Before I Forget

Love Actually

Traveling was fucking exhausting.

They'd had to change planes twice - first in New York, then in Frankfurt, and when they finally reached Rome, they'd been traveling more than 24 hours.

Hawk hadn't slept in all that time if you didn't count short, restless naps in the last flight. He had been too fucking nervous to fall asleep, even if Mom was peacefully snoring by his side all the 6 hours it took to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It wasn't just the fact that it had been years since he had last been on a plane - it was the prospect of meeting Sky again, all the anticipation and anxiousness that came with it.

He had missed her like crazy. But now that he was actually going to see her again, the lie he had told her was weighing on his heart more than he liked to admit. It wasn't that he felt guilty about stealing the Medal of Honor or trashing Miyagi-Do - he didn't. But he did regret having to lie about it.

The airport of Rome was an absolute chaos - and being tired and jet-lagged as fuck didn't make it any easier. By the time they had found their luggage and the exit, Hawk was dizzy and nauseous, irritated, and overall feeling like shit. He was sweating through his clothes, and his hair that was not on Mohawk (it would have been might impractical on the plane) was gross and greasy, sticking to his scalp.

This was not the way he wanted Sky to see him, but there was little to do about it, so he simply washed his face in the bathroom and hid his hair under a baseball cap he wore backwards, before walking to the arrivals hall.

He saw her before she noticed him, and for a heartbeat, he froze, just looked at her, emotion clenching his chest into a tight knot.

She was standing in the crowd with her dad, nervously clutching her hands together, wearing a short skirt that hugged the curves of her hips and a tiny little top that revealed the skin of her shoulders and the phoenix tattoo. She looked small, thinner than Hawk had remembered, and like she hadn't slept in a week.

His heart twisted painfully in his chest because he knew it was his fault she looked like that. It was his fault she had suffered.

But that was over now, that was all gone, and he was going to make it all up to her. By the end of this vacation, she'd be happier than she had ever been in her life.

"Sky–!" Hawk called her name, his voice coming out a bit raspy and broken.

When her eyes found him, It was like she'd seen the sun - her face was illuminated, her smile lit up not only Hawk's heart but the whole fucking world. And then she was running, not caring about the crowd, barely noticing his mom or her dad, she threw herself into his arms in a strawberry-scented swirl of hair, sun-kissed skin, and feminine curves.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and as he lifted her up, her legs went around his waist so that she was clinging to him like a koala. He buried his face into her hair and gripped her hard as if he could mold their bodies together, make them one.

"I love you," he breathed, his voice almost breaking. "I fucking love you, Sky."

"I love you too." Her face was buried in his neck, her hot breathing falling onto his skin, and she didn't seem to care a bit about his sweaty clothes or the fact that he probably smelled like the sewer.

"Oh God, I missed you." Hawk groaned. "I never wanna be away from you again."

She didn't say anything, but her desperate grip around his neck told him enough. It was like she never wanted to let go like she was going to cling to him like this till the end of time.

But they were still standing in the middle of the arrivals hall, and Hawk began to realize their position was a bit compromising. Her short skirt, her legs wrapped around his waist, his hands gripping her ass - it was beginning to give him all kinds of ideas he sure didn't want to have in front of their parents. The last thing he needed was a raging boner in a place like this.