Chapter Text
Flying a plane was one of the worst activities one could subject oneself to. Ever.
At least in Aaron's opinion.
The seats are uncomfortable, you're stuck in them for hours without being able to stretch your legs properly.
To be fair, someone like Aaron at least had more space due to his size, but it was still not ideal. It was always so crowded and stuffy, not like you could open a window. And don't even get him started on the whole hurtling through the air at high speed, miles off the ground- thing.
Humans were made to stand on solid ground, not zooming around halfway up the stratosphere.
Sadly, Aaron and his twin were in the minority with that opinion, and humans had perfected the ability of flight as much as they could over the last century.
He just avoided it like the plague whenever he could. Back when he and Katelyn were still together, he had shot down every attempt of hers to take a flight to see her family. They had to take the train each time. It took way longer, but Katelyn had never complained, she knew how much he disliked getting on a plane.
So why was he here right now, on this beautiful summer evening, strapping into a long-haul flight over the Atlantic?
Well, because it just so happens that one of the very few people that Aaron likes enough to subject himself to this hell, had to fall in love with someone a whole ocean away.
So, not within train-travel distance.
And he had to admit that taking a ship for this trip might just be too time- and money-consuming.
Nicky had already flown to Germany a week ago when their summer break had started, to meet up with Erik early. And he had somehow managed to convince his cousins to join him there for Erik’s birthday. They hadn’t been to Germany yet, and now that their lives had slowly regained some amount of normalcy, they didn’t have any excuses.
So, they agreed to this family trip to Germany.
Which meant Neil was also coming, of course.
And Kevin.
For some reason, Kevin had begged them to join. Maybe he wanted to get out of Palmetto for a while. Summer break could be really boring, especially for him, with the two-week break they had to take from exy practice. And with everyone that Kevin usually hangs out with gone this time, he would probably go stir-crazy soon.
Added to that, Kevin seemed to really enjoy travelling, no matter where. At least from what Aaron could tell.
He had heard Kevin talk about his travels with Riko before, how despite everything, he loved to see new places and bring pictures back home with him.
Hell, he even bought himself a camera specifically for this trip. He wasn’t sure if Kevin had a driver’s licence, but he doubted it. Didn’t seem like a skill anyone at the nest would have thought useful for him to have. It meant he was bound to the campus, mostly relying on others to get anywhere else, back then and now. Aaron had to admit he had been feeling bad for him and played personal chauffeur pretty much ever since Andrew had allowed him to drive his car, provided he asked first.
So, of course, he couldn’t say no when Kevin had asked to take him into town to get a camera. He didn’t even comment on it being a bit excessive to get two memory cards, in case one wasn’t enough. He would have had to take it back by now anyway, since Kevin had barely put that thing down since they set foot outside of fox tower.
It was as if he had never travelled out of town before.
His camera roll must already be almost full, just with pictures of the airport. Aaron had to assume he would delete those once they got back, since South Carolina’s airports did not necessarily make for beautiful holiday memories to look back on.
Kevin had also photographed the outside of the plane, as well as the inside.
Again, something Aaron deemed as absolutely uninteresting. The outside he could at least kind of understand due to the beautiful evening sky in the background, but don’t all planes basically look the same inside?
He definitely also had multiple pictures of Aaron looking moody and unhappy on the plane, which he hoped would join the deleted photos at the end of all this.
He sighed loudly. Why did he have to get stuck with someone this overly excited to travel?
They had wanted to save as much money as possible, so they had gotten cheap middle-row seats for Neil and Andrew. But Kevin really wanted a window seat, to look outside, and it was decided that Aaron should sit with him.
He had complained why he couldn’t also sit in the middle row with them, since there were three seats there. The middle seat was already where he was forced to sit in the car, he wasn't all that happy to have to sit there on the plane too. Kevin looked a bit hurt after he said that, to the point where he was about to backtrack, but Neil had interrupted him.
“I will not take care of two anxious Minyards on this flight, one will be enough, thank you. Kevin will have to deal with you.”
Both the twins had shot Neil angry glares, who seemed unimpressed by their attempt to intimidate him, daring them to deny what he just said. Neither of them could, grumbling angrily. Aaron hadn’t liked that his brother had apparently told Neil about their shared fear of flying, but he supposed he would have found out anyway.
Other people could just take some pills to sleep through the flight, but Aaron really didn’t want to get near any type of pill if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Andrew had also not brought anything of that sort, he probably had his own reasons for that.
He crossed his arms and looked past the woman sitting on his right, who was separating him from the aisle and from Andrew and Neil. Andrew looked as unhappy as Aaron felt. They made eye contact and frowned at each other as if they knew they would die on here. The woman next to him was very clearly planning on sleeping through most of this flight, Aaron was genuinely impressed by her level of preparation.
She already had her neck pillow and blanket ready, eye mask on her head, and was currently getting out her headphones.
He sighed, this would be a long 11 hours.
Was there even a situation where 11 hours would be short?
Do it for Nicky.
He got ripped out of his thoughts when Kevin nudged him and pointed outside before whispering excitedly.
“They moved the stairs away, we’re starting soon.”
Aaron’s stomach cramped up, oh god.
He tried not to let it show on his face, but he was getting incredibly nervous. He crossed his arms and dug his fingers into the fabric of his shirt for comfort when the fasten seatbelt sign blinked on.
He glanced over at Andrew again, who was already staring at him, both pausing to hold intense eye contact with each other. It wasn’t their usual type of staring contest, where they were daring the other to back down first. This one was softer, full of worry and shared fear. It was rare for them to be on the same page like this, but Aaron had the feeling they perfectly understood the other's feelings right now.
Purely via eye contact, he tried to communicate to Andrew that despite everything, he was glad to have him as a brother. Just in case they really didn’t make it out of this flight alive.
He should tell him that with actual words if they ever made it back onto solid ground in one piece. Andrew seemed to be doing the same since he, for once, didn’t look as impassive as usual.
They nodded at each other, one final time, before Andrew turned towards Neil and gripped his arm, just as the motor of the plane started.
Aaron’s heart dropped into his stomach, and he pressed himself back into his seat, tensing.
He unfurled his arms and grabbed for the armrests, trying to hold on for dear life. Kevin was brimming with excitement next to him, taking another picture of the sunset, whispering something about how beautiful it was.
He turned to Aaron with a smile on his face and froze before he could talk when his eyes finally landed on the blond.
Aaron thought he had done a good job at hiding his fear so far, but by now the overwhelming urge to run off this plane was too strong to keep his cool. The plane slowly began moving as they stared at each other, Aaron with terror in his eyes and his back pressed to his seat, knuckles white from how hard he was gripping his armrest. He tried desperately to calm himself down.
We first have to get the plane into position.
We're not taking off yet.
It’s like driving in a bus right now.
Kevin didn’t say anything, just stared at him, and Aaron was too preoccupied with trying not to fully freak out to snap at him for it. He was breathing too fast, he would get dizzy soon. Sweat was starting to dampen his palms, and his fingers hurt from the way he was clawing at the plastic of the armrests. He remembered his mouth was still partially open and snapped it shut, which in turn seemed to snap Kevin out of it.
He hurriedly put his camera away before carefully putting a hand on Aaron’s arm.
“I thought Neil was over-exaggerating when he said…”
He trailed off mid-sentence to look past Aaron (and the woman). She seemed to be unaware of what was going on around her, earbuds in and tapping away at her phone. Beyond the aisle, Andrew had his eyes closed and head leaned back, Neil holding his hand and looking at Kevin with a look that definitely said: "Told you so."
They had some form of silent communication that Aaron couldn’t understand. Neil raised his eyebrows in a silent question that made Kevin huff and nod sharply, to which Neil gave him a thumbs up. Then Neil’s eyes landed on Aaron, and he gave him a short nod, and an almost concerned smile, that lacked their usual teasing or other kind of animosity. It startled Aaron, and he quickly shot back a lopsided smile, which hopefully conveyed he appreciated the concern, but he would be fine.
He closed his eyes, that hadn’t been a good sign.
Neil was being nice to him? They were going to crash, he knew it.
“Hey, you wanna hold my hand? That can help ground you when you’re scared.”
That was such an unexpected thing for Kevin to say, it made Aaron momentarily forget about how hard his heart was beating. He considered Kevin’s earnest expression and then his upturned hand on the armrest. From the way Kevin had said that, he could tell that Neil must have briefed him on what worked for Andrew. Aaron hated the thought of that, so he shook his head, he still had some amount of pride left in him.
When he tried to speak, his voice sounded weak, and his throat was dry. He licked his lips and cleared his throat before he tried again.
“Thanks, but I’m okay. Just a bit ner-“
The words got stuck in his throat when the plane slowly came to a stop, done lining itself up for take-off.
He held his breath for a short second, heart hammering away in his chest.
And then it started moving again, slowly gaining speed.
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.
He glanced over at Kevin, who was fixing him with a concerned frown, before giving in and snatching up his hand, still on the armrest. He closed his eyes and squeezed Kevin’s hand so hard, that he was worried it would hurt him.
At least it’s just his right hand, I’m probably not doing any real damage.
With his eyes squeezed shut so hard he was seeing stars, there was no way of knowing if they had already left the ground. Maybe he could use that to his advantage. If he never opened them, he could pretend they were driving on the runway the entire time. Just as he had thought that the plane rattled, shaking everything.
And Aaron knew they were not on the ground anymore.
He squeezed harder, feeling silly for freaking out like this, but his fear was bigger than his pride by now.
He cracked one eye open when Kevin's other hand slowly pried at his fingers. Did he change his mind? Was Aaron hurting him?
But he simply rearranged their fingers, so they were interlocked, and it wasn’t just Aaron squeezing all of Kevin’s as hard as he could. Then the plane jostled again, and his eyes were back to being shut.
“I think we're almost done climbing up, just a few more minutes.”
The sound of his own heart beating in his ears was almost enough to drown out Kevin’s voice. He hummed in affirmation, only half listening.
Seemed to be good enough for Kevin.
“Take-off and landing are usually worse than the rest of the flight, once we reach cruising altitude, it should be smoother.”
Not in the mood for plane facts, he was about to tell Kevin to shut up, but stopped himself at the last second. This was just Kevin's slightly misguided way to try and calm him down, it would be unfair for him to get annoyed over that.
Instead, he stayed quiet and sat there crushing Kevin's hand for what felt like hours. He had to admit, it was really nice to have someone to hold on to. Dammit, why did his twin have to be onto something with this? Kevin’s hands were almost concerningly warm, at least for someone with chronic cold fingers like himself, and he felt like they kept him from completely spiralling.
He was endlessly grateful to Kevin right now. If it had been Neil next to him, he wasn’t sure if he would have held his hand, even if he had offered. The humiliation might have been too much in this case, he would have rather had an anxiety attack. Even just the thought of Neil sitting between him and Andrew, holding both their hands while they were seconds away from fainting, was enough to make him shiver. Nope, no way in hell he would have done that.
After a while, the plane seemed to settle, flying smoothly. The seatbelt sign dinged again, signalling that they were done rising up. Aaron finally released a slow breath and tried to relax his muscles. His entire body had been tensed up for the past few minutes, and it took him a second to fully relax.
Everything was too bright, his eyes not used to the light, when he finally opened them again. With his free hand, he rubbed at his neck, feeling sore.
“You okay?”
He looked over at Kevin, who was using his free hand to film out the window with his phone. There was nothing but orange sky around them and a cover of clouds under them as far as he could see. He quickly pulled his gaze away to stare at his knees and massaged his neck some more.
“Yeah, I think I almost pulled a muscle with how cramped up I was.”
“Oh really? Does it hurt?”
Kevin went to move his right hand up to his neck when he noticed that Aaron was still gripping him tightly. Aaron also noticed only now and pulled his hand away quickly.
“Sorry! I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
Great, now the embarrassment was setting in.
Too preoccupied with trying to calm his heart down, he jumped when Kevin's fingers touched his neck, lightly pressing into his skin. How were his hands this warm?
“I’m completely fine, you’re the one who said he pulled a muscle. Where exactly?”
Aaron batted his hand away, feeling the blush rising up his neck and spreading over his cheeks.
“I said almost. I’m fine, everything’s okay.”
As if to prove him wrong, the plane suddenly shook lightly, in what could barely be called turbulence. It was still enough for Aaron to make an undignified squeak and grab Kevin’s arm.
He heard Andrew curse from across the aisle and flicked his gaze over to his twin.
To his dismay, Andrew had gripped Neil’s arm, looking like a mirror image of him and Kevin. He felt shame burning through him, but was stubborn enough not to let go. Not while this death trap was wobbling like this.
How was the woman next to him sleeping already? He would really like whatever she took right about now.
The plane thankfully calmed down again, and when he felt it was safe to let go, he opened his hand, leaving Kevin's hoodie crumpled and stretched out in the spot where he had gripped it. He tried to smooth it out by batting over it, to no avail.
“Shit, sorry about that.”
Kevin chuckled, and Aaron looked up at the sound. He had such a nice laugh, unfair.
“It's fine, I don’t care. As long as it helps you feel better.”
Aaron felt warm inside, could feel his blush still stubbornly heating up his skin and hoped Kevin wouldn’t comment on it. He felt sick, nauseous and worried, but beneath all that, there was something else, something much nicer. Kevin was being uncharacteristically caring and sweet, he normally would have complained about his clothes being stretched out.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kevin spoke again.
“What do you want to do? You wanna watch something for a bit? As a distraction.”
Not only was his voice softer than usual, but his face was so full of genuine concern that Aaron couldn’t bear to look at him any longer. He turned his head away, sighing and rubbing his face. It had only been about 15 minutes on this plane and he was already so done.
“Sure, let’s do that.”
He hadn’t flown much in his life, and this was by far the longest flight he had ever been on. At least it seemed to be going rather smoothly after the initial bumpiness. They only went through light turbulences now and then.
Still, each time he and Kevin immediately found each other’s hands and held tight, calming Aaron down as much as possible. He knew that logically, if something were to happen, it would happen regardless of whether he was holding hands with someone or not.
But feeling someone else’s warmth and pulse under his fingers made him feel less like he was in a disaster movie. He was just flying to visit his cousin, sitting next to Kevin, and they would be fine.
It was actually kind of nice.
He hated to admit it, but since the break-up, he had missed these kinds of touches. He wasn’t a very touchy person necessarily, but holding someone’s hand or leaning close to them was enjoyable for him. It made him feel safe and loved, as sappy as that sounded. He just didn’t have anyone to do that with.
Until right now, of course. It made him feel almost guilty, as if he had some ulterior motive, just because he was glad to have an excuse to be close to someone, even if that someone was Kevin.
Speaking of which, Kevin kept showering Aaron with his knowledge about planes every time they were holding onto each other. Specifically, about how turbulence wasn’t as dangerous as one might think. So now Aaron knew about the change in airflow that can be caused by pretty much anything, making a plane shake, and how modern airplanes cannot crash because of something like that. And although knowing that didn’t ease Aaron’s fear, he appreciated the gesture, nodding along to Kevin's drawn-out explanations. These tangents were normally reserved for exy or whatever he just learned in his history lectures, so at least it was something new.
They got some food, and even then, Kevin had told him about the scientific reason why airplane food usually tasted worse to people. Who would have thought that air pressure had that much of an impact on your taste buds? Aaron had to wonder if Kevin had always known about this stuff or if he had just learned all of that to play podcast for Aaron. That thought was quickly discarded, Kevin wouldn’t go that far out of his way just for Aaron.
Eleven hours is a long time, and since they were flying east, they would be cutting through the night quickly, skipping one morning in Germany. By the time they would arrive, it would be afternoon there, while it was still morning back home. It would fuck up their inner rhythm like crazy, so it was important that they try and get some sleep on the plane. Aaron had never been much of a travel-sleeper, often pulling all-nighters, but this time he had to admit that he couldn’t just stay awake for one entire night.
But that brought him to the next problem, the fucking middle seat he was in. He did bring a small pillow, but could not for the life of him find a comfortable enough position. At some point, he dared a glance at Kevin, to find him already staring. He didn’t say anything for a second, and just when Aaron was about to open his mouth, Kevin took his question from him.
“You can lean on me if you like. Here.”
He sank down in his seat and leaned slightly to the side, offering Aaron his shoulder. Aaron swallowed hard and looked from Kevin's shoulder to his face. This was really no big deal, so he didn’t get why this was making him so nervous.
“Yeah, thanks. Just- tell me if it gets too uncomfortable, okay?”
“Of course.”
Kevin didn’t complain a single time.
Sleeping was as hard as Aaron had feared. He did manage to nod off, but his anxiety refused to let him enter any deep sleep, waking him up every few minutes.
Still, better than nothing.
Each time he woke up, he lifted his head from where it was lying on Kevin’s shoulder, and looked around, making sure everything was fine. Did Andrew even attempt to sleep? It didn’t seem like it. Every time Aaron looked over to him, his twin was wide awake, talking with Neil or watching something. Not that Aaron was doing that much better, with his tiny snippets of sleep.
The landing was a whole different problem. Or rather, the same one the take-off had been.
As soon as the announcement came that they would be landing, Aaron’s heart rate picked back up. This time, Kevin held out his left hand instead of his right, his body turned towards Aaron. He questioned it for only a second before taking it.
Why did the landing have to involve so much shaking?
Worse was that he could see the ground coming closer through the window. Once Kevin noticed where he was looking, he leaned forward, covering the window.
“Don’t look outside, just look at me. The shaking is normal, everything is fine, we’re okay.”
He tried to nod, but he was tensing up again and wasn’t sure he could move at all. A concerned frown was adorning Kevin's features again, and Aaron tried to focus on something other than the swooping feeling in his stomach. That’s when he got stuck on Kevin's eyes. Fuck, had they always been this green? They looked gorgeous. A feeling he had to assume was jealousy coursed through him, making him unable to look anywhere else. He barely registered when Kevin lifted his right hand and placed it softly on the back of his neck, massaging it.
“You need to relax, you’re going to hurt yourself. You do not want a stiff neck for the entirety of our vacation.”
Aaron could only hum to show that he heard Kevin. He frankly did not give a single fuck about his neck pain, not when they were currently falling towards the earth, about to go up in flames.
He finally squeezed his eyes shut, trying to go over his notes from class as a distraction. It didn’t work, he couldn’t remember anything. Not able to form any coherent thought he instead tried to focus on the feeling of Kevin’s warm hands on his skin.
He stayed like that until Kevin softly shook him, before pulling back his right hand from Aaron’s neck.
“Hey, we’ve landed. We’re just driving now.”
He opened his eyes again and looked outside, seeing the tarmac going by. The plane was slowing down.
Oh my god, we made it.
An involuntary smile spread across his face, relief flooding his system, as he beamed up at Kevin, who looked equally as happy. As the plane came to a stop, Kevin gave the hand he was holding a squeeze before loosening his grip. Aaron untangled their fingers and started to stretch. They were still waiting to get up when he leaned over to Kevin, speaking in a hushed tone.
“Hey, um…maybe don’t tell the others what just happened. I don’t need Neil to know more than he already does.”
Neil obviously already knew about his fear of flying, Aaron wasn’t worried about him knowing about how scared he was. He was referring to the whole hand-holding situation, refusing to say that out loud. Neil had kind of given Kevin the idea, but that didn’t mean Kevin needed to go around telling everyone how much it helped. Thankfully, Kevin seemed to be taking the hint and nodded.
“Sure. What happens on the plane, stays on the plane.”
Aaron gave him a light shove at the innuendo, but chuckled, still too happy about being back on the ground to be seriously annoyed.
Once they exited the plane and Aaron was back standing on solid ground, he almost cried a little. Turns out all you need is one 11-hour-long near-death experience to appreciate the little things in life. Andrew similarly immediately found a free bench and dramatically fell onto it. Aaron joined him and they just lay there for about fifteen minutes, enjoying that they were motionless.
After Andrew and Aaron had had enough time to celebrate being alive, their small group could finally go and collect their luggage.
They weren’t done with their journey yet, there was about another hour of train ride from Frankfurt to Stuttgart in front of them.
Since Aaron was way less concerned about the train crashing than the plane, he was pretty much knocked out on Kevin’s shoulder the entire time, only waking up once they were almost there. As far as he could tell, Andrew had done the same thing, looking around groggily from where his head rested on his folded arms.
They finally reached Stuttgart after too many hours of travelling. They got off the train and immediately called Nicky to tell him where they were standing. This train station was an absolute nightmare to navigate, which was why it took a while for them to coordinate where to meet up.
Kevin wasn’t any help whatsoever, almost getting lost twice because he stopped to take pictures of the trains that were standing on the tracks or the pigeons that were everywhere or the roof or whatever else was so interesting for him.
Only thanks to his height was Aaron able to quickly spot him among the crowd of people bustling around and drag him back to their group.
It took them a second to finally find a spot where they could wait without being trampled, off to the side against a wall. Neil had bought them something to eat from a small bakery, all of them hungry and exhausted. It was already afternoon, and although they were inside, the Germans apparently didn’t think much of ACs, since everything was warm and stuffy.
Kevin looked rather unhappy by now, frown deepening by the second. He flinched every time another announcement came over the loudspeakers, echoing through the giant space that was this train station.
He got overwhelmed by stuff like this faster than the rest of them, so Aaron hoped they could get out of here soon, for Kevin’s sake.
He slid down to sit on the probably not very sanitary floor and nudged Kevin, signalling for him to sit down next to him. Kevin didn’t look convinced, eyeing the floor with disgust, before sighing and crouching down. He sighed again once he was next to Aaron, letting his head hang down before lifting it to frown at Aaron.
He looked miserable, gone was the excited man from earlier. His eyebrows were drawn together, mouth stuck in a scowl and his hair was sticking to his forehead, a few strands hanging into his eyes.
Kevin did run hot, so sitting around in an oven like this was worse for him than someone like Aaron, who had barely broken a sweat yet.
Without thinking he reached out and brushed the hairs out of Kevin’s eyes, pity audible in his voice as he spoke.
“You okay? It’s a bit hot here, isn’t it?”
Kevin gaped at him as if he didn’t know what to say. He blinked a few times before shaking his head and groaning, hiding his face in his arms.
“Hot and loud and there are too many people. Also, it smells weird.”
Aaron chuckled at the last complaint, Kevin looking up at him miserably.
“I think that last one is a problem all train stations have, no matter the country.”
Kevin gave him a soft mh as an answer, closing his eyes again. Aaron patted him on the back awkwardly, still not as good at consoling people as he would like to be.
“I’m sure Nicky and Erik will get here soon. Then we can get out of this place.”
Kevin looked up again, misery now replaced with worry. Aaron was confused by that, but stayed silent, waiting for Kevin to stop chewing on his lip and find the words to say what was worrying him.
“Um, Erik knows English, right?”
Odd question to ask, Kevin almost certainly knew Erik enough to know the answer to that.
“Uh, yeah. He does. Why?”
“Well, I was just wondering. Because you can all speak German, but I can’t. I was a bit- well, I was worried that I wouldn’t understand anything you talked about if you all just talked in German.”
Kevin looked as if he was expecting Aaron to laugh at him for his concern. Aaron just huffed.
As if our German would be good enough to not use any English for the entirety of our vacation. Has he heard this absolute monstrosity of a language?
“We're obviously going to mainly stick to English. And if we don’t, I’ll translate for you, don’t worry.”
Kevin seemed relieved by that. Aaron almost felt hurt by the fact that Kevin had worried about this. It would have been a pretty asshole thing of them to do, just completely exclude Kevin from every conversation they had.
Before Kevin could thank him, his eyes got stuck on something behind Aaron. He groaned and pointed to where he was looking.
“Ugh, we should have known there would be some bullshit like this.”
They all turned and instantly saw what he meant. You couldn’t miss it if you tried. Between all the people rushing around, he spotted his cousin. Nicky was already running towards them with open arms, scaring off a small flock of pigeons, garnering the attention of a few people around them.
Erik was trailing behind, grinning and holding up a handmade sign that read:
“Klose- Minyard -Josten- Day- family reunion.”
What a mouthful.
And embarrassing to boot, did everyone here really need to know all of their business? People were rather amused by both the sign and Nicky’s exaggerated flailing.
“Nicky, what the f-“
His cousin had bulldozed straight into him before crushing him in a bear hug. He should have expected this, of course, Aaron would be the first to get snatched up, as if Nicky would try and do this to Andrew. He tried to stumble backwards, his face now pressed into Nicky’s chest, but there was no escape. He could feel his feet leaving the ground as Nicky leaned back, lifting him a few centimetres and swinging him in a semi-circle. If his goal was to get Aaron to return the hug, he had succeeded. Aaron quickly wrapped his arms around Nicky so he wouldn’t fall in case Nicky’s arms gave out.
Once his feet had connected to the floor again, he thought it might be over, but only one of Nicky’s arms loosened around him. He still couldn’t see, only getting a face full of Nicky’s shirt, but he could hear him yell out happily.
“Come on, Kevin, you too!”
Right after that, someone was shoved into him from behind, squeezing the air out of him again. Okay, so he had also caught Kevin in this stupid hug that was making it progressively harder for Aaron to breathe. He was well and truly stuck now. He lifted his head to tell Nicky he needed oxygen when Nicky called out again.
“Neil, get in here!”
From where Aaron was sandwiched, he could just about see Neil behind Nicky’s arm, which was blocking most of his vision. Neil glanced at Andrew before shrugging and stepping closer, immediately being yanked in.
He didn’t seem to have a lot of experience with group hugs. His arms were half up, and he accidentally elbowed Aaron in the head.
Aaron shot him an annoyed glance and wanted to complain, but the only sound he managed to produce was a strangled and cut-off, “Neil-“, as Nicky tightened his grip again.
Neil looked from Aaron to Nicky, and all too calm for Aaron’s current predicament, he spoke.“Hey, this is great and all, Nicky, but I think you’re about to turn Andrew into an only child.”
Nicky finally released them, Aaron catching his breath while Kevin stood by him, rubbing his back.
His cousin apologized loudly, ruffling Aaron’s hair, before turning towards Andrew.
“Andrew! I’m so happy you’re here too.”
They stood there for a second before Andrew sighed and opened his arms. He glanced at Aaron before muttering, “Two seconds, and not too tight.”
Nicky squealed with delight and wrapped Andrew in the quickest and softest hug anyone had ever seen from Nicky.
Aaron wheezed. “I’d prefer a little less tight next time, too.”
His cousin apologized again after hearing his request and ruffled through his hair for the second time in the span of five minutes. That’s what you get for having a touch-averse twin, you get twice the amount of cuddles and pets from your cousin.
“I’m sorry, I was just so excited. I planned so many cool things for us to do here! Poor Erik had to endure my excited rambling for the entire last week.”
Right, Erik.
It had been so long since Aaron had seen him in person. And he hated to say it, but he looked even better than through the screen. He didn’t have that whole exy-superstar look going on that Kevin had, but he was still handsome.
Aaron could admit that.
He also already admitted to himself that he might have had a little crush on Erik previously, it’s fine, he’s just an overall cool guy.
He had first had that thought as a teenager when Erik visited them for the first time. He was a bit taller than Nicky, had green eyes and strawberry blonde hair, that was amix between light brown, dirty blonde and red, a truly beautiful colour.
And he just looked so… kind?
He couldn’t put a finger on it. Maybe it was because of his loyalty to Nicky. How their relationship prevailed, even such a long distance apart.
Mine and Katelyn’s didn’t even make it while we were close together.
They had been broken up for almost a year now, they separated on good terms, but it still pissed him off to be the only one in his family that was single. That’s why he had been somewhat pleased when Kevin wanted to come, now there was someone who was third wheeling with him.
He looked over at Kevin, who was standing to his right, and slightly behind him. He had noticed that before, that sometimes when they were in big groups or new places, Kevin would position himself behind Aaron, as if he was trying to hide away from everyone. Which of course would never work with their height difference, but if it made him feel safer then Aaron had no objections.
Erik waved at everyone with the hand that was not holding the sign.
Smart decision.
It could be hard to tell who had what boundaries when it came to hugging in this family, so a wave was the safest option.
“Hey, hope you had a good flight. Eleven hours is tough.”
Neil chuckled at that, and both twins shot him an annoyed glare. If he dared to say something right now…
“I hope you two could at least sleep a little bit, I know how scared you get on planes.”
Nicky, what the fuck?
Erik looked concerned before speaking.
“Oh, I didn’t know that. Are you two okay with going out to eat something later, or would you like to stay in the hotel? If you had such a stressful day, I can totally understand you might want to just relax.”
Both twins grumbled, flustered. Aaron knew he was blushing, he always envied how his brother had managed to somehow control the blood flow to his face. This would already be embarrassing as it was, but to be fussed over by the cool boyfriend of your older cousin was just extra humiliating.
Andrew grumbled a short, “I wasn’t fucking scared, planes are just stupid.”
He had to agree.
“Yeah, we're perfectly fine. We’re not kids anymore, Nicky!”
That had a bit too much bite in it, and he got embarrassed by how obvious his defensiveness was. He glanced over at his twin and when he saw the delighted look on Neil’s face as he looked between the brothers the horrifying realization hit him that Andrew might just think that Erik was really, really cool (and handsome) too.
Oh, fuck off.
Andrew seemed to have thought the same thing as he stared back at Aaron. Although his expression barely changed, he could see the message in his eyes.
“We will never, ever, speak of this. Ever.“
Gladly.
Aaron crossed his arms and desperately tried to change the topic.
“Also, a sign? Really? Don’t people usually do that at airports?”
Nicky shrugged. “I don’t care, I thought it was cute.”
For the first time in forever, Kevin spoke up again.
That’s another thing, he sometimes gets a little lost in conversations and stays silent for so long that you almost forget he’s there. By now, Aaron was so used to Kevin's voice suddenly piquing up behind him that he didn’t even flinch anymore when it happened.
“If you already had to cram all our names on there, why skip yours, you’re not married yet.”
It was so typical of Kevin to get hung up on such a technicality that Aaron had to bite down a chuckle. Nick huffed and threw an arm around Erik’s shoulders.
“But we will be married at some point. Also, Hemmick is way too long, that would have never fit on there, too.”
“The names already don’t fit now, look how squished Day is.”
Nicky pouted at Kevin, making Erik laugh. He interrupted his own laughing, looking like he just got an idea, and declared, “Well, who knows, if we want to be really efficient, maybe in a few years it’ll only be two names on there, that will fit nicely.”
Aaron blinked at him, confused. He didn’t get it.
The others also paused and seemed to be trying to figure out what he meant. Even Nicky lifted his head to look at Erik. Had he miscounted? They could only get down to three if they tried: Klose, Minyard, Day.
Erik looked worried now, before trying to explain himself.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to assume. I know not everyone wants to get married, and of course, everyone can decide for themselves which last name they choose. It was more meant hypothetically, like, if our only goal was to have the fewest names possible on the sign, we could get it down to only two. “
He was talking fast, his German accent slipping out more towards the end. He was nervous, knowing how careful you had to tread, especially with Andrew. But right now, no one was mad at him for anything, they were just confused. It seemed like Nicky himself didn’t know what Erik was on about.
Neil found his voice first, as he always did.
“Down to two names?”
From the look on his face, Erik was starting to get confused, too. He spoke slowly, clearly unsure.
“Well, yeah, Klose and Minyard.”
Oh, did he just forget about Kevin?
He was just about to tell Erik he somehow forgot an entire person when a big smile split across Neil's face.
He beamed at Erik as if he suddenly understood perfectly.
“Oh, so like: Erik and Nicky Klose, Andrew and Neil Minyard and…”
He gestured towards where Aaron and Kevin were standing. To Aaron’s horror, Erik nodded and picked back up where Neil had stopped.
“…Aaron and Kevin Minyard, yeah. Then we are down to only two last names.”
Another few seconds of silence passed while they all let that information settle.
Then both Neil and Nicky snorted, Nicky at least trying to play it off as a cough. Neil didn’t show that much decorum, laughing loud enough for people to turn around. Even Andrew looked amused.
Aaron was frozen in place.
He wanted to die.
For how long had Erik thought he and Kevin were a couple?
Why did he even think that?
How the fuck did this happen?
He made the mistake of looking at Kevin, the blush on his cheeks probably rivalling Aaron’s if the heat in his face was anything to go by. They jumped apart, suddenly aware of how close they had been standing.
He snapped his head over to Nicky, who was trying hard not to laugh, while slung around a confused Erik.
“Nicky! What the fuck have you been telling him?!”
Nicky smiled apologetically before looking at Erik.
“I didn’t say anything. They’re not a couple, Erik, why do you think that?”
Now Erik flushed too, while staring at Nicky in horror. Aaron hated how good he still looked.
“Oh god! I’m sorry! I don’t know, whenever you talked about everyone, you always grouped them together like that. Andrew and Neil as one unit, and Aaron and Kevin as another. And, when I saw them- ...I don’t know, I just thought…”
Aaron swallowed and looked at Kevin again.
When he saw us? What do we look like?
Aaron was burning with embarrassment, trying to sink into the ground. He managed to grind out a sentence between clenched teeth.
“Well, we’re not. So, it’ll have to be three names minimum.“
After another few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Nicky clapped in his hands. He was being overly cheery, clearly trying to counteract that train wreck of an interaction.
“Okayyy, well, now that we cleared that up, let’s go! Hotel first, and then we can grab a bite.”
The entire walk to the car was filled with Nicky’s idle chatter, but it did nothing to stop Aaron's mind from racing. He tried hard to ignore Kevin walking next to him, barely managing to not snap at him to fuck off. What was even harder to ignore was the looks Neil was giving him, all smug and amused.
Why the fuck was this stupid tunnel they were walking through so fucking long? Was this stupid, half-finished train station trying to prolong his suffering? He just wanted to get to the hotel and relax for a bit before he had to face everyone again.
He knew he shouldn’t let it get to him. It was just a misunderstanding, nothing more.
It still felt weird to think that Erik had thought that he and Kevin had been a couple for the past few months. He tried to recall every time that he had joined Nicky on his call and was pretty sure that Erik had never even hinted at it. The one thing he was suddenly certain of, however, was that Erik had asked him about Kevin last time. His face turned warmer at the memory of him recounting the history project Kevin was working on, all while Erik assumed he was his boyfriend.
Fuck, that just made everything so much more awkward.
They finally reached the car park and were surprised to find a giant family van waiting for them.
Right, there were six people, you need a bigger car for that.
While they piled into it, Erik explained that he got it from his aunt to drive them all around. Aaron was reminded of the fact that Erik had grown up so different from them, loved and cared for since childhood.
He had a giant family, and the thought that they had to meet them on his birthday still seemed like a daunting task.
On the way to the hotel, Nicky turned around in the passenger seat.
“Okay, we’ll come back in about an hour so you can get settled and ready. And then we’ll go to a restaurant picked out by yours truly. We’ll show you some good German cuisine”
Nicky began reading the menu on his phone out loud, and Aaron couldn’t help but notice that, at least so far, all of the foods had sausage or meat in them. He glanced sideways at Kevin, who just sat there nervously fidgeting with his hands.
He sighed internally. Kevin usually loved complaining about everything, never shutting up, in fact. Right now, he was being weirdly nervous and way too polite. Maybe he was trying not to make a bad impression on Erik, but completely overshooting his goal and just turning into a meek little wallflower.
So, Aaron decided to speak up.
“Sounds good. But is there anything without any meat in it?”
He saw Kevin looking over at him from his peripheral vision. Nicky also looked up from his phone and blinked a few times. Aaron gestured towards Kevin, his cousin, following the movement.
“Oh, right! I completely forgot about Kevin! Don’t worry, Aaron, Erik is a vegetarian too, so we picked a place with a good selection.”
Neil made a little noise that sounded like a choked laugh, and Aaron shot him an annoyed glare.
To be fair, he had walked right into that one.
He glared at Kevin next, hopefully making it clear that Kevin needed to speak up for himself from now on. Kevin at least looked apologetic.
They finally, finally reached the hotel, hastily unloading all of their stuff from the trunk.
By the time they entered the lobby, Erik was already talking with the receptionist. Nicky joined him, while the rest of them waited.
He was excited to eat at the restaurant, but to be honest, he was also excited to decompress for an hour, and he was fucking elated to fall into bed later.