Mikael woke with a start as the plane jostled.

He looked down, Joey was fast asleep, head still resting on his shoulder. 

Joey’s arms had wrapped around Mikael’s right arm, bringing it to his lap, hugging it like a pillow.

Mikael looked at his left shoulder. Another brunette head rested there.

What did she say her name was? Alyssa?

Mikael gently shook his left shoulder until she woke up, groggy, looking up at him with confused- and slightly hopeful- eyes until she realized.

“I’m so sorry.” She said, quickly pulling her head off him.

He gave her a tired, tight-lipped, smile in response.

Then he shifted, as best he could without disturbing Joey, so that he was better facing his partner. Joey fell a little deeper into him, head slipping from his shoulder to his chest.

Now, most of Mikael’s back was to Alyssa. His knees were pressed against Joey’s. 

Mikael watched Joey for a moment, wondering if he could risk more movement to reach the backpack at his feet. He wanted so desperately to pull out his camera and capture the moment.

Joey woke up snuggled in Mikael’s arms.

He realized he’d left a tiny pool of drool on Mikael’s shirt, on his chest.

He almost felt embarrassed but he figured it served Mikael right. Karma for forgetting his travel pillow.

Mikael was still snoring lightly, head resting heavy on top of his.

Joey looked out the window, as best he could without moving too much, to see if he could identify any landmarks. All the information he was able to gather was that the sun was out and that there was land visible. Which he figured meant they had to be close to landing.

He stretched out one of his arms, carefully extending it high above himself, bones popping in a therapeutic rhythm. Then he wrapped it around Mikael’s arm again and let himself fall back asleep.