Fallon had just climbed into her car and buckled her seatbelt when her phone buzzed next to her in the cup holder. She sighed loudly as she reached for it - she was already almost running late and didn't need any more distractions - cringing when she realized that it was Kirby.
Expecting the worst, she was pleasantly surprised when she read the messages on the screen.
[7:05AM] Kirby Anders: uh idk where this car is going but it isn't LAX
[7:05AM] Kirby Anders: if i'm late it's bc of an attempted kidnapping
[7:05AM] Kirby Anders: water my cactus for me when i'm dead
Fallon smirked to herself and started her engine, letting her phone sync up to the Bluetooth in the car as she made her way out of her parking garage. With one eye on the road and one eye on the center screen, she scrolled to Kirby's name and hit 'call', rolling her shoulders tiredly as the loud ringing suddenly filled the vehicle.
"Hey, Fallon-"
"You're not late," Fallon cut her off, already hearing the nervous energy in her voice. "Actually, I'm late. I'll meet you there soon. We're taking the jet."
There was silence for a moment, and then Kirby's voice again.
"Are you trying to seduce me?"
Fallon snorted, trying to regain her composure and keep the amused smile out of her voice before speaking again.
"Look, just… get settled when you get there, I'll be there soon."
She hung up before Kirby could say another word, reaching for the water in her cup holder and taking a sip to try to force the smirk off of her face.
As she pulled up to a red light, she reached for her purse and pushed it open on the passenger seat, fishing around and double-checking for her freshly refilled Xanax - and breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that she had remembered to bring it.
Flying was easily in her top three least favorite methods of travel. The private planes and jets made it a little more comfortable, though, and when they couldn't do that, it was at least a comfort on its own to be alone, so that no one else could see her in any state of unravel.
Today, though, she wouldn't be alone.
The nice thing was that Kirby would probably want to dip into the bar as soon as they were airborne, which would leave Fallon to drug herself up nicely and (hopefully) pass out for the entire four hour flight. Minimizing her audience down to just Kirby, who, despite her constant antagonizing, seemed at least still a little intimidated by her, was something she'd have to remember to pretend to thank Cristal for later; t had been her soon-to-be stepmother's suggestion that they take the jet. Blake hadn't been too excited about the idea, but Cristal insisted that it would be worth it - Fallon was pretty sure they were trying to bribe her into reconsidering coming to the wedding.
Kirby was there before she was, and Fallon could feel the excited energy radiating off of her despite her obvious outward attempt to be cool. As tiresome as Kirby's childish questions and naiveté could be, sometimes, it was a little refreshing for Fallon to see someone so genuinely excited about the things that she'd slowly begun to take for granted.
"This is a first, you beating me," Fallon greeted as she climbed inside, immediately dropping her purse and turning to make herself a drink.
"I could be early every time if it has perks like this," Kirby promised, leaning back in her own reclining seat comfortably and running her fingers over the leather armrests.
Fallon snorted, shaking her head to herself and pouring two glasses of scotch and handing one to Kirby as she sat down across from her.
The redhead took the glass and chuckled.
"I was just going to have coffee, but this works, too. I thought you didn't like to drink while you were working."
Fallon shrugged a little.
"This isn't work, not until we land." She propped her feet up on the closest ottoman and noticed Kirby's gaze slide from her heels up to her waist before darting back up to meet her own gaze. Caught.
"When do interviews start?" Kirby asked, clearing her throat and looking away.
"We'll pretty much get off the plane and head straight there. We can eat when we get back, have an early night, then leave for New York first thing tomorrow."
Kirby sipped her drink and tapped her nails against the glass thoughtfully.
"I've never been to Chicago. Kind of sad we can't stay any longer."
"It's not that great." Fallon had meant to make her feel better, but the redhead just laughed.
"You're too negative - it's too early, at least let me properly wake up first."
" I'm too negative?" Fallon opened her mouth to list off Kirby's attitude and behaviour from the last few days, but changed her mind, and sighed. "Fine. Chicago is amazing and you're missing out completely by just stopping over. In fact, this is probably going in the 'top ten worst things that have ever happened to you' book. Better?"
Kirby grinned at her.
"Much."
"We're about ready to go, ladies." Fallon glanced up at the stewardess and smiled tightly, remembering that the next part of the trip involved the actual flight.
"Ready when you are," Kirby supplied for her, smiling much more brightly before slamming the last of her drink back and setting the glass down into her cupholder.
Waiting until the redhead was properly distracted, Fallon took her first pill and closed her eyes to take a few deep breaths.
Kirby snapped her out of it, though.
"So how much money does owning the jet really save you?"
Fallon sighed, opening her eyes.
"Owning the jet is about convenience and comfort." Fallon glanced at Kirby, but she was busy staring out the window at the tarmac. "And it isn't my jet - it's technically my father's."
Fallon listened to the engines rumble to life and closed her eyes again.
"Well, this was awfully generous of him," Kirby insisted.
"It's a bribe." Fallon heard the words fall out of her mouth, but had gone too far to take them back now. It was like the floodgate had been opened. "He thinks - his fiancee thinks - that them doing this for me means I'll be indebted into doing something for them. Like, skipping the Hamptons festival to go to their wedding."
"It sounds like he really wants you there," Kirby tried, and Fallon could hear the careful sympathy in her voice.
"It's not that he wants me there, it's that he doesn't want me to be absent." Kirby looked confused, so she explained, "It looks bad for him if I don't show up. My brother isn't exactly his favourite person, either, but if he can make the effort after a year of public arguing, people will talk if I don't come."
"You have a brother?" Kirby's face lit up, but Fallon reached for her pills and took a second one as the cross-check was completed, trying to sink into her seat further.
"Yeah. But I'm going to try to sleep so if you could just…" she gestured dismissively, to which Kirby, most likely just out of surprise, turned her seat to face away from the brunette entirely.
When she was sure that the redhead was no longer paying any attention to her at all, Fallon pulled the nearest blanket onto herself and buried her body in it up to her chin. It was a short flight. Once she survived the liftoff, she'd have one or two more drinks, maybe another benzo, and then sleep through the flight.
If she survived the liftoff.
The sound of the engine outside roared in her ears and she desperately willed the anti-anxiety medication to kick in faster.
By the time they were tilting back and taking off from the ground, Fallon could feel Kirby staring a hole into her from her other seat, though, mercifully, she was quiet. She buried the lower half of her face into the blanket to try to muffle her breathing, squeezing her eyes shut at the first drop in her stomach and keeping them closed until she was sure they'd fully levelled out.
"You okay?"
Finally, Kirby spoke, her words punctuated by the sound of the seatbelt sign dinging 'off'.
The rush of relief that hit Fallon as soon as the plane stilled made her feel suddenly exhausted - that, or the medication had - and she barely lifted her head to look over at the other woman in response.
"I have gravol. If you feel sick."
Unable to properly form any kind of statement of relief, Fallon detangled one hand from the blanket and held it out expectantly, rolling her shoulders when Kirby scrambled to dig through her own bag.
Dropping a pill into Fallon's hand, she stood up and made her way back to the bar.
"If you're getting up, can I get a drink?" Fallon heard her own voice come out crackled, and gravelly, and instantly felt thirstier than she already had.
"I was just getting water." Kirby sounded like she was being accused of something, whirling around to look at the brunette almost impatiently.
Fallon quirked an eyebrow.
"Oh… kay. Well, can you still get me a drink?"
Kirby turned around and dipped down to the mini-fridge, fishing around for a moment and then snapping the cap off of a bottle of beer and holding it out for her.
Looking up at the other woman incredulously, Fallon took the cold bottle from her hands and maintained eye contact as she took a long swig. It was better than nothing, and watching Kirby's smug smirk turn into a look of mild surprise was worth it entirely.
"You planning to take that gravol with that, or just hope the carbs do the work for you?"
Fallon glanced at the pill in her other hand and quickly tossed it back before she could forget. At least it would put her to sleep soon enough.
"D'you ever just take this and go hide on some tropical island when you're tired of real life?" Kirby gestured around the plane as she got comfortable in her own seat again.
"No," Fallon sighed, already feeling the Xanax working away within her. Now that the movement around them was almost imperceptible, she let herself let go a little.
"Why not?" Kirby's voice had been so irritating a moment before, but now it sounded comfortably fuzzy. Everything about her felt warm.
"Because I don't have time in between babysitting you and everything else on my plate."
Kirby hummed thoughtfully, sucking her lip into her mouth and gnawing on it for a moment before lighting up again mischievously.
"Well, you could just take me with you, then. I've never been to Bora Bora."
"Yeah, being stranded on an island in a hut with you sounds like a perfect way to de-stress," Fallon huffed sarcastically.
"Those huts are big. The ones on the water?" Kirby kicked her feet up as if she were really settling in to properly plan their hypothetical trip. "I bet we could spend two weeks there and never even cross each other's paths. Just meet up again on the runway when it's time to head home."
Fallon drained the rest of the beer in her bottle surprisingly quickly, and set it down next to her seat.
"Would you pass me another drink?" she asked.
"Who works for who, here?" Kirby snorted, though she was already hoisting herself up in her seat.
"You're closer!" Fallon heard the whininess in her tone and tried to dial it back, but her inhibitions were muddled by drowsiness.
"You're going to be crossfaded by the time we land," Kirby told her, holding the beer out and then snatching it back out of her reach before she could take it, adding warningly: "If you pass out, I'm going to polish off the rest of the fridge while you're knocked and can't stop me."
Fallon snorted at the threat, reaching for the bottle again, but Kirby held it out of her reach.
"I'm serious. Don't be a hypocrite."
Glaring at the redhead more insistently, Fallon lowered her hand and opened her mouth to begin what she hoped would be an intimidating speech about staying in her own goddamn lane, when Kirby's warning look suddenly turned back into a smirk and she pressed the ice cold bottle to Fallon's exposed ankle.
Whatever speech was about to come from her was replaced with a yelp, causing the redhead to laugh as she scrambled to sit up and grabbed the bottle from her roughly.
"Jesus," Fallon groaned, taking a quick sip. "It's like flying with a toddler."
"Yeah, yeah," Kirby rolled her eyes and got back into her spot, shaking her head as she pulled out her headphones. "Lighten up, Fallon."
She wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep, but a sharp bounce of turbulence woke Fallon up with a start. Remembering where she was - and who she was with - she whipped her head around to see Kirby's reaction, assuming she must've startled the other woman too, only to find her fast asleep.
Fully sprawled out on the couch behind her seat, Kirby was tucked under another throw blanket surrounded by a couple of empty bottles - a few tipped over from the unsteady air, Fallon assumed. As the plane bobbed once more, Kirby scrunched her brow in concentration and tightened the blanket around herself, but didn't wake.
Giving herself a moment to calm her frantic heart rate, Fallon gripped both armrests of her seat and waited to make sure that the plane was done shaking before standing herself up and shakily making her way to the fridge to open it.
Empty.
Glancing back at Kirby, she cursed inwardly for a moment before spotting the bottle of beer hanging from her fingers by the neck. Still full.
Stepping past the mess of empties, Fallon double-checked that Kirby was still asleep before reaching down and pulling the bottle from her hand as carefully and gently as possible.
Just as she was about to make her escape back to her own seat, the redhead stirred, propping herself up on her elbows.
"I was drinking that."
"You were sleeping, and it was going to go flat."
"Fine." Kirby sat up properly and shoved her hair from her face, holding a hand out. "Give it back, then."
"No, it's mine now."
Kirby got up from the couch and steadied herself on her half-asleep legs by gripping the nearest chair back.
"No, give it."
She stepped closer to Fallon, one hand out, and the brunette felt a sudden excited spark fly up her spine. She could only compare it to the feeling of finally getting the attention of whatever boy she liked at the moment, managing to make them chase her in high school despite a mock-protest on her end. She felt herself smiling in spite of her earlier worry, twisting away protectively as the redhead drew closer and holding the bottle out of her reach.
Do you even want someone else's half-finished flat beer? The voice in her head asked her knowingly, but she squashed the thought and shook her head.
"Seriously, sit down. You've had enough, I've been more than fair."
Just as Kirby was about to cross the aisle to her, the plane jumped - Fallon felt it in her stomach more than in the actual plane itself - and Kirby quickly grabbed the chair again to steady herself.
"Wow," she sighed, standing upright as the moment passed before taking in the sight of Fallon, who was no longer loosely holding the bottle out to her side but instead gripping it in both hands, having sunk back into her blanket pile. "Hey, are you good?"
Not meeting her eye, Fallon reached for her pill bottle and took one more, checking the time on her phone as she did. They'd only been in the air for about two and a half hours - she still had almost half of the flight to go.
"I'm fine."
"Really? Because you've been popping whatever that is like candy, and I've never seen you drink three drinks in a sitting - let alone beer - not to even get started on how you're acting like a turtle."
Fallon glanced down at herself and slowly stretched her legs back onto the rest in front of her seat.
"Better?" she asked.
Kirby sunk down next to her instead of into her own seat, startling her.
"You don't have to be freaked out."
"I'm not freaked out. I was woken up by fucking… wind knocking the giant disease-suctioning metal tube we're in around in the sky. Give me a second."
Kirby's eyebrows almost vanished into her hairline, but she stayed crouched in her spot.
"Not a fan of flying, huh."
Fallon turned to her properly and sighed, taking a sip from the bottle and wincing at the flatness of it.
"No one is really a fan of flying."
Kirby shrugged and stood up.
"I don't have a big enough experience pool to draw from. This is only my second flight."
Fallon's eyes widened and followed the redhead back to her seat.
"Pardon me?"
Kirby blinked in confusion as she sat down, tilting her head and repeating slowly: "This is only my second flight?"
"How… what?"
Kirby shrugged.
"LA from Australia, and now Chicago from LA."
Fallon grinned, feeling a warmth spread over her as she took another sip from the bottle in her hands.
"I like how you say 'LA'. Ellay. "
Kirby watched her for a moment, a slow grin spreading across her face.
"You're high."
"Shut up."
Kirby twitched her eyebrows playfully.
"I'm not letting this go, you getting high out of your mind on a work trip. I might let it slide if you wanted to talk about how stressed out you are - but since you're so calm and collected and totally not a nervous flier, I guess you have no excuse and I'll have to rib you for your inappropriate behaviour forever."
Fallon sighed heavily.
"I'm just tired. I need sleep - in a real bed."
"Uh-huh." Kirby nodded with a very sarcastic 'sure, absolutely' sort of expression, then sat down across from Fallon instead of in her own seat. "What you need is distraction. You wanna watch a movie?"
Immediately, the panting, gasping audio from Splintered Men flooded her mind.
"No!" she replied, a little too loudly and a little too quickly. "I mean… no. I'm going to try to go back to sleep."
"Fine, I'll leave you to it." Kirby popped her headphones back in, and propped her feet up next to Fallon's seat.
It was too quiet for the first few minutes. Fallon stared boredly out the window, missing the conversation, not that she'd admit it out loud.
Her eyes grew heavy over the next ten minutes of calm sky, and before she knew it, she was being jolted awake by the wheels hitting the ground.
"Sorry-" Kirby tried to apologize, but her voice sounded muffled from the ringing in Fallon's ears. "I thought the anticipation might be worse than just getting it over with. And you were sleeping hard."
Waving a hand dismissively, Fallon sat upright and tried to reorient herself. She'd made it; that was the important part.
"Forget it, I - let's just go to the hotel." She heard her words come out a little slurred and winced inwardly.
"Jesus, how many of those pills did you take? Could I have killed you with that gravol? Did I just escape a manslaughter charge? Quick, how many fingers am I holding up?"
"Kirby." Fallon's tone immediately brought the other woman's teasing to a halt, and she glared at the middle ground as she hoisted herself out of her seat to stretch her legs. "Give it a rest. This is day one, I don't think you guys pay me enough to put up with many more days of this kind of torture."
Surprisingly, the other woman softened, grabbing Fallon's bag for her when she went to reach for it.
"Sorry. I'm excited."
Holding out the purse, she half-smiled hopefully, and Fallon recognized it as an olive branch, sighing quietly as she hiked her bag up onto her shoulder.
"It's fine. Let's just go."
With that, she marched them both out of the cabin and towards the exit.