AN: Thanks for reading, as always! This chapter is kind of weird because a lot of things are going on both in the story and in my house, so I was kind of distracted. Apologies :) Hope you have a good holiday.
Thankfully, the plane arrived perfectly on time to the jet bridge, and there were no mechanical problems, so Hermione did not have to deal with a disgruntled Draco as they boarded the plane and took their first class seats. He tapped his foot against the blue carpet as they waited for a flight attendant to come around and take pre-flight drink orders.
"Ever flown before, Draco?"
"Of course." The tapping increased until the perky brunette waltzed down the aisle in her six-inch heels and chiffon scarf (and the rest of her uniform, of course). Draco mumbled, "I'll just have water" and Hermione ordered apple juice.
"You seem pretty nervous to order a glass of water, Malfoy. Sure you've flown before?"
He stared at her as she sipped her juice. "It was after my father disowned me, okay? We were in Venice for holiday, and right as I was about to grab his hand and apparate back home, he took a step away from me and said, 'Draco,you are not part of this family anymore. You have been disowned.' I haven't seen him since." He drank his water, not even wiping his hands on his pants afterwards even though the glass sweated like a pig. "I was so shooken up that I couldn't apparate, so I stayed there for a couple weeks, long enough to make a bit of money doing... Well, I made some money and got myself a plane ticket back to England. The plane hit a storm patch and the turbulence was so bad that we had to take a detour to Paris. I spent a whole day locked in that airport because they always thought it would be one hour until the plane left until it turned to two hours, turned to three. When we finally got home, well, back to England, I wanted a bit of a break from planes. I may have done this too soon."
Hermione reached across the arm rest to grab his hand, and much to her surprise, he did not retract it as they took off, only letting his grip grow tighter. She watched as the skyline flattened out and buildings turned to clouds, lamenting the fact that crepe vendors would be few and far between in Hawaii. A guide book in her seat pocket showed pictures of lush rain forests and rushing waterfalls that were mere minutes from the nearest country road. Hermione tried to show them to Malfoy, but he was already asleep.
The flight attendant came around to take meal orders, so Hermione shook Draco awake before looking at the menu. He ordered the chicken pilaf, but Hermione was still looking.
"Do you have any vegetarian options?" She asked.
"I didn't know you were a vegetarian," Malfoy commented.
She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't act so surprised."
"Not surprised, just interested." He held his hands up in surrender.
The flight attendant cleared her throat before replying, "No, I'm sorry we do not, but the meals are already pre-made, we just heat them up. So you don't have to worry about us killing any animals, they're already dead, so it shouldn't make a difference, right?"
Draco shook his head and tried to grab Hermione's hand to restrain her. "Even I know that's not going to make her happy.
Hermione pushed her hair back behind her ears and took a deep breath before launching into a run-on sentence rant. "This is all about supply and demand, if we ever want to eradicate the consumption of meat, we have to eradicate the demand for it, only then will the suppliers lose business entirely, and only then will the animals be safe, so you can take your pre-cooked meat product and give it to some other ignorant chap who doesn't understand the terrible conditions that those animals are kept under, it's worse than house elves-oh!" Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth, but Draco pulled them down.
"She hasn't had her meds today," he explained as the flight attendant clip-clopped away with a puzzled look on her face.
"I'm sorry, Draco," Hermione moaned. "I didn't mean to-"
"Yeah, you know that bit about house elves was really upsetting, you could've gotten us found out." He chuckled to himself and restedh is alabaster cheek on his alabaster hand, regarding her with jollity.
"No, no, I meant the rant-oh! Right." Realization hit her like the first cloud of a storm front. "Right, I get it, you don't care."
"Does it bother you that I eat meat?"
She smoothed down her hair and put her hands in her lap. "No, you're not ignorant like that girl. At least you know that what you're doing is wrong."
He rolled his eyes in a barrel roll but nodded, knowing that she was joking with him good-naturedly.
The half-frightened flight attendant trotted back to their seats with Draco's chicken and a faked smile for Hermione while another swung by to take drink orders again. Even after they had ordered repeats from before, she lingered, resting her elbows on Hermione's aisle seat arm rest to look at Draco across the way.
"Do I know you?" She drawled, dragging a finger along the underside of her lip.
"Um, I don't know. I don't know you."
"Wait, I know! Did you live in Venice ever?"
"Um, I vacationed there once." Draco pulled at the collar of his shirt and took a sip of water, looking straight ahead as if that might make her go away.
"Did you ever work as an escort...? If you know what I mean..."
"Oh, Merlin," he muttered under his breath before replying, "No, I don't know what your talking about."
She sighed and walked away; Hermione turned on him. "Escort?" She mumbled, "Is that how you made money in Venice?"
He stared at her with fire. "Please do not talk about it."
So she did not, not even when the plane landed with a fair bit of jostling and not even when they had to leave their cushioned seats and not even when they disembarked and felt the Hawaiian air on the jet bridge and not even as they emerged from the windowless corridor to the Maui airport with huge windows that showed hints of green around the edges of the runways and not even when they found Mr. Zabini's limo driver.
The scenery passed by like scenes for an unoriginal fruit commercial, but it seemed to capture Hermione's attention more than Draco ever could as she watched it pass by.