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“Attention all passengers, flight #249 is now boarding. Please make your way to gate—”
Midoriya Izuku stares exhaustedly at the board displaying the flight times. His fingers tremble to mark down the arrival time that’s stated for their own flight, but it’s already on the ticket, and seems incredibly counterproductive.
Behind him, Shinsou Hitoshi and Yaoyorozu Momo already look like they’re dead on their feet. They haven’t slept yet. It’s been about thirty minutes since they were dropped off by Yaoyorozu’s private chauffeur, and they don’t look any closer to functioning as people.
“I simply don’t think this was a suitable time to be here,” Yaoyorozu murmurs, still swaying on her feet, “or why we couldn’t take my private jet, if needed. If I had given about two days notice, I’m sure they would’ve refueled by now—”
“We’re trying to stay lowkey, Yaomomo,” Shinsou says with a slightly muffled yawn. “You want the heiress of a fashion company, the upcoming best novelist of our time, and some insomniac to get recognized by people while we take a private plane? We’d get swarmed and while I personally don’t agree that I should be with y’all, I can’t deny that I’d get mobbed too, and then I’ll just pass out in the crowd. I’m anemic, y’know.”
“Same,” Izuku snorts. It’s a miracle they’re still going at this hour, especially in an airport at its early hours where “liminal space creates its greatest domain” according to Shinsou. Izuku also knows for a fact that Shinsou (and himself, whoops) haven’t slept yet. They’re running on fumes, but Yaoyorozu decided to take a nap and woke up at 2:45 AM just to have the rest of them picked up.
Izuku doesn’t know how he managed to end up here, honestly; he’s one of the prestigious alumni of U.A. Academy, and his entire graduating class still keeps in contact nearly every single day or once a week if they’re too busy. He still has nineteen friends that love spending time with him, and apparently, one of their love languages is trusting that picking him and two other classmates as their vacation planners would get the job done.
So now he’s standing in an airport at 3:30 AM, he hasn’t slept yet, and his current company is a Sociology professor at U.A. Academy, and the CEO of Yaoyorozu Enterprises. Izuku’s well-aware that his own published novel is still in the top three charts for the tenth week running, but still!
“Where’s our vacation again?” Shinsou asks, squinting at the TSA line again. They hadn’t anticipated how much jewelry Yaoyorozu was going to wear and spent about ten minutes dealing with taking them off, and then Izuku’s dumbass red shoes wouldn’t come off, and it was an entire fiasco. “I know we’re supposed to be flying to America, but…where. I’d like to know where we ended up picking this year’s place.”
Yaoyorozu turns to him, surprised. Izuku steers them towards the terminals and his stomach rumbles when he spots the obviously expensive restaurants located inside the airport. “Were you not paying attention during the Zoom meetings? I’m fairly certain we picked Disney World! Or maybe Disneyland…which one is which again?”
“World’s in Florida, Land is in California,” Izuku supplies, brain flickering to life. “I think we’re going to Florida, which has us flying for an extra few hours and several time zone jumps. But our flight isn’t for another hour or two, so we won’t be getting into Miami until…fourteen hours later. Did we get first class for this flight?”
Yaoyorozu closes her eyes, slumping further into Izuku’s arms. “We did. I’ll send Aoyama a thank you letter later, he’s the one who reminded us to upgrade since he’s the one that flies everywhere for his fashion shows. So, now that our luggage has been sent ahead of time, and our gate is ahead of us, what now?”
Shinsou zeroes in on the coffee place that sits on every corner, and Izuku’s more concerned about the worldwide fast food joint that beckons to him with greasy food and sings the song of the heavens. “If we sleep now,” Shinsou says with the confidence of a man who knows what he’s doing, “then we’re going to feel absolutely terrible. We’ll have to wait until the flight so we can sleep. Trust me, you’re going to regret falling asleep in an airport. It’ll feel like you’re swimming in molasses and you’ve traveled dimensions.”
Yaoyorozu puts a well-manicured hand to her forehead, looking like she’s aged about five years. “This is what the general public deals with when flying? Delayed flights, long lines, and a sense of dissociation in major airports? Goodness, I didn’t realize it was this hectic! How do all of you deal with this? Excuse my typical ‘rich’ tone, of course, I just…didn’t know.”
Izuku waves it off with a tired smile. Yaoyorozu’s come a long way from viewing the world through rose-colored lenses and they’re all genuinely very happy to have her with them, and she’s one of Izuku’s favorite people to hang out with. Even now, she’ll have him come into her high-rise office just to gossip and hang out and get tea. “No worries Yaomomo, this is just what we’re used to! That’s why Shinsou and I don’t sleep often; we’ll take early flights and sleep on the plane, and deal with our destination later. Our American flights are always exhausting.”
“Academic conferences are tiring,” Shinsou yawns, “but at least they have decent coffee. Speaking of, I’m going to go down my fourth cup of the morning. Midoriya, do you want one? I know you drink tea, Yaomomo, so no worries about that.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” Izuku laughs, already thinking of the consequences if he had a coffee right now before his long flight. He’d be jittery in his seat and he’d never hear the end of it from Bakugou (who deals with a caffeine-high Izuku quite often) if he found out about his decision. “I just really want food, but I’m debating on what sounds good at this hour and what I wanna spend money on.”
The three make their way to the hall of expensive food. Shinsou grimaces at the prices before pulling out his wallet and making a sacrifice for the greater good. Izuku’s still heavily debating when Yaoyorozu lets out a quiet wheeze and stares in shock. “Why are the prices higher than normal here?” She asks in disbelief. “This seems a bit much, doesn’t it? And why does time feel so slowed down here? I thought forty-five minutes had passed and it’s only been ten minutes? Midoriya, this is getting ridiculous.”
“Welcome to the liminal space of an airport before 5 AM,” Izuku says, giving her a thumbs up and laughing at her disgruntled expression. “People are usually so dead inside, they don’t care about the prices anymore. It works pretty well, if I’m being honest. Also, we’ve still got about an hour and a half left till our flight, so we’re gonna have to find something to do or we can just dissociate and stare at the ceiling tiles.”
Yaoyorozu lets out a heartfelt, “Oh my fucking god.”
It takes about fifteen minutes for the rest of them to come back and see what they managed to scrounge up. Yaoyorozu and Izuku both have a decent amount of food; they both need a heavy intake of carbs for their workouts, and even a flight in the early morning warrants this much calorie intake. (Plus, airport food could be a hit or miss, and Izuku’s willing to take that risk since their flight’s that long.)
Shinsou’s managed to grab a suspiciously large cup of coffee. There’s definitely a foamy mustache on his lip when he takes a big sip and exhales, eyes fluttering shut. “This’ll get the job done,” he murmurs, resting his head on Izuku’s fluffy hair. “I’d recommend going to sit at the boarding area so we can get it out of the way and we’ll be headed to America again.”
“They’re lucky we can afford these tickets,” Izuku says, half-joking. Vacations are fantastic and all, but the amount of planning that goes into them is exhausting! And things could possibly go wrong, which is why Izuku likes to take matters into his own hands, and plan the damn thing himself.
The three find their spots and sit down, dropping their carry-on bags on the floor and settling down to wait for boarding. Yaoyorozu whips out her pristine laptop to immediately start working on whatever business email she’s probably answering. Izuku pulls out his (less expensive) journal and starts jotting down notes, scribbling furiously and rewriting his outline. Shinsou, truly a talented man, immediately falls asleep after downing half his coffee, snoring against Izuku’s shoulder.
The hour and a half passes. The PA system announces the boarding for flight #249, and as first class, the trio stumbles their way to the front and have the staff scan their tickets. There’s some friendly words exchanged and then they’re off to the plane.
With refreshments and comfortable seats, Shinsou’s the first to pass out, snoring again and curled up in his seat. Yaoyorozu makes sure he’s buckled in before she settles into her own spot and gets right back to work. Izuku barely has time to listen to the rest of the passengers boarding before he rests his head back and falls into limitless space again, the void lovingly holding him in an embrace.
The flight is indeed fourteen hours. Izuku sleeps on and off, listening to the familiar hum of the plane engines and watching the gorgeous sky outside his window. The free snacks keep his stomach full for now, and he downs more water than he has in the past two days. At one point, there’s a thunderstorm in the city below them, and Izuku leans over to view it. The rain is evident in the low-hanging clouds and high up above, every star in the heavens twinkle, since there’s nothing to obscure them. Izuku just lays his head against the window, drinking in the sight. He writes metaphors of color and the placement of the stars guiding their journey before his pen slips out of his hand and he falls back asleep again.
When he finally comes to, the pilot announces their downwards path to the runway. Izuku yawns and watches as the plane descends to the ground and lands, slowing down enough to drive to the gate. In front of him, Shinsou’s still fast asleep. Izuku honestly doesn’t know if he even woke up the entire trip.
“Goodness, my back.” Yaoyorozu winces as she stretches in her seat. “I fly every once in a while but not as often as Aoyama or even Jirou, since she was touring various continents and countries. How does she do it?”
“Dunno,” Izuku mumbles, already texting in the group chat that they landed. There’s about twelve confirmations in the first five minutes, which means the rest of their classmates will probably answer in the next hour. They all have lives, so it’s no surprise that they’re busy. “This is why I prefer taking trains, I swear. I heard Disney World has a type of tram that goes around the park, so I’m definitely going on that.”
“Are we here already?” Shinsou asks sleepily, doing his best to get his bearings when the plane comes to a complete stop. “I have to use the bathroom so badly, wow. So what, next stop is baggage claim, we grab an Uber, and head to the resort? We have VIP rooms, don’t we?”
“I think I missed that part of the presentation.” Izuku admits. “But knowing our entire class? Someone probably pulled some strings and we have the best rooms available. All I know is that we’re definitely rooming with doubles, so I’ll be stealing Kacchan as per usual.”
“You and your best friend privileges.” Shinsou rolls his eyes. Yaoyorozu smiles and all three look up when the stewardess lets them disembark, thanking her for her hard work before walking down the ramp with their carry-ons. They take a few minutes to find the baggage claim (and for Shinsou to go to the bathroom) and Izuku waits impatiently as the bags start moving on the conveyor belt.
“Ah, there’s mine.” Yaoyorozu grabs her two giant royal purple suitcases, the matching set finally complete. Izuku eyes her expensive collection before grabbing his worn duffel bag, smiling in relief when he notices that none of the pins on it got taken out by the flight. Shinsou, with one (1) regular bag that somehow fits all of his toiletries and clothes, swipes it off the belt without another word and points towards the exit.
“Let’s get the fuck outta here,” he sighs, whipping out his sunglasses. “I already know the Florida sun is going to burn my damn eyes. Yaomomo, am I wrong in assuming that we’ve got a driver waiting for us?”
Izuku turns to his friend and laughs loudly when he spots the embarrassed flush in her cheeks. “First off,” Yaoyorozu defends herself, “it beats waiting for a taxi. Secondly, all the chauffeurs for Yaoyorozu Enterprises are well-equipped to drive in any country. Unless you want to wait for a while longer and call an Uber?”
“Hell no,” Shinsou retorts as they spot their driver waiting for them. Yaoyorozu easily lifts her luggage into the trunk, barely breaking a sweat even when they definitely weigh over the limit of normal bags. “We’re checking into that resort and I’m going right back to bed. I trust both of you to get all seventeen of our other idiot alumni here. Do you need anything else from me right now?”
Izuku taps his chin, thinking about their itinerary whenever all three will eventually take their naps. “Mm, probably not. You’re the best at figuring out how to avoid people, so we’ll use your skills for later when we don’t want the park to be crowded. I’ll buy you a trenta from Starbucks for your hard work.”
“Sounds like a damn good deal,” Shinsou sleepily says. They all sit together in the backseat and Yaoyorozu makes small talk with the driver and works at the same time, making sure everyone in the group chat knows they landed and promising to update them on the resort.
It’s just another day with their former classmates. Izuku leans back in his seat, Shinsou asleep on his shoulder, and Yaoyorozu’s comforting presence next to him. He can’t wait for this week’s hangouts with his favorite people in the entire world.
It’s vacation time. Whatever happens on vacation, stays on vacation. (And if pictures end up in the group chat of their adventures, then that’s a future problem for later.)