"Will you stop?" Cal mumbled through her headache, nudging Sodo and Swiss' arms away from her. She'd taken the initiative of seating herself between them to stop their bickering, which turned out to be futile. And unbelievably stupid.
For the first time since they boarded, they seemed to be paying attention to her. "You okay? You look like you're about to puke."
"Thanks, Swiss."
"You have a habit of avoiding questions."
Cal sighed, rolling her eyes before turning to the multi-ghoul. "I just have a headache. This is only my second time on a plane and I don't think I like it."
"Well, shit. You're going to have to get used to it."
"Don't worry, once we're in the US, we mostly travel by bus."
"Not looking forward to those ten-plus hours on the plane."
"You'll get over it," Swiss disregarded, earning a glare from Sodo. He turned his attention back to her, brows creased in worry.
"Ignore him, he doesn't know shit about flying. But you'll be okay... right?"
"Yeah, yeah," Cal dismissed with a wave. "He's probably right, though."
"Don't say that, it'll go to his head," He grumbled under his breath, trying to make himself comfortable.
Cal turned as someone tapped on her shoulder from behind, coming face to face with Aether, seated between two strangers who looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. Even though the ghouls were in their 'human forms', people still seemed to be unnerved by them.
"What's up?"
"I am so fucking uncomfortable," He gritted out, his face practically squished between the seats. "This fucker just pulled out rosary beads after we made eye contact."
Cal chuckled, shaking her head. "Don't worry too much, we'll be landing soon and then you can get out of there."
Aether huffed, slumping back in his seat before shooting a glare at the frightened man beside him. She laughed at his reaction, turning to face her front again. The second half of the flight seemed to be relatively calmer than the first, much to her relief.
***
"Swiss, no-" Cal hissed, grabbing his leg to pull him off the conveyor belt, causing him to hold on even tighter.
"I want to see what's going on back there," He whined, trying to free his leg from her grasp.
"Please, just let go- Aether can't get all the luggage by himself."
"Dew can help-"
"He is already helping! We are the only ones not being helpful," She groaned, digging the heels of her sneakers into the slippery tile.
"You can't stop me, Cal, I will find out what they're hiding," Swiss grunted, dragging himself forward.
Finally, she gave up and let go, watching him grin victoriously before being stopped by Aether as he passed him, easily hoisted over the quintessence ghoul's shoulder. Should've done that sooner.
Aether looked about as tired as she felt, probably drained from the non-stop prayer being chanted next to him for the past three hours.
Once they were confident that they had all the luggage, the small group collapsed onto nearby benches, waiting for the rest of their party to show up.
"It's day one and I'm already sick of this," Cal mumbled into her hands before throwing her head onto the back of the chair, and subsequently, Aether's arm.
"Tell me about it," Aether complained quietly, closing his eyes.
Sodo stood in front of Cal, his arms crossed as he nervously shifted in place. "Where are they?"
"They'll be here in a sec, stop worrying," Swiss groused, evidently still upset about his interrupted escapade.
The smaller ghoul - even smaller than usual in his human disguise - made a sound of acknowledgement, but didn't relent in his over-the-top observations.
"Aw, he's worried about Rain," Aether cooed half-heartedly. "Don't worry, Dew, Rainy is a big boy, he can take care of himself."
"You shut your fucking mouth," Sodo warned, gritting his teeth as he pointed a not-so-menacing finger at Aether.
"Aw, Sodo has a crush," Cal chipped in, adding fuel to the fire. Sodo flushed a shade redder, scowling at her before he turned away from them.
"A crush? Please, this man is whipped. Some days we bet on who he's the whipped most for- you or Rain."
"I'm gonna fucking kill you," Sodo said nonchalantly, before lunging at Swiss. It seemed like it was Cal's turn to intercept the fight, grabbing Sodo around the waist as he clawed the air in front of the grinning multi-ghoul.
"Sodo, come on, he's just teasing you-"
"'Oh, where's Cal? Do you think Cal's busy? Why isn't Cal here yet-'" Swiss continued, easily dodging Sodo's restrained thrashes.
"Learn when to shut the fuck up," Aether instructed, pulling Swiss into the seat beside him by the belt.
"I'm assuming you had your hands full," Copia piped up from behind Cal, who released Sodo.
"You have no idea," She muttered, turning to scowl at the Cardinal. "You owe me."
"I'm aware."
***
Cal collapsed easily onto her temporary bed, tossing her bags aside. Swiss mimicked her actions, falling onto the empty bed beside hers with an exaggerated sigh. Sodo entered the room after the two of them, gingerly lowering his guitar case to the ground as he eyed the multi-ghoul disapprovingly.
"Why does he have to be here?"
"Listen, I'm pretty sure Aether's got an available bed in his room, if you wanna, y'know," Swiss made a shooing motion with his hand, not bothering to lift his head to look at Sodo.
"Why don't you go there, then?"
"I don't want to," He shrugged, pushing his curly hair out of his face. "Plus, I'm positive Cal is the only one who's nice enough to bunk with me."
"Shame on you, Cal," Sodo huffed.
"Yeah, shame on me," She agreed tiredly. "I'd like some silence now because I've had it up to here."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
𝔄𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯'𝔰 𝔑𝔬𝔱𝔢
the filler is filler-ing, and honestly, i can't wait to get into the future chapters
as you can probably guess by now, i am an insomniac- and last night, i wrote out all the future chapters- like??? all of them???
this is the first time i've planned a book this well in my life, and i'm so exciteddd
