Norman x Reader || SAUDADE

35-N-onsensical Fear

Days passed and it's time for us to board a plane to one of the possible places Emma might be in. The chances of her being in these countries are higher, as we failed to find her in the other hundreds of places before. I gingerly dragged on my suitcase and several small others that belonged to the younger kids. My eyes occasionally traveled to the boy with the silver hair who was leading the pack throughout the airport along with his best friend, Ray. Nothing really changed that much between our relationship, except for the fact that he's becoming more affectionate and sweet whenever there's no one else in the room. We were still very awkward, no scratch that, I was still very awkward in terms of accepting his affectionate nature, but we are getting more comfortable with each other as time passes by. He was wearing a light blue dress shirt along with a complimenting beige trench coat fastened on top of it, to make sure he'd stay warm during the journey. He looks good in everything he's wearing though. I decided to avert my attention elsewhere, these days I have found myself unconsciously staring at him. I need something to divert my mind off the said boy. 

"Oh, ________, we did not miss packing anyone's warm clothes right?" Gilda was fretting beside me. 

I chuckled to myself, she has the knack of fussing over the smallest things before a trip. 

"Gilda," I stopped on our tracks, "I re-checked everything last night. There's nothing to worry about. You've done a good job making sure everything's fine." I smiled at her while patting her on the head. 

I heard her breathe out a sigh, probably feeling as if a heavy burden was lifted off from her. 

"Jemima, your ribbon has become undone, let me tie that up for you." I spotted the loose ribbon resting on top of Jemima's hair from the corner of my eyes. 

"Oh? Is that so?" Her hand instinctively made its way to her hair. 

The older kids of Grace Field have been used to being Mom's helper so it wasn't a huge deal for us anymore. However, lately it feels like our job has lessened a lot since they began to mature throughout the years. 

"Do you think we'll find Emma?" Sherry held onto the fabric of my pants as I tried to tighten the ribbon on Jemima's hair. 

"Of course we will! You know, Norman and Ray could flip the world over if necessary." I smiled and held her hands to comfort her. 

Those words were an assurance to ease my mind as well. It's been almost two years of fruitless expeditions and everyone's begun to grow wary. However, our determination to find her never faltered even once, I know you're out there Emma, so please hang in there for a bit more!

******

I glanced nervously at the sign going off below the compartment, just below my head. I take in deep breaths to calm my erratically beating heart. The intercom went off signifying that we're going to take off in a while. My hand shuddered and clutched the seat belt lock tighter, I can feel my stomach lurching in anxiety. No matter how many times I've been on one, I can never get used to air flights. It's alright, it's going to be alright, the captain and the pilots are experienced enough to handle an aircraft, it'll be just like the usual. I gulped once I heard the engine whirring so loudly behind me. My eyes were busy darting back and forth from the window to the movement of the plane slowly making its way to the runway, and I failed to realize a hand reached out to my own quaking ones. My eyes immediately shot up to the person next to me, his blue eyes kindly telling me that everything's going to be just fine. Normally, seating arrangements would involve us sitting amongst the little ones to keep them in check, but everyone deemed me a special case during our very first flight. I was very pale and teary the whole flight, refusing to make any noise nor movement. So, in our next ones, I was always given a seat with either Ray or Norman, one reason is to keep me calm throughout the flight, and the other to make sure I did not scare off the little kids with my baseless irrational fear. Which is an embarrassment! I was always a reliable older sister figure, and I wasn't necessarily scared of trivial things before I was introduced to this horrible human invention.