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some nights i say "fork it all" and stare at the calendar

Chapter 2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Apparently, arranging a ‘spontaneous holiday’ was not as easy as it sounded.

The thirty-six hours after their encounter in the smoothie bar - which should have been imbued with anticipation and excitement, Tahani thought - actually passed in a flurry of flustered organisation and panicked activity.

On the morning of their departure, Tahani was faced with a sullen Eleanor who had neglected to pack her toiletries the night before, and now couldn’t find her toothpaste. Of course, she refused to admit this until they were bickering over how to operate the heirBnB’s locking mechanism, and Tahani had the misfortune to lean into her foul huff of morning breath.

At least digging through her suitcase for her own toiletries bag gave her the opportunity to lecture Eleanor on why she should’ve learnt from her impromptu all-nighter at the 24-hour laundrette just a day earlier.

 Somehow, though, they managed to pull it off. Chidi and Simone’s cab arrived with just a minute to spare, and before long they were on their merry way to Sydney Airport.

Eleanor found herself squashed between Chidi and Simone on the back-seat. She’d tried calling shot-gun, but Tahani had quickly pulled ‘leg-room rank,’ and she’d been swiftly overruled. Annoying as it was, she did have admit that being nestled between her two favourite ‘hot, demented’ academics was kind of cosy. Dawn had only just broken, and the air still had a night-time chill to it. Simone seemed to agree about the ambience - they’d been driving for maybe ten minutes and she’d already drifted off on Eleanor’s shoulder.

Eleanor chanced a look at Chidi. He was sitting ramrod straight, in his usual button-up and sweater vest, staring contemplatively out of the window.

“I almost thought we weren’t gonna make it,” she said.

“Hmm?” Chidi looked round at her distractedly, and for the first time that morning she noticed there was a prominent thumb print on the lens of his glasses. There was something about it that made her cheeks grow warm - it was so at odds with his usual neat, put-together appearance. She imagined him waking that morning with a start, realising they were late, haphazardly grabbing his glasses and shoving them onto his face…

“Eleanor?” Chidi asked. “Did you say something?”

Shit!

She’d completely lost her train of thought.

“Uhh…”

Think! Think!

“I didn’t have time to brush my teeth this morning, can you believe that?”

Chidi squinted at her. “I know. You were spitting toothpaste into the hydrangeas when we arrived.”

Before she could explain herself, Simone lifted her head. “You didn’t have time to get dressed either.”

Well, that was just rude. What was this, ‘nitpick at Eleanor’ day?

“Yes I did,” she said. “I’ve got a hoodie on.”

“Over your pyjamas.”

“Yeah, well-“ Eleanor scrambled for an answer. “They don’t count at the airport!”

“Mhm, suuure. Bet Chidi and Tahani disagree,” Simone slurred, and slumped right back down against her. 

This wasn't nitpick at Eleanor day. This was defame and mortally wound Eleanor day.

Eleanor clenched her jaw and glared into the middle distance, fighting the urge to shove Simone's head into the window. Sure, Tahani hadn’t said anything about her outfit when she’d stumbled out of the guest bathroom that morning....but her expression had spoken volumes.

She was just about to air some grievances of her own, when Chidi put his head close to hers and murmured, “I don’t”.

A delightful warm feeling buzzed up her spine, and she had to duck her head so that no-one would see her smile.

 


 

After a breakfast of expensive Starbucks coffee and stale almond croissants, they boarded the flight. It took everything in Tahani’s power not to clutch at her breast when she saw the absolute…state of the airplane.

There was absolutely no other word for it. The seats were so densely packed together it bordered on inhumane, and the blinds clipped to each window were so translucent it was laughable.

“There’s been a mistake,” she hissed, grabbing onto Eleanor’s arm. “You must have made a mistake when we were buying the tickets.”

“What?” Eleanor frowned down at the tickets in her hand. “…No, these are definitely right. We’re seats 7G and 7H.” She held up one of the tickets against the hideous little nub of plastic sticking out of the headrest. “See? The number on the tickets match the numbers on the seats.”

“Hi ladies, is there a problem?” A chirpy voice behind them asked.

Tahani rolled her eyes and turned around. “Yes, there is-“ she started, only to break off when she locked eyes with a flight attendant….who just so happened to be one of the most breathtaking women she’d ever seen.

The woman in question smiled, lifting one hand to tuck her braids behind her ear. Tahani tried not to stare as she dragged her graceful, brown fingers through them. "How can I help?"

"I - Ah - It's just-" Caught off-guard, Tahani stuttered, searching for words that just would not come. "Sorry, I only meant- uhm-" Between the flight attendant's beautiful smile, and the burn of Eleanor's confused stare, she felt herself shrinking inwards. Her skin started to prickle, and she felt hot and unsure in a way that she hadn't since her boarding-school days. 

“Don't worry, d’ya need me to check your tickets?” The woman asked. She reached out a hand to take them. There was a detailed henna tattoo running up to the crook of her elbow, and for some reason, Tahani’s eyes were immediately drawn to the delicate hibiscus on her inner wrist.

Her pulse quickened, and her brain fuzzed out. “No, we most certainly do not! These seats will suit us just fine!” She swiped the tickets out of reach, and plonked herself down

"Oh," the flight attendant said.

Oh,” Eleanor said, and a little glint appeared in her eye.

 


 

The first few hours of the flight were relatively pleasant, Tahani was surprised to say. Of course, the leg-room was less than adequate, and the meals were terribly unpalatable. The fact that Simone had stuffed the entirety of her carry-on with snacks turned out to be an actual gift.

The in-flight entertainment was surprisingly good, too. Chowing down on Tim Tams and Samboys while she ploughed through the entirety of the Kung-Fu Panda trilogy was not the flight Tahani had envisioned herself…but while she was giggling at Po mimicking Master Shifu, she realised she was actually content.

“This is better than first class!” She told Eleanor as the credits on the final film rolled.

“I know, you said,” Eleanor grunted, pressing her hands into the small of her back. “God, I need to stretch. First class champagne sounds really good right now. Fancy pulling some strings?” But Tahani was intently swiping through the boxset library, and her only - largely unhelpful - answer was “Ooh, Baywatch?”

At that, Simone popped her head over the seats. “My tv screen doesn’t work and I wanna watch Baywatch! Eleanor, swapsies?”

Eleanor shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”

When she climbed into the seat beside Chidi, he pulled his earphones out and greeted her with a smile. He didn’t even bother to pause his film.

“You look happier,” she told him.

“Ah, you know… there’s something about sitting with Simone for six hours straight that makes you realise that her permanently relocating to Brooklyn may not be such a bad thing after all.”

“Hey! I heard that!”

“You were meant to!” He called back, then immediately yelped when Simone started violently swatting him on the head. When she didn’t stop, Eleanor shoved a candy bar into her furiously waving hand, and it immediately disappeared from view.

“Don’t think you’re supposed to reward violence,” Chidi grumbled.

“Listen, it’s not my fault that bribery works,” Eleanor chuckled. “Here, I’ll give you half of these Oreos if you forgive me.”

They sat together for the rest of the flight, helping themselves to treats from Simone’s carry-on and becoming increasingly giddy from the sugar. When the meals trolley arrived, they went halves on Eleanor’s macaroni cheese - because Chidi’s vegetarian chilli was actually gray, and smelt like “my old manager’s BO” - as Eleanor so elegantly put it.

“Tastes like it too,” Chidi said, after he’d been dared to try a mouthful.

“That’s gross, and makes me think that you’ve licked a sweaty armpit at least once. Look, now try some of it with these Peeps mixed in.”

Chidi obeyed. He had no idea why.

 


 

“You know, when I was a kid, my mom used to have a “friend” who was a pilot,” Eleanor said. "Imagine how weird it would be if he was flying this plane.”

Chidi fought back a smile. So they weren't gonna manage more than thirty seconds of silence, after all.

“Oh, super weird.” He agreed. “Again, I thought you said you were gonna try and get some sleep.”

Without bothering to open her eyes, Eleanor stuck her middle finger up at him. “His name was something like… Rodney? Roger? Roderick? I dunno, but they used to make me call him ‘Uncle Rod.’ So rude. My mom didn’t even have any siblings.”

Chidi nodded sagely. “Very rude. No wonder you turned out the way you did. Go to sleep.”

Eleanor snorted, then made a pitiful noise. “Caaaan’t. You’re reading too loudly.”

Chidi looked down at his paperback. “Yes, Eleanor, you’re right. I have somehow managed to master the act of ‘reading too loudly,’ despite not yet opening my book.”

Eleanor rubbed her eyes and peered at him, then huffed when she realised he was telling the truth. “You’re annoying, and you talk too much. Has anyone ever told you that?”

 “Pot, meet kettle.”

Eleanor made a sardonic little smile at him and then moaned, pressing her forehead against his shoulder. “Uuurrrgh. My head hurts and it’s too bright.”

Chidi paused. She wasn’t feeling well?

Fuck. Now he felt guilty for indulging her mindless chattering. Hadn’t Tahani once mentioned that Eleanor was a sleep-talker? What if that was what she’d been doing, and he’d been waking her up by answering back?

He was just about to turn around and check with Tahani for confirmation, when Eleanor snuggled insistently into his side.

“Can you read to me?”

Chidi almost did a double-take. Had he heard her correctly? “What did you just say?”

Eleanor sighed heavily. “Can you read to me please?”

"Read to you? No. No, I can’t. Eleanor, I’m sorry, but I’ve been talking at you for the last fifteen minutes instead of letting you rest. I was valuing your company over your need for sleep, and that was selfish of me--” He was cut off by Eleanor pressing her hand over his mouth.

“Dude, shush! Are you really not getting it? Your voice is like, amazing! It’s so soothing, I was falling asleep!”

“Nnnno,” Chidi objected, even though Eleanor's hand was still covering his mouth. “It was quite clearly keeping you awake.”

“Only because you kept making me laugh!” Eleanor cried.

“I- I did?”

He had to think for a second. And…yeah. It was true. Ever since Eleanor had announced that she wanted to take a nap, he’d responded to every single thing she’d said with a wry comment. And every single time Eleanor had shaken her head at him, or thwacked him, or cursed him out, all through uncontrollable giggles. And it was so euphoria-inducing that he’d continued.

I did, he realised.

"... You'll probably have to take your hand away from my mouth, then," he told her. 

Eleanor looked at him in surprise. "So you'll do it?" 

He nodded, and she gave him what was quite possibly the brightest smile ever.

"Fiiiinally. Y'know, I did not think that was gonna work. You're a difficult guy to convince."

"So are you," Chidi said. "You still haven't moved your hand."

Eleanor tilted her head at him in a mockery of contemplation. "Don't see why I should."

"Well, it smells like garlic, for one." 

Eleanor gasped in outrage. "You take that back."

"No. Maybe you shouldn't have hogged all the garlic bread."

Eleanor retaliated by pressing her other hand over his nose. "This is what you get for lying about the sniff test. You promised they didn't smell!"

It was impossible not to start laughing at that. Eleanor flashed her teeth in a masochistic grin, and pressed down harder. Was she trying to make him laugh harder, or to silence him? Either way, Chidi found that he didn't really care, and licked urgently at her palm until she snatched her hands away with a screech. 

"You're disgusting," she told him.

"Uh-huh," he said, reaching up to flick a switch. The small lightbulbs suspended over their seats went out with a click, and Eleanor made a small squeak. With the blind pulled down against the window next to her, their cocoon of hoodies and snack wrappers was now pretty dim. But also, it was pretty cosy too. "There," Chidi said. "Does that make your headache feel better?" 

She thought for a second. "Kind of? But how are you gonna read if it's dark?" 

"Hold on." He leaned forward and fished about in his carry-on. "With this!"

Eleanor gazed at his clip-on reading lamp in a kind of twisted delight. "Is that a night-light?" She started to laugh. "Are you afraid of the dark?" 

"Sorry, what was that? You don't want me to read to you after all? Okay, that's fine-" He slowly inched a hand back towards his carry-on, and Eleanor squawked.

"No! No, read to me!" She ordered, tucking herself back under his arm. "Wait, move over a bit. Put your hand on my elbow. And stretch your legs out. Not that far." 

"Your manners never fail to amaze me," Chidi quipped as Eleanor's hands, warm and surprisingly gentle, arranged and rearranged his limbs until she was comfortable. Never mind that it was difficult to turn pages one-handed.... he bit his tongue against a chuckle as Eleanor settled back into his side, and promptly realised that in all her reorganising, she had somehow failed to notice that her ankle was firmly wedged under the arm-rest. 

"It's stuck," she whimpered. "This is the worst day of my life." 

Chidi tsk-ed and leaned over. A few minutes of gentle squeezing and careful manipulation later, he slowly managed to slide her foot free. He muttered under his breath as he worked, trying to remember the location of various tendons, and where pressure could be applied without causing pain. At least all those nights he'd spent helping Simone cram for her anatomy and physiology exams had finally come in useful. 

"There," he said, sitting back upright. "Try to sit still while I'm reading, won't you? I don't much fancy having toes trapped between my ribcage."

Eleanor didn't answer. He looked down, half-terrified that he'd somehow ripped all of her tendons into shreds, and that she'd been silently weeping in agony the whole time...

But she wasn't. 

She was just asleep.

 

Notes:

i am so, so, sorry for how late this update is - online college decimated my ability to even think about anything besides essays. i'm finished for summer now, though, and will definitely be posting much more regularly (i'm thinking once a fortnight?)

thank you all for your patience and the lovely comments! as always, please leave a kudo, and feel free to comment any theories you may have! I'd love to read them!