Becoming

Run To The Hills

Ade rolled over and blindly reached for the ringing telephone. "Yeah?" he mumbled once he managed to locate and grab the receiver.

"This is your wake-up call," a cheery mechanical voice sounded in his ear. "Good morning." And then came a click as the call disconnected again.

"Bloody wake-up calls," he muttered to himself as he sat up. "Morning comes too fucking early." But knowing he was meeting Nathalie at the airport soon, he rolled out of bed and made his way to the loo, hitting the switch to start the coffee brewing as he'd set the pot up before retiring the previous night.

By the time he was done shaving and showering, the coffee was ready, and he slurped down a cup while getting dressed and packing his toiletries. He gathered up his luggage and headed downstairs to grab a Danish pastry and more coffee from the breakfast buffet, then he checked out and hopped on the shuttle to LAX.

"Ade!" Nathalie called and waved from just in front of the terminal doors. "Perfect timing, I got here just a minute ago myself. Let's go get checked in."

He gave her a wave and headed towards her. "Good to see you, Nathalie," he said with a smile. "Looking forward to the trip?"

"Yeah, I am," she said as they made their way inside and to baggage check. "I haven't had time to fish since leaving Hawaii, and I wasn't looking forward to having time off and no one to spend it with. I expect your fishing opportunities have been limited as well, with the tour and all."

Ade nodded. "Yeah, mostly. I did get a few trips in whilst we were in Hawaii after Tamar's accident, but I really didn't want to be out of touch with Dave, on the chance Tamar took a turn for the worse. None of us did, really."

"Understandable," Nathalie said with a nod. "Especially you. Those two might not be the most, um..."

"Conventional?" Ade supplied.

"Yeah, they're not the most conventional couple around, but I get the impression they actually want to stay married," she said.

"Well, yeah," Ade said. "They do still want to have kids, once Tamar heals up enough to consider getting pregnant again, and Davey's not exactly someone to go 'round getting random women up the duff, so of course he wants to stay married. At least for a while, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know," Nathalie agreed. Once they got their bags checked and their boarding passes in hand, they headed for their gate and she pulled Ade to a pair of seats off to one side, away from the few others already waiting for the flight. "I... am I wrong in thinking you'd be, uh, interested in a similar arrangement with me, if Donna would agree? Because I'd be interested in an arrangement like that with you, if you were willing."

Ade flushed a little but nodded. "You're not wrong," he said. "I can be pretty awkward with people most of the time, dunno, shy or whatever. But I was comfortable with you from the first. Maybe it was just that we have fishing in common, so I had something to talk about with you that didn't leave me feeling like a berk. I mean, yeah, most groupies want to natter on about clothes and dancing and all, and that's assuming they bother trying to hold a conversation before trying to grope me. Or worse, ones that sang in their school choir and want me to listen to 'em and help 'em find an agent or even a band. You asked about my fishing gear, and more, you knew what I was talking about when I answered."

Nathalie flashed him a quick grin. "Well, you knew what I was talking about too, and you didn't look appalled that a 'pretty thing' like me would want to hike out to the middle of nowhere carrying twenty kilos of gear, just to catch a fish! So yeah, I got comfortable with you pretty quickly as well. And then Tamar dropped that anvil-sized hint on me, that you and Dave were in the same sort of position as me and Donna – which kind of freaked me out at the time, because I didn't know she'd guessed about me and Donna!"