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Haru hated flying.
Contrary to what his coworkers believed, his hatred did not stem from a fear of crashing or the plane being hijacked or anything like that. He was simply afraid of heights. And since airplanes just happened to be thousands of meters in the air at a time, he always made it a point to avoid flying.
Of course, his avoidance of planes (and anything else related to heights) did nothing but make him perfect joke material for his best friend.
Today, however, he did not have much of a choice. After all, he was meeting up with his vacationing family, and flying just so happened to be a requirement to reach their location.
"That sounds like fun," his boss had said while approving of his leave request. "If you want any recommendations, my friend says the mountain tram rides give spectacular views of the city."
Haru screamed internally at the idea of touring a city hundreds of feet above ground level. The pictures of Tokyo Skytree his friends sent him the next day did nothing but cement the feeling in his chest.
So here he was sitting in his plane seat, his eyes trained on the movie playing on the screen in front of him. Between the faint hum of the engine and the terrible quality of the headphones he was wearing, he couldn't quite exactly make out what was being said. But trying to guess what was going on proved to be a wonderful distraction from the fact that he was somewhere near the stratosphere.
"Hmm? What is it?"
Haru turned. There was a young man and a child sitting across the aisle to his right. The child was gently tugging on the blue-eyed man's sleeve. Father and son, Haru guessed.
"I want pudding."
Haru turned away to avoid being caught smiling.
"Ah...well, I'll get you some after we land, okay?"
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Haru quickly became bored with his movie, so he closed out of it and selected a mystery film. As it slowly loaded, he couldn't help but allow his eyes to wander. Two rows in front of him, a young couple was sharing a pair of earbuds and talking quietly. To his left, a man was furiously typing away on his laptop, obviously cramming in last minute additions to some project or proposal. Beside the man was a college-age girl. She seemed to be playing some game on her phone.
Haru's movie loaded just as he heard the child on his right speak again.
"How much longer until we land?"
The father hummed. "Well, they said we'd be arriving at around seven at night, so..." He looked down at his watch. "About four more hours."
"Four hours..." The green-haired child had a blank look in his eyes. Haru sympathized greatly. Realizing that he was going to spend four more hours in the air was not doing wonders for his acrophobia.
"Ahh...look!" The father tapped the movie screen a few times. "Here, Rui—you can see the plane's route and where we are. Isn't that cool?"
"Really?" Rui's eyes lit up. "Amazing…"
Haru couldn't help but chuckle softly to himself at the sight. What an adorable child, he thought.
Haru sighed when the ending credits finally rolled across his screen. He had been hoping for the mystery to be more, well, mind-boggling. Now, he felt as though he had wasted his time. That's what you get for figuring out who the culprit is twenty minutes in, he thought to himself as he took off his headphones and stretched his limbs. A quick check of the route map showed him that there were less than two hours until landing.
It doesn't feel like two hours have passed, he mused as he looked around. The couple two seats in front of him was still sharing the same pair of earbuds. The man and girl on his left were still focused on their devices. The only change in his surroundings was the father on his right, who had fallen asleep, and his son, Rui, who was becoming less and less entertained by his plush kitten by the second.
"Two more hours..." Rui sighed and set his kitten down in his lap. "There's nothing to do..." He looked over at his slumbering father, let out another sigh, and then looked around the plane. His gaze eventually fell on Haru, who smiled gently in greeting.
"Hello," Haru whispered with a wave. The boy blinked several times, then sheepishly waved back from behind his plush kitten.
"Hello," he squeaked softly. His eyes shifted towards his father, as if he was debating whether or not to wake him up. All of a sudden, Haru was compelled to distract the young child. He wasn't sure whether or not it was because he enjoyed the gentle moments he had witnessed between the father and son, or if it was the shadows threatening to underline the father's eyes. Regardless, he was determined to let the man sleep for as long as he could.
"Psst. Hey."
Rui looked at Haru. Without thinking, Haru immediately made a face. The boy stared at him for a minute. Haru made another face. This time, the boy began to smile. By the third goofy face, his shoulders were shaking with laughter.
Haru kept the charade up until the flight stewardess came down the aisle with the drinks cart. She looked at Rui and his father, then at Haru. "Hello sir. Would you like anything to drink?"
"Water please," Haru said.
"Alright." She nodded. "And your husband..?"
It took Haru an extra second to realize she had mistaken him and Rui's father as a couple. "Oh, uh, he's not—"
"Water," Rui interrupted. "I want some too, please."
The stewardess smiled at the child and handed Rui a cup. "Be careful not to spill it," she cautioned. "If your dad wants anything when he wakes up, he can just hit that button up there, okay?"
"Okay!"
The stewardess moved to the next row. Haru sat in slight dumbfoundment. I was just mistaken to be married to a man with a child. He set his cup down and took off his glasses so he could rub his face. First a plane and now this...I'm going to keep Hajime laughing for years at this rate.
Rui's father (his actual father) woke up an hour later to a plush kitten on his face. "I'm up, I'm up!" He lowered the toy and looked down at his son, who was smiling softly. "What's on your mind?" he asked.
"That nice man's silly faces." Rui gestured towards the aisle. "I'm sleepy..."
"Then go to sleep." The father stroked Rui's back until he fell asleep, then looked over at Haru, who smiled sheepishly in return. "Uh..."
"I was just entertaining him," Haru quickly explained. "You looked like you needed some rest."
"Is that so..." The man scratched the back of his head. "So...silly faces?"
"Like this." Haru made a face. The man examined his expression, then snickered.
"No wonder why little Rui didn't poke me at all as I slept," he chuckled. "Thank you very much for keeping him busy." He stretched his arms, then reached up for the flight attendant call button.
The same stewardess from earlier came down the aisle a few moments later. "Hello, sir. How may I help you?"
"Hi. May I have a water, please?"
"Of course!" She looked over at Haru. "Would your husband like something as well?"
"Husband..?" The man frowned.
Haru felt his ears get pink. "I'm fine, thank you."
"Okay. I'll be back in a moment."
"Husband?" The man repeated when the stewardess was gone.
"She misunderstood earlier," Haru hastily explained. "Since I was playing with your son..."
"Husband." Rui’s father hummed in thought. "Well, now that I think about it, I'm not really bothered by it. My apologies if you are, though."
"It's fine," Haru said.
The man smiled. "I'm Fuduki Kai. Thanks again for entertaining Rui while I slept. I really appreciate it."
"Yayoi Haru. And it's no problem. He reminds me of my sisters when they were young."
"Yeah, having Rui around reminds me of my siblings as well. Although his love for pudding is a new challenge for me." Kai chuckled.
"I see." Haru couldn't help but laugh as well.
The stewardess returned with Kai's water. She gave Haru a smile and a wink before departing.
"I'm sorry if I'm indirectly offending your wife, but I can't bring myself to correct her," Haru sighed.
"It's fine. There's no wife or partner to offend anyways." Kai shrugged.
Haru blinked. "So you're raising Rui on your own?"
Kai nodded. "Yeah. I kind of took him in after some things happened. It's a bit challenging, but having someone to take care of is a nice thing for me, so I'm not complaining."
"I see." Haru smiled softly. "Recently, I've noticed that when I see parents out with their children, I can't help but wonder if I should settle down and have kids of my own someday."
"Well, you seem young. You certainly have time to think about that. No need to rush."
"Yeah, I suppose that's true."
Their small talk continued until the plane landed and they were rolling towards the gate. Haru was amazed by how fast the last hour of the ride had gone and how little he remembered of the descent to the ground. Normally, he would be a shaking mess by the time the plane touched down. He couldn't help but wonder if conversing with Kai had helped relax his nerves.
"Rui, wake up." Kai gently shook Rui awake. "We're here."
Rui sat up. "Really..?" He looked out the window. "We are..."
The seatbelt sign went out on the monitor. Slowly, everybody unbuckled themselves, fetched their belongings from the overhead compartment, and then exited the plane. The checked baggage pickup area was crowded, but Haru somehow managed to stick by Kai and Rui the whole time and continue his conversation with the blue-eyed man as they collected their bags and exited the terminal.
"I have to catch a train," Haru sighed.
"And I have to call a taxi," Kai said.
"Well, it was nice meeting you." Haru smiled. "I wish you and Rui well on your travels."
"You too." Kai nodded. "Wait, here!" He handed Haru a business card. "If by any chance you need a handyman or just want to chat, feel free to give me a call."
Haru took the card. Printed across the front was a seashell and a hammer, along with Kai's name and number. "I will. Thank you."
"Alright." Kai nudged Rui. "Say goodbye, Rui."
Rui smiled softly and waved. "Goodbye, second dad."
Kai blinked in surprise. "Oi, Rui!"
"It's fine," Haru laughed. "Take care, Rui. Kai." Haru waved as the two walked down the street. When they were out of sight, he heaved a sigh and headed for the train station. His phone buzzed several times while he was standing on the platform, but he ignored it until he was situated on the train.
"Hi, Hajime. You have some excellent timing: I'm on the train now."
"I thought so. How was flying without my sleeping spell?" Hajime asked.
"Okay," Haru replied. "I survived."
"That's good."
"Thanks for worrying."
"Yes, yes." Haru could imagine Hajime rolling his eyes. "So, did anything interesting happen?"
Haru leaned back in his seat. "Well...I got married."
Hajime made a noise that sounded suspiciously like him choking on something. "What..?"
"Yeah. We adopted a little boy too. A very cute little family we are."
"Wait! What do you mean you—"
"I'm joking," Haru laughed.
"Oh." Hajime sighed in relief. "Don't do that, Haru."
"Sorry." Haru slowly turned the business card in his hand. "But yes, something interesting did happen." He ran his thumb over the seashell and smiled softly to himself. "Something interesting indeed."