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As soon as he’d seen the tiny plane that would be their next ride across the border, a tightly coiled knot of anxiety had formed in the pit of Kai’s belly.
As much as they flew, Kai had more or less gotten used to air travel, and the lingering-but minimal-risks that came with them. He could relax, read, sleep…. But that was on those large planes that plowed steadily through the skies, each jolt and movement minimal in the large aircrafts. Those were the kind of planes they were usually in, especially for their long flights across the world.
Large, steady, powerful planes. Not this tiny metal death trap that would be flinging them precariously through the skies. He knew from experience how they rocked and swayed, buffeted about by wind, and he hated it!! He always felt as if they’d be knocked from the skies at any moment, doomed for a fiery demise.
But, so far as they waited for their boarding time, he’d more or less been able to muffle and ignore that fear. He’d grabbed a couple of beers which had of course helped him mellow out, chatted with his bandmates… But as the time drug on and their boarding time came closer, it became harder to brush off, and now his anxieties were becoming apparent.
“Fuck, Kai-Are you really that scared?” Ruki laughed as he eyed the drummer who was practically vibrating with nervous energy in his seat. “As many of these as we’ve been on…”
“I’m not scared, shut up,” he grunted, words without any bite to them. The vertically challenged singer just laughed, clearly unconvinced and gaze glimmering with bemusement as he watched him. Did he seriously think he was fooling anyone? The man was wired on the best of circumstances, so at times when he was quite clearly nervous, it became about ten times more obvious.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one with this opinion because Reita laughed as well, peeking over at Kai with a warm gaze and quirking a brow, smile hidden by the surgical mask strapped over his face. “Kai, you’re not fooling anyone. Just so you know.”
“If even REITA notices then it’s really obvious…”
“Oi- What is that supposed to mean?!”
Kai was grateful that the attention turned from him then as Reita and Ruki began to bicker lightly, about just how oblivious Reita was. It let him sink back into his own thoughts… Which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He swallowed hard, slumping down in his seat far enough to comfortably rest his head on the back of it, closing his eyes. He was way too sober to do this…
All too soon, the loudspeakers overhead crackled to life and began directing the passengers to load. Most of it was gibberish to him, but it still sent a little jolting pang of panic through his chest as he stood, fumbling to gather his bags along with the other people in the area, beginning to shuffle towards the door that to him seemed almost like a portal to his doom. Oh fuck, this was awful…. It had been a while since he’d felt quite THIS nervous, the fluttering of his heart and tightness in his throat making him feel a little breathless. This was it…. When they were locked into that plane, they’d be sealed into their fates-their lurching, treacherous fate. Who had even thought that dangling people thousands of kilometers in the air with nothing between them and the ground was a good idea?! Literally a death trap was all it was…
His thoughts kept whirling faster as they got closer, and he wasn’t really paying attention to the others until he felt a touch-a hand pressing to his back, and he just about jumped out of his skin as he was startled from his thoughts, wide eyes turning to meet Reita’s kind, quietly concerned gaze.
“Hey…. Just try to relax, okay? We’ll be alright, I’m sure.” His voice was quiet, and tone gentle in a way that made a bit of heat pool in Kai’s cheeks, touched by Reita’s concern despite his still raging anxieties.
Out of anyone, Reita was definitely the one who had the most chance of getting him to relax. Reita was probably the most laid back person Kai knew, always seeming level-headed and calm even when shit hit the fan. There was more than one occasion where Kai had been awfully grateful to have him around, his steady presence usually doing quite well to make Kai chill out a little bit as well. It was something he sorely needed, and Reita could do it better than anyone else.
Mainly because when all else failed and his calming presence alone wasn’t enough, he had other ways to make Kai relax that happened behind closed doors; their friends-with-benefits relationship was something he treasured as well, especially on long days on the road which turned into normally lonely nights in the hotel, until Reita stopped by. Sometimes, he liked to try and imagine how it would be if they were even more, if they tried to turn this into something a bit more than just fuck buddies… But he was too afraid to bring it up, too afraid to scare off Reita and lose what they did have. So for now, he was happy with what he had. Especially at times like this, because even though they were ‘only’ fuck buddies, Reita was still even more a great friend, one of his best friends, and he cared.
“Don’t jinx us, please,” Kai groaned, head hanging for a moment, and Reita simply laughed, patting his back before he moved forward to be let on, Kai following close behind him. Now of course time seemed to be zooming by much too fast and all too soon they had packed their bags into the overhead compartments and were settled in their seats, and Kai was thanking his lucky stars that it was Reita he was sitting next to. He was hoping some of his calm would leak into him.
Hoping, but it didn’t seem to be working, because now that they were actually in the plane he was just getting more and more nervous, and by the time they had taxied out onto the runway and then lifted off he was about two seconds away from a full blown heart attack.
As they got further and further from the ground Kai had his head braced against the back of the seat, eyes squeezed shut and jaw clenched, fingers curling around the seat cushion in a white-knuckled grip. At least this way he couldn’t see when they were turning, how the plane seemed to tilt so much he could swear they were about to flip over, but he certainly could feel it and it made his heart leap into his throat EVERY DAMN TIME. Seriously, these tiny planes were—
Once again, a touch made him jump, this time a light hand on his thigh. He opened his eyes and looked over at the culprit-Reita-and rose his brows slightly, tension evident though he tried to seem non-chalant. “Yeeeess?”
“You’re not relaxing,” Reita pointed out with a little frown, gesturing outside. “Everything is going fine, shouldn’t you be chilled out by now?”
“No, because we are still in the air and the pilot is still turning this thing like it’s a fucking-“ But then, his voice stuttered before he went silent, noticing how Reita’s hand suddenly crept up a bit higher on his thigh, getting dangerously close to certain sensitive places, knuckles just barely brushing the fabric over his crotch. What on earth was he….? They were on a plane! And a tiny one at that, with absolutely no privacy!!
He glanced over to the other side of the aisle quickly, relieved to see the single person across from them snoozing away, and the people behind engrossed in a book, before he hissed, “What are you doing?!”
But Reita didn’t respond. He just smiled coyly and stayed silent, his hands still wandering, massaging Kai’s upper thigh. That alone was enough to make heat begin to rise to Kai’s cheeks, but then he went and did it- Reita’s hand shifted, and suddenly his palm was pressed flat against the front of his pants over his zipper, putting pressure on the dick underneath. That made Kai suck in a hard breath, eyes going a bit wide. Was he seriously…. On the plane?!
But, despite his incredulity, Kai wasn’t stopping him. Nope, he just sat there and let him do what he pleased, his movements turning into a slight, barely there massage, hand rubbing over his bulge and slowly making it harder under the blond’s touch.
And now Kai was finding it really hard to stay quiet honestly, they were on a plane for God’s sake! Reita looked miraculously unphased, like he was just lost in thought rather than feeling up his bandmate in the middle of a flight, but when you WERE the bandmate being felt up it was a little harder to seem so natural. Especially now that Kai was fighting back the urge to groan. They could be caught at any moment, that would be so embarrassing…. (And also maybe really hot, and he should NOT be thinking like that. What if there was a fan on the plane to see this?! Bad Kai, it would NOT be hot to get caught!!)
This continued for what seemed like ages and mere moments all at once-Reita putting that steady pressure on his dick, sometimes letting his hand wander down along his inner thigh to give him a break only to return moments later, and Kai was squirming slightly in his seat, biting down almost painfully hard on his lip to try and keep quiet….
But then, Reita pulled his hand away completely, reaching forward to pick up a book instead, and Kai gaped at him, startled and quite frustrated by the loss of contact.
“What…. What are you-?!”
Reita glanced over at him and quirked a brow, eyes shining with bemusement, and no small amount of mischief. “What? Did you really think I was going to make you get off on the plane? I’m not that crazy. I was just trying to distract you…. It looks like it worked,” he chuckled, turning back to his book. “It’ll give you something to think about for the rest of the flight anyways.”
Kai’s jaw flapped rather comically then, trying to muster up some protests or SOMETHING and failing miserably, but then Reita suddenly leaned closer, close enough that Kai could feel his breath tickling over his neck in a way that gave him goosebumps.
“Maybe if you make it through this flight without having a heart attack, we can continue when we get to the hotel. Will that be good incentive to calm down? Gives you something to think about anyways….”
Kai found that for the rest of the flight, he did not have a problem keeping his mind off of the flight at all.