"Morning boys," Imogen yawned, placing the coffees down in the flight deck. "What's the word game for today?"
Douglas took a long drink from the coffee before replying. "Nicknames the same length or longer than the original name. Got any, Rebecca?"
Imogen giggled. "How about Rebecca," she offered, raising an eyebrow.
"Touche. Any others?"
"Jack for John, Charlie for Charles. How long have you been playing?"
Martin smiled wanly. "What feels like hours. Have any ideas for others we could play?" He implored her, grinning behind his mug.
"Nicknames that bear no resemblance to the actual name. Rebecca for Imogen, Peggy and Daisy for Margaret, Jack for John, Sadie for Sarah and so on." She picked up the empty mugs from the hot drinks run she had made an hour or two ago and flashed a triumphant grin at Martin, he returned it, enjoying this small victory over Douglas.
"You've been thinking those up for ages," Douglas grumbled, draining his coffee and handing her back the mug.
"Have not," she argued good naturedly, accepting the mug. "Anyway, when do you want catering?"
Martin and Douglas shrugged simultaneously.
"Maybe in an hour or so?" Guessed Martin.
"Let me know over the intercom then. I'll head back and keep Arthur occupied."
"Hello again Arthur," she murmured, settling down beside him and adjusting his blanket for him. He stirred and threw her a sleepy grin.
"Hello," he responded, yawning. "Where did you go?"
"Coffee run. I didn't want to wake you. How was your nap?" She straightened out his ruffled hair with deft fingers, smiling fondly.
"It was good. I had a strange dream. It was good strange though, not bad strange."
Imogen chuckled and pulled the excess blanket towards her. Arthur moved to give her more of it and tucked it round her shoulders.
"Do you want to go to sleep now Imogen? I can do the breakfasts for Skip and Douglas if you like!" In an instant, he was awake and chirpy as ever.
Imogen shook her head. "Wake me up when they want it and I'll do it for them, Arthur. I only want a cat nap."
"Then can we play charades?"
Sighing lightly, Imogen nodded. It was quite funny and she loved to see Arthur so happy and carefree.
"Course we can. Now shh, let me sleep for a bit."
She could have sworn she felt a kiss brush her forehead as she drifted off.
Arthur wandered into the flight deck after Imogen fell asleep, wanting to ask Douglas some advice. After all, it wasn't something he was used to.
"Morning Arthur. I see you've woken up then."
"Morning Skip, morning Douglas! Imogen is sleeping now. I gave her my blanket and I wanted to ask Douglas some advice about her."
Douglas turned to look at the steward, an eyebrow raised questioningly. "Go on then Arthur. Though I suspect I already know."
"Know what?" Martin was clueless, but then, he wasn't quite as astute as Douglas was. Douglas missed nothing, keen for information that he might need to use in the future.
"Well, I was wondering, how do you ask people out on dates? Every girl I've ever been out with has asked me so I don't know how to do it and I can't ask mum because she'll only tell me not to scare her off," Arthur garbled, keeping an eye on the flight deck door, lest Imogen wake and wander in. He didn't want his moment to be ruined.
Douglas chuckled. He had been expecting the question for some time now, since before Florida. He knew the two flight attendants had feelings for each other, it was just a case of letting the other know of it.
"Well, Arthur, I would just ask her outright. Say something like, 'We've been spending a lot of time together and I've gotten really close to you and I'd like very much if we could go out together somewhere when we get home. Or somewhere that we fly to.' She'll like that."
"Thanks Douglas!" Arthur beamed, instantly cheery once again, bouncing out of the flight deck.
"How did you know?" Martin asked, incredulous.
"Well, when you've romanced as many women as I have, you tend to pick up on it."
Arthur made his way back to Imogen, settling himself beside her and watching her sleep.
When Imogen woke, there was a hot chocolate beside her, with mini marshmallows and whipped cream. She grinned, knowing Arthur had pulled out all the stops for this. He had probably gone to all the trouble of buying them in, knowing that hoc cocoa was her all-time favourite hot drink. Yawning, she stretched and shrugged off the blanket, standing and deciding to go look for Arthur. The cramps in her legs eased themselves out as she made her way to the galley, where Arthur was trying to heat the catering.
"I thought you were going to wake me?" She asked, smiling a little.
"You looked so peaceful Imogen! Plus Mum wrote down the instructions for me this time, so I thought I'd be able to do it myself."
Imogen nodded. "I'll go check if they want coffee and tea."
Arthur shook his head. "I'll do it. You can finish the catering if you like."
Imogen raised an eyebrow but said nothing, fishing the food from the microwave with the oven gloves Arthur had just passed her before he had disappeared into the flight deck to take hot drinks orders. Imogen wasn't sure what Arthur was up to, but there was definitely something. Sighing lightly, she placed the next meal in the microwave and set the timer, waiting for Arthur.
"Skip wants tea this time but Douglas wants more coffee." He said brightly as he left the flight deck.
"I'm surprised it still works on him at the rate he drinks it," she muttered to herself. In truth, she was slightly concerned about how much of it he was drinking. How on Earth did he sleep at night after all that caffeine?
"He says it doesn't any more, not as much. That's why he drinks so much of it. Imogen?"
"Yes Arthur?" She dodged around him to put the kettle on and clean the two mugs that Arthur had brought back with him.
"Well, you know how we've been spending loads of time together?"
"That's because we work together, Arthur," she joked, chuckling to herself.
"Oh. Anyway, I was thinking, I quite like you and I was wondering, would you like to go out to dinner sometime?"
Imogen's mouth formed a small 'o' of surprise. She had been hoping he would ask her but he hadn't expected him to actually do it.
"It's okay if you don't," he stammered, taking her silence as a rejection.
"No, no, Arthur, I really do! I'm just surprised, that's all. Did Douglas tell you what to say?"
Arthur nodded, his cheeks burning red.
Imogen grinned, pressing a light kiss to his cheek. "That's really sweet of you. Is that why you didn't want me to go into the flight deck? In case he gave it away?"
"Y-yes," he stuttered, still in shock that not only had she said yes, but she had kissed him too!
"I'm really glad you asked," Imogen admitted. "I was thinking of asking you myself but I didn't want to in case you didn't want to."
"I was the same!" Arthur chirped, grinning again.
Imogen beamed and turned away for a second, back to the kettle and the empty mugs, trying to work her features into something a little more nonchalant, thinking up a little trick to play on Douglas.
"Arthur, if it's okay with you, I'd like to play a little trick on Douglas."
"What is it?" He looked confused.
"I want to pretend that I said no to dinner with you for a minute. I definitely want to go with you, I just want to tease Douglas about it."
The confusion on Arthur's face grew. "I don't understand."
"Don't worry, just trust me."
Imogen masked her happiness carefully as she took the hot drinks into the flight deck, placing them down none too gently.
"Everything alright Rebecca?" Douglas had a funny expression on his face, he was obviously trying to conceal something and he wasn't doing a great job of it.
"Douglas, how could you give Arthur the wrong impression about me? He's just gone and completely humiliated himself, poor soul, and all because you told him to."
Douglas frowned, not entirely sure what he was meant to say. "You mean you don't like him that way?"
"Of course I don't! I'm just being friendly, like I am to you two."
"Oh." The First Officer had the grace to look abashed for a moment.
Imogen couldn't hold her composure any longer and laughed, her face splitting into a grin.
"I'm kidding, Douglas. Of course I said yes."
Martin let out a laugh, turning it into a cough when Douglas threw a murderous glare at him. "I'm going to get you back for this, Miss Topaz, just you watch."
"I look forward to it, Mr Richardson. Oh, and Marnie and Molly for Margaret, Nelly for Helen, Kit for Christopher and Chuck for Charles."
Still laughing, she practically skipped out of the flight deck, hearing Martin laugh again.
"What did you do?"
Imogen shrugged nonchalantly. "I just cut our First Officer down to size a little. Come on, let's go play charades, shall we?"
They played for half an hour, not knowing that something was about to go very badly wrong…