On the roof the "fasten seat belt" light came back on.
The flight attendant picked up her microphone and announced something in English, hopefully that they were finally about to land.
And the sooner he got to deliver the case cupped protectively in his tense hands, the better.
After a few more minutes he felt the landing gear bounce off the runway then hit it again and start to roll. The plane slowed and drove to a boarding gate, and as soon as the attendants opened the hatch he was out of his seat and squeezing through all the people getting their luggage out of the overhead bins. He'd had a lot of practice dodging worse than them.
…but nobody had ever been worse than her.
While he walked away from the gate, flipping through his phone trying to find the address of his destination, he thought about renting a car or if he should just hail a ride. That way he could leave the engine running when he ran in, dropped off the package, and got away before she had a chance to come up with the energy to launch into her routine.
And then he saw her at the end of the waiting area.
Wearing a ball cap showing a colorful starscape, a white flu mask over her face, red sports jacket and grey plaid skirt above her bright blue high sneakers, neon pink backpack hanging off her shoulders.
Arms folded over her chest, tapping her foot against the floor.
Oh no, her.
How had she gotten past security if she wasn't boarding a flight?
Then again, how could anyone keep her out?
"Oy! Taiga! I was waiting forever for you to show up!" she snapped.
His usual scowl turned even sharper. "I didn't just come down the block!"
"I called you yesterday about my cold!" Nico snapped at him.
"And here I am today!" he snapped back, shoving the sealed bowl in his hands into hers.
Nico opened it and stared down at the brown broth for a minute in silence. "What's this?" she asked.
"Chicken soup."
"It's cold!"
"Tch! You need someone to put it in the microwave for you too?" Taiga asked.
Nico stamped her foot. "What kind of doctor are you, anyway?"
"One who's flying back home right now," Taiga said, and turned around and walked down the boarding ramp into the plane he'd just left, and took a seat near the back.
"Sir?" an extremely confused flight attendant said. "The plane just landed."
"I know. I'm waiting for it to fly away again."
The flight attendant looked up the aisle, totally caught by surprise. She took a deep breath and collected herself before she turned back to face the passenger, who was either crazy or the least amusing crank she'd ever met in this business. "Sir, are you sure this is your connecting flight?" she managed to ask.
"Tch! Anywhere's better than here," Taiga grunted, folding his arms over his chest and looking out the window.
As if the attendant's day couldn't get any worse, an angry girl in a flu mask came stomping down the aisle toward the strange man in the scarf. "Taiga! This isn't what we talked about! You said you'd let me show you around!"
"You didn't say you'd be so ungrateful for the medicine I brought, either."
Nico scoffed, then grabbed his scarf and dragged him out of the plane by the neck. He gasped and struggled with it as she pulled him way.
The flight attendant sat down in the seat behind Taiga's and sighed with no small relief.
