Independence Airways.

Chord glances at his reflection in the mirror as he passes the staff bathroom on the plane that’s about to fly back to Los Angeles from Vancouver. He can hear Darren and Dianna ushering everyone to their seats in the main body of the plane, and he straightens his royal blue cravat and fastens his too tight bright orange waistcoat. Despite working for Independence for nearly three years now, he still has yet to get over how vile the uniform is.

Dianna walks past him at this point and tugs a blue tie from her hair, letting her soft blonde curls drop around her shoulders.

“You’re up.” She smiles, patting him on the back. She’s going to enjoy this. “Have fun with the safety talk.”

Chord winces noticeably as he steps out into the passenger area behind Alex and realizes he has to do the full speech today.

“Hello, welcome to flight VA145, we will be your cabin crew for today.” He says with a practised ease. “In case of emergency landing, exits are here,” he gestures in front of him, “here,” he moves to gesture at the wings, “and at the back of the plane. An oxygen mask will fall from the compartment above your head and lifejackets are available beneath your seats. Safety procedures are displayed on the back of the seat in front of you. Please make sure all seatbelts are fastened, all trays are in the upright position and prepare for takeoff. Thank you for flying Independence Air.”

As he turns and departs towards the staff area, he catches sight of two men in suits giggling away to themselves in the front two seats on the left hand side of the plane. He frowns to himself for a moment, before shaking his head and following Alex back into the staff area.

“Well, that was embarrassing.” Alex comments, carding his fingers through his recently dyed purple hair. Chord laughs, the tops of his cheeks tinting a soft pink.

“Don’t remind me.” He smiles, glancing around the room until his eyes fall on Dianna. “Oh, and Di?”

The blonde girl looks up at him, and her outgrown bangs fall into her hazel eyes.

“Yes?”

“I hope you like explaining safety to irritable LA residents.”

Her expression falters and she glares at him for a second, trying to muster a witty response, but Zack interrupts her by yelling, “brace for takeoff!” at a ridiculous volume from the enclosed cockpit a few feet away from them. She purses her lips and frowns at the older co-pilot for a second (when pressed by Alex for a reason for the glare later, she’ll plead a headache) before sitting down beside Chord.

It’s about half an hour later that the cabin crew decide it would be an apt time to start handing out copious amounts of coffee, pillows and blankets, since it’s nearing three in the morning now and a good number of passengers are starting to lull themselves to sleep to the dull sound of the plane in flight.

Chord finishes up giving everyone the stupid, gritty, aeroplane standard blankets and over inflated, awkwardly shaped neck pillows when he hears a voice say from behind him, ‘thank you for flying Independence Air, Chord.’

He turns around quickly and his eyes fall on the two businessmen from earlier. He narrows his eyes at them for a moment and brushes his bleached blonde bangs away from his face before stepping over to them.

“Chris. Jack.” He says, holding back a smirk and a laugh. “If you continue to behave disruptively I shall have to ban you from future flights with Independence.”

Chris rolls his eyes and laughs at his best friend, almost obnoxiously loudly for fourteen minutes past three on a Sunday morning.

“Oh, shut up Chord. You love us.”

“Fortunately for you two, I do, yes.”

Chris smirks as Chord rolls his moss green eyes at the slightly younger boy.

Chord has known Chris since their freshman year of high school, when they’d both been shipped off to a pompous boarding prep school across country in Florida. They’d ended up at dorm mates, and as far as Chord had been concerned, Chris was irritating and his love of fashion, calculations and interior design would be the death of him. They’d been inseparable since halfway through that year, when Chris had finally managed to convince him that Egyptian cotton sheets were, in fact, better than ‘those vile polyester things’ he’d been sleeping on up to now.

They’d both been thrown from the snobby ideals of the school when they both decided not to go to college and to move over to Los Angeles together, so that Chris could pursue his business plans, and Chord could find whatever job he could get. Which ended up being a flight attendant for an as-yet unheard of airline based at LAX.

Chris had met Jack on his first day (it had been Jack’s first day too) and they had hit it off instantly, and are now both responsible for the business’ national and international relations.

“You have to love us.” Jack continues from Chris’ earlier comment. “We’re pretty much your best customers.”

“That’s true.” Chord laughs. The two of them fly somewhere pretty much every week; whether it’s across America, Canada, Europe, or even just back home, Chord pretty much never has an opportunity to escape the two of them. Which is kind of nice, he guesses, since Chris moved out a year or so ago, so he lives alone now. And he can never see enough of his best friend.

Alex chooses this moment to come striding down the main corridor of the plane towards the staff area, right up until he spots Chord and comes at him, rolling his eyes when he sees the doe-eyed expression on the younger boy’s face.

“Come on, Overstreet. We don’t have all day.” He laughs, pulling the blonde by the arm into the staff area.

Chord often finds himself forgetting that Alex actually mentored him throughout his training, even though he’s only two years older, and had only been working there for six months when he showed up.

“God, do you have to stand and stare at Chris like he’s the greatest thing ever created? I’m aware he’s your best friend and you totally love him, but do you have to do it in front of all the paying customers? Who probably don’t want to see your unrequited man-love, by the way.”

“My what?” Chord asks incredulously, staring at the purple haired boy in front of him. “And besides, you can’t talk. All I ever see you do is fawn over Jack whenever you see him.”

At this comment, Alex flushes bright fuchsia over his cheeks and staring down at the floor.

“Shut up.” He tells his shoes indignantly. “I do not.”

“Yeah, okay.” Chord laughs, a smirk in his tone as he rolls his moss green eyes at the twenty three year old, “and this is natural.”

He gestures at the obviously dyed blonde streaks in his dirty blonde bangs.

“Now stop being all shy and go do your damn job.” Chord laughs, knocking Alex’s shoulder and smiling at him. Alex grumbles and curses under his breath at the blonde, but returns to the customer cabin anyway. Chord shakes his head at him as he leaves, and a small, lopsided smile tugs at his lips.

Darren resurfaces from the customer cabin a minute or two later, singing something absently to himself. Chord rolls his eyes.

“Do you literally sing everywhere you go?” Chord asks, somewhat incredulously. Darren looks up at him through the dark brown curls that tumble softly around his face.

“Uh, yeah? I guess I do.”

Chord laughs gently at the older boy’s insecurity.

“It’s not a bad thing, Darren. You’ve got a good voice.” The blonde smiles. Darren laughs shyly and unbuttons his too tight waistcoat.

“Thanks.” He says with a small nod, blush beginning to scatter across the tops of his cheeks.

“Really. You should, I don’t know, try and get signed or something. This is kind of a waste of your talent, D.”

“I would,” Darren starts, running his fingers through his tight curls, “but I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do to get noticed, you know?”

“I can help, if you want?”

“Could you?”

“Yeah, if you want me to. Some of my brothers are in a band, they might be able to help you get started.”

Darren smiles at him, and Chord pats him on the shoulder.

“When we get home, I’ll see what I can do, yeah?”

Darren nods and smiles, and Chord pulls him by the arm into the customer cabin of the plane. He leaves Darren to deal with a particularly grouchy old customer when he spots Alex standing with Jack and Chris, apparently enthralled in whatever conversation they appear to be having. Chord narrows his eyes.

He marches down the plane towards them, grabs Alex by the arm (without stopping for breath) and pulls him into the staff area at the other side of the plane.

“‘I’m aware he’s your best friend and you totally love him, but do you have to do it in front of all the paying customers? Who probably don’t want to see your unrequited man-love, by the way.’” Chord quotes Alex’s earlier words. The purple haired steward grins sheepishly, and Chord laughs at him.

“You’re a loser. Really.” Chord says finally, smacking Alex upside the head gently. The twenty three year old pouts overdramatically at him, but Chord just laughs at him.

“I am not.” Alex grumbles, poking Chord hard in the shoulder.

“What would you prefer to be? Moron? Idiot? Fool?”

“Alex is good too.” The taller boy sulks, his shoulders dropping.

“Fine, Alex. Why don’t you just make a move and ask him out already? Jesus Christ.”

“I don’t –what if he –I’m too scared to.” He eventually comes to, his expression somewhat resigned to his nerves.

“I didn’t mean you had to do it alone, you idiot. I can ask Chris what Jack likes and things like that. Help you get the right thing and stuff.”

Alex looks at him for a long moment, trying to decipher any lies in his eyes, even though he’s known Chord long enough to know he’s pretty good natured –and a pretty terrible liar.

“Fine.”

Chord grins.

“Let the wooing of one Jack Barakat commence.”

Dianna’s loudly giving the landing speech in the main cabin and the two of them sit down with Darren.

“Thank you.” Alex says softly over the sound of the plane coming in to land. Chord smiles sideways at him and throws an arm around the older steward.

“You’re welcome.” Chord replies quietly, knocking his head against Alex’s gently. The other boy laughs gently and pokes Chord in the side.

Rian yells ‘brace for landing’ from the cockpit a few feet away.

The plane lands fairly smoothly; Alex sits with his head on Chord’s shoulder for the whole thing. There’s a soft ‘beep’ noise from the customer cabin as the ‘fasten your seatbelts’ sign is turned off. Chord stands and moves to the exit doors and watches carefully for the arrival of the ridiculous stairs vehicle.

He opens the door carefully and the hubbub of chatter and gossip in the customer cabin slows somewhat.

“Thank you for flying Independence Air. Please, fly with us again soon.” Rian’s voice crackles over the speakers.

The passengers begin to trail out slowly, and Chord stands and holds his best ‘Hollywood’ smile until Chris and Jack come sidling past him.

“Wait for me in the parking lot, you ass.” He says to Chris as the shorter brunette walks past him. He nods, just to show he heard.

Chord finishes shepherding all of the passengers out of the plane and into the crisp, early morning Los Angeles air, and looks back into the passenger cabin to see the other cabin crew already surveying the damage with a certain level of disgust.