Disclaimer: No. Just no.
A/N: Yes, I like plane trips, road trips, and various other similar activities... They bring out the best/worst/funniest side of people... And they're fun to write, dangit. Read and review or die a horrible, nasty death by cheese grater. Mwaha.
Umm... writing style has changed this chapter because of A) I feel like writing this way, B) this style produces a different tone, which is useful in this situation, and C) pick a reason, any reason. Oh, and it's also midnight on a Monday - that might have something to do with it. School night. Damn. 13 days left of school, guys! Yay!
...continued.
It is necessary for one to take into account, when one is about to torment someone else, that one may wind up tormented by the situatioin one puts oneself in for the sake of said tormenting.
There is always something that people overlook. Hilde, for instance, overlooked her own dislike of mornings when she plotted to bug Duo by getting an ungodly early flight to the colonies. She also forgot about Duo's uncanny (and rather frustrating) ability to sleep whenever he feels like it (you see, Duo rarely ever slept well - mostly due to nightmares or, as in the war, the necessity of staying alert - so he trained himself to get sleep whenever he could). Like now.
Hilde folded her arms angrily and glared out the window. They only just took off, and Duo, wearing sunglasses at 3:30 in the morning, was already asleep, uncomfortably snuggled in a surprisingly cozy position with one of those blue flannel blankets and white pillows that, when hit, spread little dust particles everywhere. Granted, sleeping people don't tend to mind as long as it's somewhat more comfortable than the seat divider, but that was beside the point. Hilde currently felt that the only point was the one on the pen she was going to use to draw on Duo while he slept.
She clicked the pen a few times, pressed it down on her hand to make sure it worked. For a while, she tried to sleep, wriggling in all sorts of contortions but eventually failing. With disgust, she watched Duo sink lower in the chair and further into his near impossible comfort. If he wasn't sore by the end of the trip, Hilde determined that she would murder him. Horribly. She leaned over him carefully and began to doodle softly on his arm.
Oftentimes, people wonder why other people cannot just mind their own business... But they don't realize that by wondering this, they aren't sticking to their own...
A woman across the isle from Hilde and Duo was watching, her nose slightly snubbed. One of her shoulders covered the window beside her, and her fellow passenger, a teenage girl, was forced to look elsewhere for amusement. There was nowhere else, so she, also, watched Hilde doodle on Duo's arm. But hers wasn't a look of contempt as the other woman's; hers was a look of subtle amusement, of pure, simple pleasure - not at someone else's expense but at the common linking factor between herself and someone else, the linking factor between the drawer and the drawee. The teenager turned and smiled wide at the stiff woman next to her. Some people nothing.
Hilde never before realized how acute her senses were towards such things. Things like the way expressions change according to the conversation. The dark look that passes over Duo's face when he's upset or annoyed, the light sparkle in his eye when he's excited, and the quiet, familiar expression he possessed while sleeping. The way that girl looked a moment ago or the woman - when they saw Hilde shamefully carrying out her evil whims.
Duo's arm reached lazily out and felt around slowly. It finally happened upon Hilde's arm, which froze when she realized he was awake. The arm searched around some more and found the pen, which it commandeered and stuck somewhere between the pillow and the chair. Then the hand came out again, felt around for a momement, and lifted up the arm rest dividing the seats. A small stretch, and Duo returned to his unbelievable position and went back to sleep.
Hilde let out a frustrated sigh and propped her arm on his side. "That's not fair," she muttered to herself. She heard a snort from the girl across the isle. The girl put her hand to her mouth and coughed lightly into it a few times before she raised both eyebrows curiously at her stuck-up neighbor and buried herself in a book she obviously wasn't interested in. Hilde yawned and leaned back, half against her chair and half against Duo. Now, she was comfortable.
Hilde eventually woke up. Duo was drawing on her this time. His drawing was on the part of her arm that she couldn't see no matter what - unless she twisted her arm and neck backwards to see it. However, she was so incredibly sore that all she wanted to do was fall over or go back to sleep.
"How do you sleep like that?" She groaned at Duo as she hobbled off the shuttle and into the rather busy colony airport behind him.
He laughed. "Practice. You thought you had me on somethin', didn't you, toots?" He shook his head with that funny sparkle in his eyes. "Gotta know your enemy, babe. I am a certified prankster with wierd sleeping patterns. You messed with the wrong guy."
"I know," she muttered.
"C'mon," he stopped and turned toward her. "Baggage claim - thataway. Coffee - thataway and a left. Gift shop - thataway and the next left. Or right. Or the right after that. What're we waiting for? I'm hungry."
Glaring half heartedly at his back, Hilde followed close behind. She learned something today. Even though a certain position is physically possible, it is not necessarily phsyically reasonable. She was vaguely reminded of politics with this thought. What a day. How can a person sleep without getting sleep? This, this was a question to ponder. And she did. All the way to her old house. And into her old bed. She heard Duo laughing as she fell asleep.
A/N: Yea - I repeat: midnight on a school night. I'm tired. I'm done. Review, please, and suggest whatever it is that you want (or don't want) next. Or die by cheese grater.