to New York. Thought about driving all my stuff cross country, but I didn’t really have time.”
Adam relaxed. They were back on safe conversational footing that didn’t involve the dexterity of anyone’s throat muscles. “Why are you moving?”
“I want to be closer to my brothers – they’re both on the east coast. And there’s a lot of work for me in New York. I work with museums and galleries building out the spaces for short term art installations.”
“That sounds like interesting work,” Adam said, sincerely intrigued, “How did you get into that?”
The stranger rubbed his neck again, clearly it was bothering him, “Went to art school, and had a part-time gig working for one of the instructors who did it on the side. He taught me the ropes, and when I graduated I went out on my own. I do my own art, too – sculpture mostly – but the installation stuff actually pays the bills.”
Adam watched him shifting to try to get comfortable in the hard plastic seat, “Do you want some advil? Is your neck bothering you?”
The man gave him a grin, “Are you always this much of a caretaker? Offering random strangers cupcakes and pain killers?”
Adam chuckled, “I don’t think anyone has ever called me a caretaker before.”
“So I just bring it out in you, huh?” the man raised a flirtatious eyebrow.
Adam blushed and looked down at his long forgotten laptop and the email he hadn’t finished, “No, no… I just… uh…”
The man put his hand on Adam’s forearm and gave a gentle squeeze, “I’m just teasing. And yeah, if you’ve got it, I would love some. I tweaked my neck packing up my shit.”
Adam didn’t want to move the arm that the man was touching, so he reached into his bag with his left hand, bumping the woman who was clearly listening to their conversation and in no way trying to hide the fact. He pulled out a small bottle. “All yours.” His voice came out a little breathier than he would have liked.
The man took the bottle and shook a couple pills into his palm, “Thanks.” He swallowed them with the rest of Adam’s water, “So, what about you? Heading home?”
Adam nodded, tearing his gaze away from the man’s throat as it worked, “Uh huh. Was out here for work. I’m a lawyer. Corporate. Nothing terribly exciting or sexy.”
The man gave him a not-very-subtle once over, “I don’t know about that.”
Adam felt slightly hysterical. Was this happening? Was he actually getting hit on? OK, he could do this. He could make this happen. He’d start by asking for a name… and then with enough time, he could work up to getting his number…
“We will now begin boarding…”
Fuckity fucking fuck.
Adam glanced over at the desk where the flight attendants were scanning the tickets of families with small children and people who needed assistance. OK, he had a little more time. He turned back to find the man had stood up and was gathering his belongings.
“I’m gonna hit the men’s room before we board. It was good talking to you… thanks for… everything…” he hesitated, hovering there above Adam and gave him an indecipherable look.
Adam swallowed down his disappointment, “Yeah, no problem. Nice talking to you, too. Good luck with your move.”
The man nodded and Adam wondered if he was imagining a brief flash of disappointment in his eyes.
“See ya,” he said and walked away into the crowd.
Adam groaned and dropped his head to his chest. The young woman sitting to his left let out an exasperated breath.
“You should have asked him out.”
Adam jerked his head up, “What?”
She shook her head as she rose from her seat, “He was flirting with you. You could have at least gotten his number.”
Adam stood up as well, nearly dropping his laptop as he shoved it into his bag, “I know, but we only talked for like ten minutes. It would have been weird to ask him out so quickly… right?”
She let out a sigh that spoke volumes, “If you say so.” She walked away and Adam found himself wanting to yell further justifications after her, but managed to restrain himself.
What did she know? He’d (or apparently they’d) probably been imagining any flirtation. But maybe Adam would find himself seated next to him on the plane. Maybe he’d have another chance? That could happen, right? Adam felt his pulse quicken and a small flame of hope flared in his chest.
He clenched his jaw and sent a missive out to the universe as he boarded the plane with the other first class passengers and settled into his seat.
I don't ask for much. Just seat him next to me.
Adam settled back, and watched the line of weary people shuffling down the aisle of the plane. He bit his bottom lip and waited for broad shoulders and blue eyes to appear. He kept waiting until it seemed like everyone else was on board.
And then he saw him. He was finally on the plane, and the seat next to Adam was still unoccupied.
Oh God, could this really happen?!
Adam gave an internal cheer and tried to look casual as the man walked toward him down the aisle. Adam looked up and caught his eye and smiled, moving his coat off the seat. The man smiled back… and kept walking past.
Noooooo!
What??
Adam gazed forlornly at the stranger’s back as he made his way to the rear of the plane and the last remaining seat in coach. Adam dejectedly dropped his coat back on the seat.
He heard a pointed cough and looked up to find the same young woman from the gate standing next to him. “This is me,” she said somewhat apologetically gesturing to the seat next to him.
Adam grabbed his coat again, and she sank down tiredly into the seat.
“Sorry, I know you were hoping for the hottie,” she said, looping her headphones around her neck.
“No…” Adam didn’t even sound convincing to himself.
“Maybe when the seat belt signs are off, you could go talk to him…we’ve got like six hours to kill.”
“Maybe…” Adam allowed weakly, “But I think he’s probably out of my league. You saw him.”
The girl looked oddly affronted, “And I see you. You, my friend, are nothing to sneeze at.”
Adam raised an eyebrow and she smacked him good-naturedly in the chest as if they knew each other far better than they did, “Settle down, dude, I’m just saying you could definitely ask him out and it wouldn’t be like one of those weird animal friendships you see on YouTube, like between a deer and a possum.”
“I assume I’m the possum in this hypothetical,” Adam said dryly.
“Well, you appear to excel at playing dead, so…”
Adam narrowed his eyes at her, “Do you often go around giving unsolicited romantic advice to strangers?”
She shrugged, unbothered, “Like I said, we have six hours to kill.”
Adam rolled his eyes and pulled his laptop out of his bag, “Well, I’m going to use some of it to catch up on the work I should have been doing while I was drooling on myself and, apparently, letting you down.” He opened the laptop and tried to convey through industrious typing that he was done with this conversation.
The girl let out a snort, and plunked her headphones over her ears.
**
Adam finished his emails, chugged the glass of champagne the flight attendant offered, and decided to forego a sleeping pill – he really wouldn’t need it. The girl next to him was reading a thick book on forestry practices. Adam reclined his seat and shut his eyes. He’d be home soon.
**
Adam opened his eyes and stretched as much as he could in the small area without elbowing his small seatmate. He wondered if the girl was awake and turned to his right.
He found himself staring into tired but familiar blue eyes.
“Good morning, sunshine,” the stranger’s voice was low and throaty.
“Good morning…” Adam’s brain tried to make sense of what was happening. Maybe he was still dreaming.
The man could clearly see the cogs turning in Adam’s head. “Your friend asked to trade seats with me about an hour ago.” He grinned and continued, “She said something about the back of the plane being a safer place to be during landing, and that she’d buy me a beer if I would sit up here for the rest of the flight.”
“Is that true?”
The man raised the beer in his hand, “Yep, see?”
Adam laughed, “No, the part about the back of the plane being safer.”
The man shrugged, “No fucking clue, but if she wants to give up a first class seat next to a hot guy, far be it from me to complain. Plus, she’s like a foot and a half shorter than me – that coach seat is like a king-size bed for her.”
“H-hot guy…?” Adam managed to croak.
The stranger swung his head back to him and gave him a slow smile, “I thought I made my interest pretty obvious when we were talking in the airport, but clearly I still have some work to do.” He shifted in his seat and held out his hand, “I’m Ronan.”
Adam grasped his hand – it was warm and calloused. “Adam.”
“Adam, can I get your number?”
Adam nodded his head, having used up all his oxygen just getting his name out. Ronan held out his phone, and Adam tapped in his number. He knew he was grinning but he couldn’t quite make himself stop.
Ronan took the phone back and slipped it into his pocket, “So, we should probably thank your tiny friend back there. Send her a fruit basket or something.”
Adam nodded, smiling, “Or something…”
**
Blue opened the door to her apartment. Odd, she hadn’t been expecting a delivery. She looked down at a basket wrapped in brightly colored cellophane – it was so large it reached the tops of her legs, and she dragged it inside.
She pulled off the card taped to the side.
We owe you a first class ticket. – The Deer and The Possum
Blue smiled. Those dipshits. They’d taken her out for breakfast after their flight and had all exchanged contact info. She texted them from time to time, and had plans to meet up with them for dinner soon. Apparently Ronan had some professor friend he wanted to set her up with. The dude sounded boring, but if he was friends with Ronan he couldn’t be all that bad. And if they wanted to be the ones to play matchmaker this time around, she’d go with it.
She ripped into the package and let out a cackle as an avalanche of ding dongs covered her feet.