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They were going into the plane, the three of them holding hands as they made their way to one of the last rows. Sophia and Dani knew how Manon got on planes, even if she downplayed it, so they made sure to stay close to her.
Sitting in the middle of them, Manon took a small, anxious breath, turning to the window, which Sophia gently closed as soon as she noticed.
"Are you good, Manz?"
The Swiss-Ghanaian nodded with a small smile.
"Yeah, don't worry." She tried to reassure her girlfriends, but let their hands go to play nervously with her curls, checking her phone, trying to get her mind off the fact that the plane would take off soon.
Daniela, noticing her uneasiness, searched in her bag and handed the other girls gum.
"For the ears," she said, but when handing Sophia’s, she gestured toward Manon 'try again, she doesn’t look okay' as discreetly as she could.
"Why me?" Soph whispered.
"Becau-"
"What are you two doing?" Manz asked, and Daniela had just noticed how she was practically sprawled over Manon’s lap trying to reach the Filipina.
"What? Oh, nothing, sorry," she said, quickly getting back in her seat, shooting Sophia a glare. Sophia sighed and turned back to the middle.
"So… the plane is taking off soon. How are you feeling, babe?" she asked with a small, reassuring smile.
"Thank you, but I already said I'm fine, Soph. You both can relax."
"Oh bullshit, don’t lie, we can see you're restless!" Daniela blurted, a bit louder than she meant to.
"Daniela!" both of them said in unison, looking at her as she shrieked slightly.
"Sorry, I'm worried. I don’t want you to bottle it up for us, cariño," she said, holding her hand tightly.
Manon sighed and leaned back in her seat.
"Sorry… I just don’t wanna bother you girls."
Sophia smiled softly, guiding her to rest her head on her shoulder, which she did.
"You're not a burden, Manzie. We want to take care of you."
Manon smiled softly at that, just as the announcement came that the plane was about to take off, and they could feel it starting.
"I scared," she whispered, searching for Sophia’s hand, now gripping both of her girlfriends tightly.
"Shh… it’s gonna be okay," Sophia murmured, reassuring her, while Daniela stayed close, using her free hand to gently caress her arm and cheek. Manon kept her eyes shut, letting out small whimpers as the plane lifted.
They stayed like that until the plane stabilized in the sky, and she finally opened her eyes, wiping the prickle of tears that had formed.
"See? You did good, baby," Sophia reassured, reaching for a small blanket the airline had offered and placing it over her lap.
"Hungry, Manzanita?"
Seeing the little nod, Daniela called a flight attendant over and asked for their snacks, requesting a kids’ one too, claiming someone preferred those. As they talked, Manon spaced out slightly, holding her blanket closer, her thumb hovering near her mouth.
"Do it, baby girl, it’ll soothe you."
But she shook her head, embarrassed.
"It’s okay… I don’t need to."
Sophia gently pulled her closer, letting her hide her face against her shoulder. In that position, Manzie quietly sucked on her thumb while waiting for their snacks to arrive.
Daniela thanked the attendant, handing the regular snacks to Sophia and gently poking Manon with the kids’ pack.
"Look what Manzanita just got," she cooed softly.
Manon looked up, pulling her thumb from her mouth with a small surprised gasp.
"Yeah, cool, right? Let’s see."
She opened the small bag, pulling out a crayon kit, instantly lighting up because she had brought her coloring book.
"I wanna color now! Please!"
She turned to Sophia, who nodded with a smile, already searching for it. Daniela pulled out the coloring book from their bag. There were also chips, a cookie, and a chocolate milk box.
"Everything is cool," she mumbled, clutching the bag.
Sophia placed the coloring book in front of her, and she spent the next hour coloring with her new crayons. Two broke in the process, but she didn’t mind at all, completely absorbed, even forgetting she was hungry.
After finishing two pages...kind of messily, something her big self would probably critique, she looked at a half-asleep Daniela.
"Nini, I bored," she pouted.
Daniela blinked awake, glancing at Sophia, who was already handing over the snacks and opening the chocolate milk.
"Why don’t you watch a movie? Let me see…" she scrolled until she found Encanto, smiling at her own choice.
"Very biased," Sophia said, holding the milk as Manon drank.
"When Disney releases a Filipino movie as good as this one, we’ll watch it," Daniela shrugged playfully, earning a giggle.
"You silly baby," Sophia teased, gently tickling her.
Daniela helped with the headphones, and soon Manon was quietly eating her cookie while watching the movie. Every now and then, she would mumble a Spanish word, proudly acting like she was fluent, which Daniela fully encouraged.
By the end of the movie, all three of them had fallen asleep. Sophia, a light sleeper, kept checking on both of them, softly brushing Daniela’s curls away and adjusting the blanket around Manon.
The announcement of their arrival woke the other two.
Manon rubbed her eyes with her fists, glancing at a still-waking Daniela and an already alert Sophia.
"Phia… what happenin’?" she asked, cuddling as close as the seat allowed.
"Nothing, little one. They’re just saying the plane is going down soon."
"Our plane is going down?!" she asked, freezing, eyes wide.
"No, no, not like that, bebé," Daniela quickly soothed, rubbing her back.
"The plane needs to land, sweetie, so we can get out," Sophia explained gently.
But Manon only shook her head, whining softly as she curled closer.
"It’s okay… it’ll be like before, but landing. We’re still holding you," Daniela murmured, placing a kiss on her hair.
Both of them held her again as the plane began descending, just like before, though this time with a few more tears.
Sophia smiled, peppering kisses over her still closed eyes.
"You did it, Manzie, we landed."
"…we did?" she asked softly, opening her eyes and looking out the window at the ground.
"Yes, baby. We can finally get out. You did really good."
Manon smiled, trying to hug both of them at once, so Daniela pulled her into her lap while Sophia leaned in to hug them together.