When he arrived on time the next day for their flight to Dortmund, Douglas greeted him with that same wolf-like grin he had worn the day before.
As much as Martin loved flying, on this day he just wanted to turn around and leave. Hide in his attic-flat until the embarrassment didn't feel as suffocating anymore.
How did he always manage to get himself in situations like that? Well, actually this time it had been Arthurs fault. But still...
He had lain awake for hours, replaying the event over and over in his head. In the end his brain had been a mere mess of confusion, eventually falling asleep, producing most obscure dreams of rows of little aeroplanes doing the rumba.
Luckily today's flight wasn't very long, about two hours altogether. He could probably handle two hours of teasing. But then again it was Douglas...
Oh God, this would surely be hell!
And he should be proven correct.
It seemed like Douglas had spent the entire last evening thinking up all different kinds of Dance-movie-jokes he could knock off occasionally for the pure sake of annoying Martin.
When they did their walkround to check if GERTI still possessed all of her wings, he claimed that the captain seemed rather `footloose´.
This was followed by a whistled version of "Time of my life". And that was just the beginning.
When they got back on the plane, Arthur had arrived. He greeted them in his usual cheery manner, grinning especially bright at Martin, but the captain might have only imagined it.
He immediately stiffened when he saw the young steward, quickly looking away. His heart made a little skip. This flight was going to become a real challenge.
The only passengers were five german business-men, going home from an international meeting of some sort.
Martin was just happy that now all their concentration was needed for takeoff, but as soon as they had reached their altitude Douglas started a conversation again.
"You look quite tired today Martin, do you feel ill?"
A bit puzzled by such a question, he answered "I'm fine... thanks Douglas."
Maybe the flight wouldn't be as bad after all.
But when Douglas replied, he knew he had fallen into the trap again.
"Oh, but Martin you should take care, there is a nasty fever going round. Now, when I take a closer look at you, it seems to me like you're showing some symptoms. Tell me, have you ever heard about `Nightfever, nightfever´?",
he sung the last two words.
"Yeah, right. I should've expected that one.", said the captain wearily.
The rest of the flight went on like that, only interrupted by Arthur bringing them coffee, which resulted in another awkward situation.
Martin was just glad that he didn't spill his coffee on the instruments. Why the hell did he feel so nervous? After all, it was just good old Arthur.
He had always liked him - as a friend. Martin had never considered anything else, not with the cheery, a bit naive steward.
But the way he had felt yesterday while dancing with him...
Could it be that he was attracted to Arthur Shappey?
Douglas watched him from the side, grinning like a cat. Surely he would know. Douglas always knew what was going on. Splendid!
Surprisingly he didn't waste a word on the matter and just carried on with the dancing-jokes. Martin found this a little suspicious, but he was glad that he didn't have to talk about his emotional state to Douglas.
They had just begun a new game, one of Douglas' impromptu creations he had knocked up when he finally tired of teasing Martin, when Arthur came in again. "Hey chaps, what are you doing?"
"Running sentence with movies from A to Z.", Douglas answered. "So far we have `Alice in Wonderland, becoming Jane, captured...´ and now it's Martin's turn with a D"
The captain had been distracted by the stewards entrance and now frantically looked for an answer. "D...de...da...uhm..."
"Despicable me!"
That had been Arthur.
Both captain and first officer looked at him.
"Uh...", Martin began.
"It's a film-title. `Despicable me´.", Arthur replied smiling.
"Oh..." the captain turned even redder, he had been about to say that Arthur wasn't in the least bit despicable, but actually very nice.
"`Alice in Wonderland, becoming Jane, captured despicable me.´ A little odd, but it works, I suppose. I'm afraid this film escaped me though.", Douglas said dryly.
"It's an animation. I saw it at the cinema, it was brilliant!"
"Do tell. Say Martin, do you happen to have seen this seemingly brilliant piece of cinematic grandeur?", Douglas asked, an undertone in his voice that told Martin he was clearly up to something.
"No...", the ginger pilot answered, trying to figure out what Douglas was planning.
"Oh what a pity that both of us missed it, I'm sure it's terrific, if not marvelous.", Douglas voice was suspiciously non-sarcastic.
Arthur didn't seem to care - or notice, because he said "I have it on DVD, I could -"
He couldn't get any further because the first officer already cried out "Oh what a lucky coincidence! Don't you think so Martin?"
Now even Arthur looked a bit confused.
"Well...", Martin stuttered, but Douglas was already interrupting again. "Then maybe we could all watch the movie together, what do you guys think?"
Arthur seemed quite enthusiastic and readily agreed "Brilliant! You can come over to our house, mum won't mind, then I can make popcorn, and I found this new brand of crisps with barbecue flavour, it will be great!"
"Then it is agreed. We just need a day. Martin, is there a time this week when `Icarus Removals´ is not on duty?"
"Uhm... I guess saturday evening would be fine...", Martin was still on the lookout for the catch, there had to be one.
"Saturday's good", the steward agreed "Mum is going out with Herc, so we can sit in the living-room."
"Oh what a shame!", exclaimed the first officer "I promised my daughter to visit the zoo with her on saturday."
"We can find another -", Arthur tried, but was once more cut off brutally.
"But I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun without me. Just tell me the story of the film afterwards." he smiled smugly.
Then, as if he had timed it, the `ding´ , that signaled one of the passengers either had a complaint or wanted something, sounded.
"Oh, sorry chaps, gotta go. Skip, come over at eight, OK?", and with that the energetic steward was out of the door.
The flight deck was quiet again.
After several minutes Martin broke the silence "So... what was that about?"
"I got you a date.", the older first officer replied casually, as if it was a perfectly normal thing to say.
"You... what?"
"No need to thank me, just spare me the details afterwards.", Douglas said dryly.
"But how did you... what...I... it's...", Martin attempted, not even knowing what he wanted to say.
"Oh come on.", the first officer rolled his eyes "You two are no sphinxes, it's not that hard to guess your feelings. In fact I'm not even surprised."
The captain didn't know how to reply, so he just didn't say anything.
But after a while a thought crossed his mind. "Douglas?" his voice was so small it was nearly inaudible.
"Yes?"
"Don't you... mind?", Martins voice trembled a little.
"Mind what?"
"You know very well what I'm talking about."
"Why should I?", came the bold answer. "I'm just a little disappointed at myself that I just found out now. You might remember that I tend to know things."
"I guess I'm a good actor."
A snort from the first officer was the answer. "Well, if I think about it, I really thought you were intersted in Linda, the pilot we flew to newcastle..."
"Yes, I was."
Douglas raised an eyebrow "Oh, going for both, are we? All those opportunities and you're still single? Now that's amazing."
The captain made a face at him and blushed a bit. He wasn't very comfortable talking about his love-life to Douglas of all people.
"And you really don't care?", he still felt insecure.
"Martin, I've been married three times now. So you really can't claim I'm a stickler for traditional values. You and Arthur can do whatever the hell you want.
Just do me a favour and don't mess up this time! "
For a few minutes there was silence again, the only noise to be heard, that from the engine.
"Thanks."
The first officer nodded, pretending not to notice the tears in the captains' eyes.