banner by suchasteph

The constant chirping rattle roused Brian from his sound sleep. Cursing, he rolled to the opposite side of the bed and glared at the alarm clock on the adjacent bedside table. Four-fucking-thirty - in the morning! He turned off the alarm clock as he rolled off the bed and headed to the shower. Christ, he was going to kill Cynthia and Ted for talking him into this.

After Kinnetik and he had been singled out for special recognition at the previous year’s Clio awards, both Brian and Kinnetik had been besieged with offers and requests. The large agencies wanted to buy Kinnetik yeah, like that was going to happen; the power players were vying for a place on his schedule; and an interesting offer from NYU had come in asking him to be part of semester long lecture series on cutting edge advertising.

New York was calling. Five years ago, Brian would have jumped at the offer to get out of the Pitts, but the past few years had mellowed him a bit. He had grown up -- not that he had wanted to, or even saw the reason need to. That, and he had seen first hand that the bullshit that was advertising wasn’t confined to the current campaign. Madison Avenue could keep their ass-kissing, oh so PC, unimaginative, two faced self serving sycophants offering up the same old boring tripe to placate their clients. After all, the reason Kinnetik was successful was that Kinnetik wasn’t another another Madison Avenue clone. The address didn’t matter. In fact, Brian had discovered that his geographic location was proving to be a distinct advantage. And if a client didn’t want to visit the Pitts, well there was always a flight.

Which brought him to where he was right now, in lovely seat 2A, which was slowly becoming his personal hairshirt.

At first, it had seemed like a reasonable idea. Theodore had been quick to point out the business advantages to being in NY on a regular basis - without the astronomical overhead costs and headache of having manage a remote office. Leave it to Ted to work out the financial angle. Brian would commute to NY on Mondays, fulfill his commitment to NYU by providing a morning lecture for undergraduates, have the afternoon to meet with clients, provide a evening seminar for graduate and continuing ed students, (perhaps even enjoy a bit of the NY night life), spend Tuesday with clients and catch the evening flight home. Even the hours of the flights seemed reasonable - a 7:30ish flight out of the Pitts and a 6:15ish flight home. That of course was until he discovered what commuter airline hell was really about. Between terrorist precautions, long lines at check in, security and the general cattle Brian wondered if he’d ever get on another flight after this prison sentence was over - thank god for first class and a decent airline club otherwise he thought he might go insane.

“Can I get you anything before we take off Mr. Kinney?”

“No. Thanks, Gail,” Brian gave the flight attendant a vague smile. After four weeks as a regular fixture, he knew the check in staff, the flight staff, Christ, even the fucking pilots by first name. “I’m going to see if I can catch up on my sleep - please don’t bother waking me for breakfast”. Brian gave an internal wince at what passed for breakfast - a muffin and coffee that wasn’t even passible. The flight attendant moved on to the other first class passengers, but not before she located and handed him a pillow and a blanket.

“Thanks” Brian said, taking the offered comforts.

He watched Gail make the rounds of the Monday morning commuters. There were Charles and Evelyn - the 50 something corporate executive and corporate lawyer. They did something in the Health Care. Howie, the 30 something computer jock consultant. Sherri, the overly serious 20 something business analyst for one of the big accounting firms. All too tied up in their careers to have a real life, and none of them even remotely fuckable. Idly, Brian wondered when the last time any of them got laid - then dismissed it. The last thing he wanted on his mind as he drifted off to dreamland was hetero sex - talk about setting yourself up for a nightmare. Of late, Howie had taken to sitting next to Sherri instead of his usual seat across the aisle from Brian. That was fine with Brian. At least this way Brian was guaranteed some peace and quiet instead of enduring Howie’s usual non-stop chatter about women, sports and computers.

He had the whole row to himself. Brian stretched, out pushed the pillow behind his head, threw the blanket over his lap and attempted to sleep. He had just drifted off when a “THUMP!” in the seat next to him jarred him awake. Annoyed he looked to the beat up backpack now occupying the adjacent overstuffed seat.

“Omigod! I’m really sorry, it fell off my shoulder when I was trying to put my coat and carry-on up” a young voice said. Brian gaze moved from the backpack to the obviously flustered and apologetic young man, and into the bluest eyes he had ever seen. The young man flashed a smile, and Brian was stunned. Fuck, his smile is blinding.

Quickly regaining his composure, Brian schooled his features and mumbled a gruff “yeah, well don’t let it happen again” but he belied his angry tone by adding a sly smile as he looked into those blue eyes.

“I... I won’t” the young man said “sorry”. He slipped into the seat across the aisle.

Brian closed his eyes again, but all he could see was blue.

~~~~~~~

Nice one, Justin. You almost miss your flight then you nearly knock out a fellow passenger. This was a hell of a start to his week.

Justin glanced across the aisle to the man with the perfect chestnut hair. His eyes were closed now, his body relaxed. But Justin hadn’t missed those amazing hazel eyes flecked with green and gold. Fuck, he’s gorgeous.

The flight attendant came by, effectively blocking Justin’s view of the older man. “Good morning Mr. Taylor” the flight attendant commanded his attention, interrupting Justin’s thoughts. “I’m Gail. You’ll need to buckle up, we’ll be pulling back from the gate and taking off shortly. Is there anything I can get you before we take off?”

The name and number of the guy across the aisle flashed through Justin’s mind, before he answered her with a “no, thanks”.

~~~~~~

Brian stole a glance across the aisle as Gail distracted the young man. Probably some rich college kid Brian surmised taking in Justin’s beat up sneakers, worn jeans and plaid flannel shirt over a long sleeve thermal tee shirt. Heading back to school after a weekend with Mumsy and Dadsy. Kids. He definitely was hot - those blue eyes, that smile. If he had seen him at Babylon, he would definitely be worth a trip to the back room. However, now firmly entrenched in the commuter world, Brian knew better than to think a visit to the men’s room to join the mile high club would go unnoticed. Too bad.

~~~~~~~

Justin glanced across the aisle again. The man appeared to be asleep. Justin pulled his sketchpad out of his backpack. Drawing was second nature to him. He switched seats from the aisle to the window, to better angle himself and provide support to his back as he started to draw. After a few minutes, he was totally consumed and didn’t notice when Brian glanced across the aisle to watch him under half raised lids.

~~~~~~

What was the kid doing? Drawing? Him?! Brian closed his eyes once more and schooled himself to relax and feign sleep once more. However, sleep was illusive. He half raised his lids to get a look at the kid, but he was concentrating on his drawing. Brian shut his eyes again and willed himself to sleep.

Shit! Sleep wasn’t going to happen. After a half hour, Brian gave up. He felt too edgy. He stole another glance at the kid. This time their eyes met. Good lord, this was no kid. Those blue eyes looked straight back at him in frank assessment. As he felt the young man’s eye’s on him he noticed he was becoming aroused. Little shit! Good thing the blanket was covering his lap. Brian’s hand wandered under the blanked and he adjusted himself to a more comfortable position. Brian felt himself drawn back to the young man across the aisle. Justin raised his brows in question and flashed a smile. Brian - briefly - flashed back a grin. Well, well he thought, perhaps this wouldn’t be the normal boring flight.

~~~~~~

Justin went back to his drawing, no longer bothering to hide his interest in the man across the aisle. Each time he looked up, the man was staring at him. After a several minutes, Justin was starting to feel a bit unsettled. His breathing became a bit more shallow and he could feel his skin warm. A glance into those hazel eyes and Justin realized that the man knew what he was doing, knew how Justin was being effected. He felt arousal creep through his body. Shit! like he could do anything here. Another glance and he saw the man smirk and stick his tongue in his cheek. Brian closed his eyes. Justin chuckled and continued drawing.

A muted tone disturbed Justin’s attention from the drawing he was working on.

Gail’s voice came over the intercom. “Ladies and gentleman, the captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign signaling our decent to New York LaGuardia airport. At this time all laptop computers and other electronic devices need to be turned off and put away. Please stow any items that you may have taken out during the flight. We will be arriving into LaGuardia shortly.”

Justin looked back at his drawing. Not quite complete - but enough so he could finish it later. He stowed it in his backpack and settled into his seat for landing.

~~~~~~~

Brian watched Justin place the drawing pad into the worn backpack and shove it under the seat in front of him. He wanted to see what the young man had drawn. He had some designs of his own he’d like to try out on the young man. He looked at his watch - Shit! The flight was late - once again. He’d be lucky to make it to NYU by 11:30 for his lecture. And he had so been looking forward to some morning entertainment. Commuting sucked - he wished he had time for his blond fellow flyer to...