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The line moved like molasses as everyone showed the agent their tickets and gathered their carry-ons. Hawks yawned into his hand and tried not to look too put out at having to stand so long. He was in one of the last groups to board, and this plane didn’t have assigned seating. That meant he’d have to scrounge for a decent seat and pray whoever was his seat-mate wasn’t too annoying.
Hawks bristled to himself at the thought. He’d already dealt with enough on this trip. Thinking about any more hardships made him want to yank out his wings. After decades of no-contact, Hawks had finally decided to reach out to Tomie. His mother. He’d thought maybe they could reconnect and catch up. In the time since he’d been sold given to the commission, she’d used the fortune Hawks had accrued for her and moved to Malaysia. Against his handler’s orders, he’d tracked her down and contacted her and they’d agreed to meet at her new place. Hawks thought that after all this time, she’d be happy to see him, that maybe the years would be kind and they’d meet on better footing.
Hawks had been wrong.
Tomie’s many eyes had passed over him with all the care and sentiment of a stranger. The years had only exacerbated their distance. There was no warm welcome, no hugs given, not even a mention of being missed. Hawks had spent a week watching and being watched, never once breaking the cold air between them. All his media training had fled the moment he was in her presence again. She was like a ghost in her giant villa, roaming the halls listlessly as if only thinly tethered to the living world. And Hawks ached.
The experience had left him drained, and it had only been a few scant days. He wished so badly he could have flown himself. It would have given him time to decompress and think. However, he hadn’t told the commission what he was up to, and he certainly wasn’t cleared to fly in international airspace. That meant, he’d had to fly commercial there and back, using the money he’d squirrelled away in a hidden account. His wings were stowed away in his carry-on, save for the small downy feathers hidden under his travel hoodie. Like this, nobody recognized him. He was just another guy at the airport. Another face in the crowd.
Finally, it was his group’s turn to board. He showed the bored and frowning agent his ticket. She didn’t even look down to scan it, doing everything by rote. Hawks could relate. He felt as drained as the agent looked. Still, he managed a smile at the flight attendants, who were contractually obligated to look as cheerful and hospital as possible. Hawks could relate to that, too.
Sharp eyes darted over each and every seat, looking for one that was open and wasn’t going to cause him too much grief. There was one next to a nice woman who was reading, but then he saw the small kid in the seat directly behind. Nope, he was not getting kicked for all 6 hours of this flight. There was a middle seat in the middle row, but that would set off his claustrophobia. He found his perfect seat near the back, and aisle seat next to a quiet stranger, who was currently staring out the window with earbuds in. There were no children present, no seeming extra-chatter, and an easy get-away seat if the claustrophobia got to him.
“Is this seat taken?” Hawks got the stranger’s attention.
The man took an earbud out and looked back at him with the most beautiful turquoise blue eyes Hawks had ever seen.
“Go ahead,” he gestured to the seat beside him. Gratefully, hawks stowed his carry-on up top and tried not to plonk tiredly into the padded seat. The stranger didn’t give him another look, going back to staring out the window and listening to his music.
Hawks, despite his better thinking, did not give him the same courtesy. He couldn’t help but stare at the many golden piercings in his ears and on his brow. He even had three dotted studs on his nose. They glinted prettily in the artificial light, drawing Hawks’ attention.
He only looked away when those beautiful blues turned towards him suspiciously. He knew his face was red as a tomato, and he did feel bad about the staring, but he couldn’t help it! He’d always been a sucker for shiny things. He blamed it on his quirk.
Thoroughly embarrassed at being caught staring, he reached for his backpack under his seat and pulled out a blanket and a book to keep him occupied. Hawks knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep on the flight. He hated being a passenger, wished he could fly on his own. The first time he’d ever been on a plane, when he was just a kid, he’d had a panic attack so strong, he’d nearly thrown up in his seat. It was only his handler’s stern and judgmental gaze that kept him seated and quiet for the entire duration.
As an adult, he wasn’t nearly as nervous. Even still, it was near-impossible for him to rest in one of these contraptions. His downy feathers were pushed uncomfortably in the seat, and he knew once they took off, the turbulence would make his heart hammer in his throat. Despite this, he still yawned tiredly, eyes drooping slightly from exhaustion.
As the overhead monitors played the safety video and the flight attendants mimicked what to do in an emergency situation, he watched from the corner of his eye as the handsome stranger pulled out a couple of pills and downed them dry. From the label on the box, they looked like anti-nausea meds. Silently, Hawks wished he’d thought of that, too. He could use some Dramamine about now.
It wasn’t long before they were moving and up in the air and Hawks tried to ignore the painful swoop in his stomach as they ascended. He dug his blunted talons into the cushions and hoped they wouldn’t leave marks.
It was only when they were level that Hawks let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. If the stranger noticed, he didn’t say anything. Hawks took another look and saw his eyes closed, earphones still in, face neutral as he napped.
He really was handsome, Hawks thought to himself. His white lashes fanned out against his cheeks as he slept, matching his snow-white fluffy hair. The lights had been dimmed after they’d leveled out, but even so his golden piercings still glinted in the lowlight. If Hawks looked closely, he thought he could pick out a little bit of redness, like scar tissue, that dipped just below the collar of his turtleneck and-
Hawks had to stop.
He would not be caught ogling at a stranger. He would not be a magpie.
He would… go to his reading. Yeah. He would do that.
He pulled out a book his intern had given him. Something by Edgar Allan Poe. Tokoyami had lent it to him before he went on his trip and Hawks had taken care to not damage what was surely his intern’s precious book. Unfortunately, he only got a little way through the book before his eyes started drooping once more and his vision blurred from lack of sleep.
Giving up, he decided to use the cheap headphones on board and watch a movie on the screen. He picked at random, ending up on a period drama of some kind. And while the movie wasn’t dull, it wasn’t holding his attention and he felt himself nodding off against his wishes.
He decided to close his eyes for just a moment, just to rest them and make the blur go away. He’d let is head rest against the seat for just a minute.
Just a minute…
He was jolted awake sometime later by a bout of rough turbulence.
It took him a moment to remember what was going on and who he even was, he didn’t even think about the warm comfy thing he was resting on. In fact, he was tired enough, he’d rather go back to resting on the nice warm thing and not worry about frivolous questions like ‘what is the warm thing?’ and ‘when did I find this warm thing to rest on?’ No, Hawks was totally fine with just dozing back off and letting his consciousness fade away once again.
It was only when the warm thing chuckled that he came back to himself.
‘The warm thing,’ it turned out, was the very handsome stranger’s shoulder, and to his horror, Hawks realized he’d slept on this stranger for gods knows how long.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Hawks said with dawning horror. Embarrassment zinged through his body and he had to stop himself from covering his face in mortification.
Hawks was expecting annoyance, maybe even outright hostility from this stranger. This guy certainly hadn’t signed up to be Hawks’ pillow for the duration of the flight.
However, instead of the hostility he expected, the stranger smiled.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “We’re practically married now that we’ve slept together.”
Hawks.exe stopped working.
“Huh?”
The stranger chuckled again. “So, do I get to know my new husband’s name?” he asked, pretty blue eyes sparkling with mischief.
“New– I, uhm, uh?”
“Or should I just call you birdie?” he asked.
“Birdie?” It wasn’t often Hawks was caught off guard, or left at a loss for words, but this conversation was sending him into a tailspin.
The stranger lifted up his long hands and started playing at the back of Hawks’ neck where little golden downy feathers often sprouted along with his hair. If Hawks was blushing before, then he was beet-red now. He’d completely lost the plot.
“These pretty little feathers caught my attention the moment you sat down,” he said, that flirtatious smile only widening as he continued teasing Hawks. “So, it was quite the delightful surprise when a pretty bird like you chose me to rest on.”
Hawks had to hold back a coo as he continued scratching at his sensitive neck.
“Are you always this forward with men who drool on your shoulder?” Hawks asked, trying to regain his footing.
“Only the interesting ones,” the stranger bantered back. His cheshire smile made the stud just above his lip sparkle in the light.
“You don’t know a thing about me,” Hawks said.
The man hummed. “I know you trill and coo when you sleep,” he said. “I know your nose scrunches when something bothers you.” Hawks tried not to let his nose scrunch at the thought. “I know you’ve got quite the fine taste in jewelry,” he moved his hand over to play at the diamond stud in his earlobe, and Hawks had to fight down a shiver. “And, I know you’ve been staring at me when you think I’m not looking,” he whispered into Hawks’ ear. “I know you’re as interested in me as I am in you.”
Hawks felt like he’d been caught in a trap, like he was losing some game he hadn’t known he was playing. He wasn’t sure why the thought excited him.
“Quite the observer, aren’t you, hot stuff?”
A hum. “The only thing I don’t know is your name,” the stranger said.
“Keigo,” Hawks surprised himself. He hadn’t used that name in so long. He’d almost thought he’d forgotten it. Maybe going to see Tomie had brought up more than just old memories. Or maybe this stranger had thrust him so out of his comfort zone, he’d just blurted out a name no longer his.
“Keigo,” the stranger said, like he was tasting the name on his tongue. Hawks thought maybe he’d like to hear this man say his name over and over. Preferably, in a place much more intimate than crammed in a commercial plane. “I like it,” he said, and Hawks admonished himself for feeling the praise go straight through him.
Hawks couldn’t fight back his own smile. “Seems a little unfair that you know so much about me and I don’t know a single thing about the man claiming to be my new spouse,” Hawks said. “Care to share with me?”
The stranger pretended to mull it over, bringing the hand that had been playing with Hawks’ lobe to his chin and giving an exaggerated thoughtful hum.
“I suppose it’s only fair to allow my wonderful husband the privilege of my name,” he said, and Hawks wondered where he got such a flair for the dramatics.
“Touya is my given name. Family name can be negotiated after we’ve signed the marriage certificate,” the stranger, Touya, said cheekily.
“Touya,” Hawks liked the way it felt to say. Liked the shape of it in his mouth. “It’s perfect.”
A beautiful blush bloomed on Touya’s face, and Hawks liked that, too. He wondered how else he could make him blush like that.
“But, I need to know more than that,” Hawks said. “Imagine if my dear husband, whom I’ve only just met, turned out to be some sort of criminal!” Hawks pretended to act affronted.
“Hardly,” Touya said, laughing lightly. Call him crazy, but Hawks already had his heart set on memorizing that sound for all eternity. “How’s about you and me go out for drinks once this plane lands. Then, you can ask me all the questions to your heart’s content.”
Hawks felt giddy at the prospect. “I think, I’d love that.”
Hawks left the plane with a blush on his face, a new number in his phone, and a reinvigorated pep in his step.
So, of course, the first thing he did was send the only other number in his phone a panicked text.
To: Tsukuyomi
FELL ASLEEP ON MY FLIGHT N WOKE UP W MY CHEEK ON THE SHOULDER OF A CUTE BOY NEXT ΤΟ ΜΕ NI TOLD HIM "OMG SRRY THATS EMBARRASSING" BUT THEN HE SAID "DONT BE SORRY WERE PRACTICALLY MARRIED NOW THAT WEVE NAPPED TOGETHER" N ASKED IF I WANTED TO GRAB A DRINK. WHATS GOING ON
From: Tsukuyomi
What madness has befallen you?
THE END