Abroad

“Seat 130B, 130, 130, 130B…” Duo mumbled to himself as he walked through the aisles of the plane. ‘If this plane wasn't so massive I could find my damn seat,’ he thought. ‘This big and this many people, it’s amazing that it even makes it off the ground.’

“There you are,” he said to his empty seat when he reached row 130. Throwing his carryon up into the overhead, he caught someone out of the corner of his eye waiting for him to finish. Turning he recognized the short dark haired tomboyish girl from his field studies class. As they made eye contact, they flashed each other a grin and Duo motioned for her bag so he could put it in the overhead for her. “Hey, Hilde, right,” he asked as he put her bag up top.

“Yeah, and you're Duo,” she confirmed. Even though all the students had attended the same field studies class, they didn't know each other. All the students were at different levels and between the paper work, Sensei's speeches, and the rest of their college life, they didn't take the time to get to know each other. They would often recognize one of the faces from class when they were out on campus. The recognition only led to a head nod and a smile in the other person’s direction as acknowledgment.

The only people Duo knew from the field study class were his two friends Trowa and Quatre. The rest of the people he had tagged names to, but he couldn't recall if it was really their own name or a name he made up to go with the face. However, there was one guy Duo defiantly knew the name of. It was Milliardo. The guy was tall and built and had perfect long blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. He was every Japanese’s girl's American dream man and Duo despised him. If Quatre would have been there, he would have pointed out that 'despised' would have been too strong of a word, but never the less Duo didn't like him. He was aloof and snobby, and he acted like he had the Japanese language at his every beck and call. Duo’s dislike combined with Milliardo's pale skin and red lips generated Duo’s nick name for him: vampire. Other people had taken up calling him Legolas. Whatever the name, Duo was not looking forward to spending time with him in Japan.

Duo and Hilde slid into their seats. “Well,” Hilde turned to Duo making conversation, “it looks like it is going to be you and me suffering together on this thirteen hour flight.”

“You and me, fighting off stale cabin air and terrible airplane food! As a team, I think we can survive,” he said.

“And oh god, when we land we are going to be 14 hours off schedule! Ya know, my 'rents told me before I left that I am going to the perfect place for kids who want to escape their parents because they have no idea when they are ever going to be able to get a hold of me!” Hilde laughed as a shadow fell over the two occupants of row 130. Both of them looked up into the face of Milliardo. Milliardo nodded at both of them and put his things up into the overhead. ‘Oh GOD,’ Duo screamed in his head. ‘Out of all the goddamned people on this plane!’ Milliardo sat down in the aisle seat and gave a small ‘hey’ to his row partners. Duo looked around the cabin to see his friends. The row catty corner to Duo’s was Howard Sensei who had settled in to his seat after making sure his students were on the plane. Trowa was two rows ahead of Duo make quite conversation with his row mates. Quatre was two rows behind him laughing at someone’s jokes. It seemed like Duo was going to be suffering alone for the next thirteen hours. ‘And I'm stuck in the middle.'

****

This had to be hell. There was no way it couldn't be. Duo Maxwell was stuck in the middle seat with no way of getting comfortable, which completely ruled out sleeping. Ten minutes after the plane had taken off, Howard Sensei had been out like a light and hadn't shown signs of stirring for the past 8 hours, with exception, of course, for meals. Hilde had smiled at Duo, pulled out a lavender scented eye mask and curled up against the window. Milliardo was also asleep and his long legs blocked Duo’s only exit. Not having been able to sleep, Duo was getting antsy.

The in-flight movies were, if anything, unbearable. Duo wished they could have been a source of distraction for him, but he knew he couldn't suffer through watching one minute of the whining dramas. He had tried music, books and journal writing (a requirement for Sensei's class), and you better believe he tried with all his might for sleep, but in the end he was stuck in the middle of the small airplane row with nothing but his own thoughts.

Finally, after 8 hours of suffering, his source of salvation came in the form of Quatre's bladder. Returning from a trip to the bathroom, Quatre came over to check on his friend and through some acrobatic tricks, the two of them managed to extract Duo from his row without waking either of his row mates. They concluded that a walk around the cabin would work out their nervous energy.

“How was sitting with Milliardo,” Quatre asked when they were a safe distance from row 130.

“Oh god, the vampire? He hardly said two words to either of us and put on his headphones. I'm afraid to shut my eyes cause he might decide he needs a midnight snack and start chowin' on my neck.”

“At least you have Hilde to talk to, right?”

“Nah, she was out almost as fast as Howard Sensei was.” Their round of the cabin was nearing the end and both boys noticed one of the girls from their group who was sitting by herself, at the end of a row, absorbed in a book. Slowing down Duo called out to her in hushed tones, “Hey Sally, how’s it going?”

She had been absently pulling on one of her twisted blonde pigtails, but stopped and flipped it over her shoulder when she looked up looked up from her book. She smiled at the two boys. "Eh, not bad. Stretching out your legs," she asked.

"Yeah, just can't get comfortable in airplane seats."

"Know what you mean," she said while pointing to a horseshoe shaped pillow around her neck. "So you are both here for the six months, right?"

"Yes, we are," Quatre spoke up. "And your here for the year, aren't you?"

"I am. My mom came to Japan when she was in college and encouraged me to stay for a year."

"Oh wow, so d'you and your mom speak Japanese in the house together," Duo asked.

"Oh, well, no not really. Mom forgot a lot of it, but she did teach me some basic words when I was little. Helped me fly through that first quarter of Japanese," she said laughing.

"Lucky you," Duo said. The conversation started to lull. "Well I think we are going to make another round of the cabin. Wanna join," Duo asked.

"Thanks, but I'm fine. Have a nice walk," she said with a smile and cracked her book back open.

Quatre and Duo made another round of the cabin. Nearing their seats again, Quatre expressed his interest in trying to get some more sleep. Walking back to his seat Duo let out an aggravated sigh. Hilde had shifted in her sleep so that she was now sitting in her chair, but her head and pillow were on Duo's seat. Not wanting to wake her up, Duo made is way over to the vacant seat near Sally. "Hey," she said softly, "Hilde's passed out on my seat. You don't care if I come over and chill with you, do you?" Sally smiled, closed her book and motioned for him to take a seat. They sat together and talked for a while.

"So, why did you decided to come to Japan," Duo asked.

"Well, Mom had me interested since I was a kid, so I always knew that I was going to do some kind of study abroad when I got to college."

"So, are you an International Studies major then?"

"Oh, no. I'm in the college of medicine. Going to be a doctor one day," she said with a big smile.

"Whoa! And you managed to find time to work in a year long study abroad program?!"

"Well, I didn't really 'work it in'. More like it it set me back. I thought that study abroad is just as important as medicine. Getting out there to get to know people better. I can also increase my business if I can speak Japanese. It's not like it's going to hurt me in anyway. Well, except maybe hurt my pocket book." They both laughed. "By doing this I am setting myself back another year, at least, before graduation, but I don't really care."

"Pretty ambitious if you ask me."

"Well what about you. What's your story?"

"Eh, I was just trying to get in those two years of language credits that they make everyone take and I ended up with Howard Sensei for my first quarter of Japanese class. You know what he's like and he just made everything about Japan sound so damn interesting that I wanted to come over and see for myself."

"So what's your major?"

"Well, I'm still kind of undecided. Spent the first year of college getting all those freshmen credits out of the way and took some basic classes that I thought I should take. But I think I am going to go into International Studies with a focus on Asia. Not sure what I am going to do with that after I graduate though."

"Oh, it doesn't matter about the job later. You'll find something that you will want to do." Duo smiled at her. Sally was really easy to talk to and Duo could tell they would have an easy camaraderie. The conversation went on and Duo told her a great story about a drunk Quatre and a tube sock. She told him a great story about her and a huge misunderstanding with her and an attractive TA.

After a while, Duo had noticed that Hilde and shifted her position back to the window and his seat is now free. Not wanting to lose his seat again, he excused himself from Sally and sat back down to see if he could catch a little shuteye.