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They've been on standby all day. Waiting in area after area, getting cups of coffee when they felt that they had the change to spend. Two hours in, she forfeits and buys a book from a small shop filled with magazines and newspapers and candy.
By the time they get up to head for the next gate in a different concourse, she's almost halfway done with it. She tells him that she's going to reread it and then she'll let him borrow it.
He has a video game he plays, and when it starts running out of power, it tethers them to an outlet. She's so engrossed in her book that she doesn't care. Names start being called to get on and they keep looking up. However their names are never called so they back up and head for the next terminal in hopes of getting a flight.
They have no luck, and three hours later she is playing his game and he is reading her book. They're both learning something about the other. They start to get hungry so they take out their ever shrinking pool of money and head to a small fast food restaurant where there's a lot of food for not a lot of money.
She gets noodles and he gets pizza and neither of them eats all of their meal, but they keep it with them for when they get hungry again. Because at the rate they're going, they're never going to get home.
After they arrive at their countless gate for a plane that connects somewhere that connects somewhere that connects somewhere that gets them home, it starts to snow again. At first they don't notice or mind or think anything of it.
But then the snow keeps falling, with more and more intensity, and they watch with a certain morbid fascination as flight after flight is cancelled and new ones are arriving in that were never supposed to.
They decide to wait out the storm (not as if they can do anything about it now). They go to another small shop and buy gum and two more books. They find an empty seat near a window and watch as the snow piles up off of the runway. The sky is dark, contrasting against the bright snow, and it gives the airport a comforting feeling.
She yawns and scoots over so that she is resting by him and lays her head on his shoulder. Some of her pink hair spikes up and touches his purple. He lets her stay as he opens up one of the new books and begins to read. It's not like he has anything else to do. She falls asleep.
An hour later, there are whispers that the flights won't be going again until at least the next day, maybe even the day after that. More people begin to move around and there's a new rustle of people on their cell phones, in hushed voices, making reservations at hotels and finding taxis that are willing to come out in the snow.
More and more people start to do this. Better travel now, when the snow's only started to fall, than later, when who knows how deep it'll be? A TV is turned on at a low volume and he reads the captions. Ice may be coming.
Aelita had remained asleep, but as the rumble grew, she slowly wakes up. "What's happening?" she asked. Only she slurred it.
"They're predicting ice," Odd says. "People are going to be getting to their hotels right about now."
"No hotel for us," she guesses.
He shakes his head. "Not for us. We could get a hotel for tonight and then we would starve the next four."
She smiles and pushes her head a little more into his neck. He doesn't know what to think about that. He lays his head down on hers and observes as no one gives them a second glance.
The snow continues to fall outside their window. They stay where they are, sitting in silence, watching the people move through the airport in long, quick steps. Suitcases rolled, children laughed, and babies cried.
There were announcements on the intercoms, but they were muffled and pointless. So and so, grab this phone. So and so, grab that phone. "People should just get cell phones and stick with them," Odd says and Aelita giggles. They are silent for a while.
"You know," Aelita says abruptly, "this is sort of fun."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah." She snuggles in a little closer to him. "It's very relaxing. We have no where to go, no where to be…"
"You know, Princess, some people would say that that is the very problem. It's part of the stress of holiday traveling."
Aelita shrugs and it feels weird when she was against him like she was. She lifts up one finger and points to a lumbering man, holding a single handle to rolling suitcase. He walked swiftly, fast enough that his small suitcase was bouncing up and down with his steps instead of rolling online.
"Where do you think he's going?" she asks.
"Home," he says.
"But where do you think that is?"
Odd has to think about it for a while. "The mountains," he says at last. "He owns a small cabin in the mountains where his parents and wife live, but usually he's away on business."
Aelita nods. "I bet he's a temporary bodyguard. They'll be glad to see him again, after such a dangerous mission."
She scans the crowds. A child walks past holding a teddy bear that is mostly obscured by her arms.
"That looks like Milly's bear," Odd points out. "I bet it has a virus lurking it is. Quick Aelita, get to the tower!"
Aelita laughs but covers his mouth with her hands. "Quiet, you!"
Odd licks her hand and she shrieks and takes it away from him. "What was that for?
He shrugs and looks out at the passing crowd. "Lyoko is a virtual world!" he shouts. "Or at least it was but we turned off the supercomputer years ago," he mutters to Aelita. Some people look at him curiously but no one approaches them or even seems to care. All they see is two teenagers with colored hair fighting and laughing.
Aelita tries to be mad at him, she really does, but she fails and she starts laughing. "And we went there practically once a week!" she shouts.
"The sea will make you virtual for forever!"
"And we fought monsters!"
"The Krabs are my favorite!"
"And…and," Aelita starts. But she's overcome with giggles. She sits up a little and buries her face in Odd's chest and there's nothing he can do to calm her down and soon enough he's laughing with her.
Her choked laughs attract more attention than the outbursts did, but again, all that the people still see is two teenagers laughing about something against the window of a snow storm.
Finally, Aelita stops laughing, so Odd stops laughing and they're both taking deep breaths while occasionally bursting into fits of giggles.
"But I-….But I'd rather," Aelita starts and Odd's mouth begins to form a large smile. "But I'd rather not talk about it!" she shouts.
It was a loud shout, and some more people turn to stare at them with annoyed and exhausted glances, but they're too busy laughing again to notice or care. When they stop, they try to say something, but the laughing continues again, so eventually they have an unspoken agreement to stay silent.
Aelita eventually takes out their book and Odd gently pushes her up so that he can go somewhere. She doesn't bother to count the minutes until he returns: she knows that he'll come back.
And he does. With another book and some more coffee. They've had so much of that stuff today it's not even funny and Aelita doesn't know why she's still so tired. Odd was even calmer than usual. The airport was busy enough for him and the snow was luring everyone who saw it into a bit of a trance.
They watched as the sky got darker and darker and they decided they should probably do something about a place to stay. All flights were cancelled for the next day and the airport was steadily emptying and when Odd laughed, it had a bit of an echo on the near empty concourse.
The ice had started falling in was clinking against the glass windows and they walked over to a worker employee and asked if there was a place for them to stay. He nodded and motioned to a place and they walked off.
Odd put his arm around his shoulder and Aelita felt a small feeling of panic run through her as she noticed her eyes dashing wildly to look at the all the people around them. He grips her shoulders tighter though and she doesn't try to break away.
They find a window, one that's bigger than the one they had and has a better view. When they sit by it, they can almost feel the chill of the outside, watching the snow and the ice fall.
The snow that's piled up reflects the glow of lights and the cloudy sky traps the light, giving the world outside an enclosed feel. The lights of the airport were dim in their section and they buy two souvenir blankets and two airplane pillows right before the shop closes and the workers hurry home.
They curl up by their window and look around the other stranded travelers. Soon, all the shops are closed and only ice hitting the window and muffled conversations can be heard.
When they wake up for the fifth time, it is cloudy outside their window. Their stint in the airport wasn't their most peaceful time, but even when they woke up a little less than refreshed, it's not like they had anywhere to be.
They were trapped in a city with no money. Odd checked the time and made a quick in a corner to make a call to update his parents on the situation and see if they could send over some cash. Instead, they had a better idea.
A family friend who just happened to be visiting the city they were trapped in that week was in a hotel a few blocks from the airport. It seemed like the perfect fit.
But when Odd told Aelita the good news, it was a different story. She smiled, like she should have, stretched out comfortably and contently, like she should have, and even gave Odd a hug with a muttered 'awesome.'
But there was something off about her. About the way that she smiled and looked down, about the way that her words didn't seem truly genuine.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
She shrugs. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine. We don't have to stay here another night! Did you hear the guy who snored?" But she bites her lip slightly and he knows that she's lying.
He sort of understands why she might be feeling a little down but he doesn't really want to admit it to himself.
Instead they sit at their window and play games and read. And then Odd breaks the pattern.
"Listen," he says to her. And she's listening to him not because she has not choice because the airport is unnaturally silent, but because she wants to know what he's saying more than anything.
"We have another hour. Let's enjoy it."
Aelita nods numbly and Odd stands up. He holds out his hand and when she takes it she's vaguely reminded of stepping to Earth for the first time. Only it isn't as life altering, of course.
"You know," she says, "we already know that we're good at playing pretend."
"What are you suggesting that we're pretending to be?"
"The friends who pretended to be cousins who are pretending to be normal."
If Odd saw anything wrong with what she said, he didn't comment on it. If he saw anything wrong when she took his hand in hers, he didn't comment on it. And if she saw anything wrong when he wrapped his arm around her back, she didn't comment on it.
They walked around the airport. All of the shops were closed, but they got soda and cookies from a vending machine and went to a food court. They were almost completely alone and they carefully opened the packets of cookies and set them down on the table along with their cold leftovers from the night before. And they talk until everything was all gone.
The, they took each other by the hands and wandered meaninglessly through the airport. Odd didn't have flowers, so he cut some leaves off of a plastic potted plant and gave them to here. She smiled and gave him a hug in return.
"You know," Aelita said, "we'll never be able to do this again."
And they wouldn't. Because they were cousins and they would stay cousins for the rest of their lives. Someone would always be watching, no matter where they were, and any thought of explaining the situation was frankly quite laughable.
Odd's phone buzzed with a text message and he looked at Aelita. "No, we're not. We only have about two minutes."
He opened his arms, but he didn't have to because she was already slowly walking towards the hug and accepting it. They didn't say anything, their bags were left unattended on the floor but no one cared.
Because all anybody saw was a boy and a girl hugging. And there was nothing wrong with that.
They stayed that way until Odd's phone started buzzing.