“I’m Alyssa by the way.” The lady in the aisle said as she got up to let Mikael back into his seat.

“Hm? Oh, did we not introduce ourselves? I’m Mike.” He grinned at her, stretching out his hand.

She took it, returning his wide smile.

“And this here grouch,” He looked at Joey and saw the movie was still playing, seemingly way ahead in the storyline than when he had left. “Joey.” He said, voice strained and upset as he sat back down next to him. “You couldn’t wait for a single minute?”

“You were gone nine minutes. You shower faster than that.”

“Oh. Now it’s my fault for the people on this flight taking their sweet time in the bathroom?”

“I bet you went to go check on the pilot. Asked if you could take over." Joey tsked. "He’s very controlling.” He told Alyssa as she sat back down.

She laughed and tried to catch Miakel's grin once more, but he was already giving it to Joey.

They fought through their tired eyes as they watched Pitch Perfect 2. 

At one point, Mikael could only focus on Joey’s head nodding from one side to another as he tried, and failed, to get comfortable with the hoodie Mikael had provided him.

Mikael felt tempted to chide Joey for not having bought that travel pillow from the store by their gate.

Joey had argued they were way overpriced, then he'd argued Mikael should buy them since he was the one who had forgotten Joey’s pillow in the car's trunk when he had pulled out their luggage earlier.

Mikael had quipped back that he didn’t need a travel pillow, he was a Marine after all- he could sleep anywhere, even standing up- but that Joey was free to buy one if he needed it. 

Joey had rolled his eyes and said he wasn’t going to buy one either.

And now, there he was, five hours into their ten-hour flight and his neck was visibly killing him.

Mikael looked at him as he struggled with the wall of the plane and the hoodie. Mikael's hoodie seemed to have taken personal offense to the wall, refusing to stay there long enough for Joey to comfortably rest his head on it. It kept falling between his seat and the window.

Mikael felt tempted to chide Joey, but, instead, he lifted the armrest that separated them and gently nudged Joey with his elbow.

Joey turned to look at him and Mikael gave his own right shoulder a slight shrug, speaking without words. 

Joey only took a second to think about it, then he was scooting, leaning, and resting his head on Mikael’s shoulder.

Mikael scooted and leaned a little himself, then rested his head gently on top of Joey’s.

They watched the rest of the movie in silence, in a comfortable lull, eyes heavy but kept open with the songs and energy coming from the screen.