Finally, Doomsday arrived. School had let out three days ago, it was only Monday morning now.
"Hurry up, Vira, or we'll miss the plane!" Liz urged.
I sighed and lugged my suitcase out of my room. We had only finished packing last night.
"The guys are already on their way and I haven't heard back from Karin yet" she literally booted me out the door.
She locked up quickly and checked her bags once more before ordering me to check mine and bulldozing me over to the elevator.
"Jeez, it can't be that exciting, can it?" I said, chewing on my cheek sourly.
"Oh, you'll warm up once you see Sasuke" Liz said dismissively as we entered the elevator.
I lashed back immediately, "Yeah right! He'll just be double the annoyance to me!".
Liz snickered to herself, happy with my frustrated expression. I sighed and decided that this argument wasn't going to be an easy one to win, even if I tried.
"Oh! Hey!" Liz waved as we spotted Karin waiting just outside the airport security.
"Hi!" Karin waved back happily.
"Why didn't you reply to those fifty calls I gave you this morning?" Liz questioned, pouting.
Karin bit her lip with an apologetic look on her face, "I'm so sorry but my parents took my phone into custody last night so I wouldn't bring it with me and lose it. They gave me my mom's phone instead" she held out a fat, red cellphone that could've been just as old as Karin's mom.
"Oh, that sucks" I patted her on the back, "But, whatever, we'll be having too much fun to use our phones anyways" I said warmly.
Liz smirked, "Well, well, well, looks like someone's finally ready to have some fun".
"Oh, shut up" I snapped at Liz, disgruntled.
Liz smiled despite my stubborn behaviour and her smile only widened when she saw Gaara and Sasuke making their way towards us.
"Hey! Hey!" she waved enthusiastically.
"Oh, hey! We thought you had already gone through without us" Gaara waved back.
"Hey Gaara, Sasuke" Karin greeted calmly.
I smiled, "Get here okay?".
Sasuke shrugged, "Just a bit of a hold up when we passed an accident. No biggie, but I swear, people nowadays complain about the smallest dent in their bumper or whatever" Sasuke said with exasperation, "It's like you girls and your nails" he laughed.
I let go of my suitcase to deliver a firm punch to his shoulder, "I dare you to say that again! Stereotypical jerk..." I muttered under my breath loud enough for Liz and Karin to hear.
They laughed and we picked up our luggage again to head into security. As we lined up to wait for a bin to drop our bags into, Sasuke, who was standing right behind me, decided that it was a good time to be the annoying creep he is.
"Happy to see me?" he whispered into my ear.
I rolled my eyes and without turning around to speak to him, I replied, "Absolutely ecstatic" I whispered back, voice coated thickly in sarcasm.
He chuckled, "Thought so".
We finally received a bin each and we all emptied out our pockets and placed our smaller bags in them. They rolled on slowly, heading towards the baggage screening machine.
I decided that two could play at this game, "Happy to see me?" I asked in return.
I spared a glance backwards to see interest spark up in Sasuke's eyes, "Absolutely ecstatic" he said, reusing my own line.
"Good" I said and I turned around to wrap my arms around his waist, hugging myself to him, "Then it won't be awkward when I do this, right?" I smiled up at him, a seductive smile playing on my lips.
I heard Liz snicker behind him and I had to try really, really hard to suppress my own laughter. Sasuke seemed startled by my proximity but was happy to let me do as I pleased. My hands slid lower from his waist and I bit my lip playfully. Sasuke's face turned a deep red.
"A-are you sure you're supposed to be doing this in the airport?" he asked quietly, leaning down so he was whispering only to me.
"Why not?" I said devilishly and my hands slid just a tad lower.
Bingo.
"Jeez, Vira, you're really worked up today" Sasuke said, pulling away in sheer embarrassment.
I finally let go of him, my mission accomplished, "I guess it'll all be worth it in the end, won't it?" I stuck my tongue out at him and winked.
He could figure those signs out for himself. I turned around and watched my bin pass through the security machine. The airport security holding the metal detector baton was a strict-looking woman, her brow looked as if it were permanently creased. She signaled for me to enter the walk-through metal detector. I obliged and walked through to let her waved the baton around my body before letting me pass. I grabbed my bag as it came out of the machine and showed the man who was verifying our passenger status, my passport and boarding pass. He handed my documents back to me after a quick scan and I turned back to watch the others pass after I had gathered all my stuff.
"Next please" the woman said impatiently, beckoning to Sasuke.
I caught his eye briefly and I used that chance to give him the most inviting smile yet. Boy, was I going to enjoy this vacation. As Sasuke walked through the metal detector portal, the machine began to beep furiously, as if screaming 'terrorist' to those who were within earshot.
"Sir, did you empty out your pockets?" the woman asked, clearly annoyed that this was going to make her job that much harder to do.
"Yeah" Sasuke answered, sincerely confused.
The woman sighed and asked Sasuke to step to the side as she ran the metal detecting baton up and down his body. The red light continued to flash angrily. She ran the baton down the backside of his body and stopped as loud beeping noises blared from the detection instrument as she passed it by his rear.
"It looks like you missed something, sir" she said, her voice stressed with all the strictness of a teacher.
"I did?" Sasuke looked over and was about to reach into his back pocket when the woman stopped him.
"Please remain still!" she barked the order.
Sasuke raised his hands in surrender, "Sure, sure".
I almost doubled over laughing, I could hardly keep the big smile off my face.
The woman reached into Sasuke's back pocket and dug around for whatever the item that might be causing the metal detectors to go off. Sasuke's face betrayed his discomfort like a mirror betraying a reflection. Finally, the woman pulled out a key which she held in her hand as if it were a piece of garbage. She glared at Sasuke and tapped her foot on the ground, awaiting an explanation.
"Uh...I guess I must've forgotten my house key in my back pocket" he shrugged, "Sorry for the trouble, ma'am" Sasuke apologized.
"Yeah, whatever" she waved him on after dropping the key in his hand.
Liz, who was behind Sasuke, had been evidently crying. She had no doubt gotten the best laugh out of this one. Presently, she was wiping a tear from her eye as she passed through the metal detectors without a problem. After Sasuke had his documents verified, he stopped beside me to wait for the others.
"Great trick. I have to say, it's the best that you've ever come up with so far" Sasuke praised, a smile on his face despite all he had just gone through.
"Glad you could appreciate my effort" I said with a laugh, "Now can I have my house key back?" I held my hand out to him.
He looked down at me, a mischievous smile upon his lips, "And, here's the catch" he picked up a strand of my hair and twirled it, "There's a price for everything. You're going to have to get it back for yourself" he let go of my hair to dangle the key in my face then hide it away before I could snatch it out of his hands.
I was about to retort but Liz came up at the moment, barreling into me, her laughter rang in my ears.
"That was the best!" she howled, tears again rimming her eyes.
To my surprise, even Karin and Gaara were laughing quietly to themselves as they joined us.
Now it was Sasuke's turn to be annoyed, "Come on, guys, me getting felt up by some security lady couldn't have been that funny" he said crossly.
Gaara had a hard time containing himself for once, "I-I'm so sorry, bud, but it was just priceless".
Karin giggled, "Especially when the rest of us watched out the plan went down" she turned slightly pink and looked down, though still chuckling.
I put on a proud smile, "That's right, Uchiha, learn your place when I'm around" I said haughtily, raising my chin.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and picked up his luggage, getting the rest of us to follow suit as we left to locate our gate.
"Boarding pass and passport, please?" the lady at the counter asked.
Liz handed her all of our documents. After a few minutes of hearing the lady's mouse continuous clicking sounds, she returned our papers and the five of us continued through the loading bridge.
"Couldn't be more delayed" Liz grumbled.
I shrugged, "Doesn't matter to me" I said nonchalantly but truthfully, I couldn't have been more happy.
"At this rate, we won't get there until four in the afternoon" Gaara said, checking his watch.
"What?!" Liz raged, "God damn the paranoid airplane security! There's no need to check the plane for repairs when nothing has happened to it!" she breathed heavily through her nose, frustrated that her plans were pushed back.
Okay, maybe 'frustrated' was a bit of an understatement. Fine, that last sentence was an understatement just because I said that it was a bit of an understatement.
Karin walked closer to me, preferring to stay away from Liz at a time like this, "Didn't think that a two hour delay would frustrate her that much" she whispered quietly to me.
I laughed, "And you haven't even seen her bad side yet" I winked at Karin.
She gave me a look that told me she didn't need to know anymore details.
"Boarding pass please" the female flight attendant asked politely.
She took each of our boarding passes separately and directed us to our seats. Sasuke handed her his boarding pass last and she seemed to linger just a bit.
"Your seat is just two rows down and two seats across. Just call for me if you experience any problems" she said to Sasuke while batting her eyelashes and flashing him a sweet smile.
I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing out loud at Sasuke. I led everyone to our seats which were conveniently all on one side of the plane. Liz and Gaara sat in the two seats in front of us while Karin, Sasuke and I occupied the three seats behind them. I immediately scooted for the window seat, my favourite spot. Sasuke slid in next to me and Karin beside him.
"That flight attendant was totally checking you out" Liz said to Sasuke while smirking at me.
"Yeah, I guess" Sasuke said awkwardly, scratching his head.
"That's an understatement" Karin agreed, her lips slightly pouted.
"What's the big deal?" I said carelessly, "It happens when your job is being stuck on a plane for god knows how long and the only other colleagues you have look just like you and are female" I said with a shrug.
Liz glared at me through slits, "That wasn't a very intelligent thing to say" she said.
"Then you tell me what is" I challenged.
"Obliged" Liz said raising her chin, she then cleared her throat to assume a falsetto voice, "Oh my god! Like, how dare that flight attendant chick totally, like, just check out my boyfriend! Like, what the hell! She's gonna, like, get a piece of this!" Liz squealed in a high pitched voice.
My jaw was already wide open, too stunned to make a sound.
"Oh, damn" Gaara winced, "I think you might've taken that a little too far" he said timidly to Liz.
Liz shrugged, "Hey, the truth's the truth, kid, deal with it".
Karin, Sasuke and Gaara looked between me and Liz, just waiting for one of us to pounce.
"Oh yeah?" I had finally found my voice, "I'll deal with it alright, you'll love it" I said with barely restrained maliciousness.
Liz shrugged and sat back down in her seat to talk with Gaara animatedly, most likely discussing what kinda hell I was about to unleash.
"Hey, you okay?" Sasuke asked, noticing my sour look.
"Gee, thanks for asking, I just barked at my best friend for making fun of me, did you miss that?" I said sarcastically.
"Relax, this is supposed to be a vacation" Sasuke said patting my head.
I swatted his hand away, "Vacation my butt, this is about as vacation-y as doing another set of exams" I said looking away and out the window.
First the stupid basketball duel and now this, what has gotten in between Liz and I nowadays? Could it be that she's more preoccupied with Gaara? No...if she were, she wouldn't be putting me on the edge like this. It was definitely something else...but what?
"Please buckle up your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen, your flight will commence shortly" a female voice over the P. A system declared.
I looked around for my seat belt but couldn't find the other end, "Damn it" I cursed.
"Looking for something?" the most annoying voice in the world asked.
I looked up to see Sasuke holding the other end of my seat belt, "Thanks for nothing. I can do things for myself" I said, snatching it from him.
He smiled, "Then let's see you get back that key. I'd like to see what kind of plans you'll come up with".
I shivered involuntarily, this wasn't the usual, go-with-the-flow Sasuke I bullied. This one felt like he knew what he was doing for once. It didn't seem like getting my key back was going to be an easy task.
"I hope you don't chicken out" he said with a freakishly calm smile.
"Y-you wish!" I retorted, cursing myself for the stutter.
He seemed satisfied by it though. I realized with a jolt that I felt threatened, I understood that I was no longer fighting on my own territory, I was no longer in charge...he was. Boy, was this vacation going to be crazy, or what?
Thud.
"Ouch!" I hissed as my temple collided painfully with the wall of the plane.
"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated and buckled in as we are going through some light turbulence currently" the P. A system announced.
I couldn't even take a proper nap to escape from all of this insanity. I saw through the crack between the seats in front of us that Liz had her head in Gaara's lap, snoozing comfortably. I pouted, I wish I had such a good pillow to sleep on.
"What the-" something had grabbed me around the shoulders and yanked me sideways.
"I think that I'm a lot more comfortable than the window" Sasuke said to me with a crooked smile.
I gave him a hateful glare but rested my head on his shoulder, "Just know that it's a great honour to be my pillow" I said snobbishly.
"I know" he said quietly, turning his head to speak into my ear, "And I hope to become much more...".
I pushed his face away with my hand, "Shut up, you sound like a hundred-year-old pervert".
He chuckled but didn't do much else to my relief. I felt another set of shivers crawl up my spine, I was afraid of what this new Sasuke was capable of, so very afraid. I was venturing onto enemy territory completely unarmed...what's the worst that could happen?