Work Text:
“Ah, Noah?”
Alejandro is used to his team’s… eccentricity by now. Tyler has managed to injure himself with nothing but his own headband, Owen has serenaded the plane with backwards alphabet burping at least three times, and Izzy is simply Izzy. So Noah’s random napping, often in odd places, shouldn’t be particularly strange to Alejandro.
It’s just that Noah doesn’t often use his shoulder as a pillow.
Across from them, in economy class (ew) is Owen (ew), who chuckles slightly. “I think he’s out cold, Al.”
Don’t call me that. “Well, what am I supposed to do?”
“Just let him sleep,” Owen shrugs. “I mean, you could wake him if you wanted, but then he’d get all grumpy. And when Noah is grumpy—”
“—Noah is mean,” Tyler whimpers. Alejandro remembers the flight to France, when Tyler’s shoe had flown across the cabin (a common occurrence) and smacked a snoring Noah directly in the nose. After slowly sitting up, Noah had proceeded to snap a few choice words at Tyler. He was probably just irritated at being woken up, but in his groggy state, he’d gotten a lot more brutal than usual. By the time he was lying back down, Owen was attempting to comfort a tearful Tyler, and Alejandro doing all he could to hold back his laughter.
Despite his appreciation of Noah’s wit, Alejandro doesn’t want to wake him. His teammate is uncomfortably good at reading him— Alejandro knows his manipulations with Leshawna didn’t go unnoticed. He’ll have to be more careful in the future. And avoid Noah’s sharp tongue directed at him. Who knows what the little weasel could reveal?
“I won’t wake him up,” Alejandro announces. As if responding to that, the sleeping Noah makes some kind of sighing noise and buries his head in the crook of Alejandro’s neck. “Um, is he always this…?”
“Cuddly?” Izzy supplies, dangling down from the overhead compartment.
“I was thinking more along the lines of ‘clingy’, but that works too.”
“Yeah, Noah’s like a koala bear or something. If there’s something to grab onto, he will!” Izzy drops down. “Once, at this sleepover we had with Eva, he grabbed her pillow in his sleep and wouldn’t let go and when Eva tried to get it back he ended up grabbing onto her instead! They spent the whole night like that. Eva could’ve gotten free, but she didn’t want to hurt Noah. ‘Cause she really doesn’t know her own strength.”
Alejandro just blinks. “Who’s Eva? Noah’s girlfriend?”
“No, silly! Eva is my girlfriend!”
“…I thought you were dating Owen?”
“I am! I’ve got a boyfriend and a girlfriend! I’m living the dream here.”
Alejandro just stares at her. He supposes she’s pretty enough, but… how? Does this Eva have as low standards as Owen?
Or maybe Izzy is the one with low standards. He really can’t tell.
Noah takes that moment to slide into Alejandro’s lap.
“Um,” Alejandro says. His cheeks are burning. Why are they burning?
Owen giggles. “I guess you make a good pillow, Al.”
“…Sure.”
Tyler tries to do a sit-up and ends up somersaulting across the cabin. Izzy looks at Alejandro before whispering something to Owen.
Alejandro, for his part, fixes his gaze out the window. He’s determined to ignore the boy sleeping on his lap. And he’s doing a pretty good job of it too. Until his hands wanders to Noah’s head, and all of a sudden, he’s stroking Noah’s hair. It’s soft. Unfairly soft. Alejandro huffs. Noah probably doesn’t even regularly condition it, like Alejandro, whose hair stays coarse no matter what. Not like Noah’s hair. It’s soft. Alejandro keeps stroking it.
“That’s nice,” Noah murmurs, before slipping back into unconsciousness.
Alejandro finds himself smiling down at him. For some strange reason.
“Yes, it is.”