golden waltz | jily

Airports & Drug Lords

Lily wasn't a big fan of planes. Competitions had taken her all across Europe, but those were always more or less short flights, she'd never actually been on a transcontinental flight. The website had said the flight would be 17 hours long, counting a four-hour layover in New York. Lily had never been on a plane for over four hours, so she wasn't doing exactly great at the moment.

This wasn't the first time Lily travelled out of the country without her parents, but it was the first time she travelled without any adult supervision whatsoever. She already felt weird, knowing that she'd soon be thousands of miles away from home with no adults to answer to.

As the plane headed to the runway, Lily started taking deep breaths to try and prepare herself for takeoff, she hoped James didn't notice what was happening. She wasn't always great on planes, especially on takeoff. Her fingers dug into the side of her seat.

James glanced at Lily, "You good?"

Lily nodded briefly. "I'm fine."

"Take-offs always feel pretty rough."

Lily nodded again, not trusting her voice as the plane gained speed. She was sure James could very clearly hear her erratic breaths now.

She tried to focus on something else. Their season was finally starting to take form, and Lily couldn't help but get a little excited about the prospect of competing for the first time in almost a year. Yes, competition could be nerve-wracking, but she missed the atmosphere of being around all those people from all over the world who loved skating just as much as she did, whom she only got to see once in a while. Hell, she even missed the pre-competition jitters she was prone to.

Just a few days before leaving, it had been Mary of all people who found the perfect music for Lily and James's waltz, and they had even started with bits of choreography, for which Lily was full of ideas, after not having any new programs for months. And now their short dance was almost done.

Lily took out her phone and earbuds and started put on the song she and James would be dancing to, La Valse d'Amelie from the Amelie movie soundtrack. Lily loved that film and the music box melody of the main theme fit perfectly to both her and James's vision of what they wanted, which was nothing short of a miracle.

And now she was on her way to Michigan to be choreographed by Marina fucking Zoueva.

☆

Lily woke with a start. She turned her head to see James looking at her with a slight smile on his face. "Did you just flick me?"

James frowned deeply. "What? No, Lilyflower, I would never. But since you're awake, we're in New York."

Lily stared at him blankly. "Okay..."

James sat up slightly. "Well, we need to trans board planes."

Lily's eyes widened, her brain finally waking up. She must've fallen asleep somewhere over the Atlantic. "Oh, right." She sat up too.

Lily then noticed quite a few people had already left their seats. James must've waited a while to wake her. She was actually pretty thankful James had let her sleep through the landing. She always got unnecessarily freaked out during them.

Lily and James quickly gathered their things and got out of the plane. Lily only caught a few glimpses out the windows to see America for the first time. She only managed to see other planes and the runway though. She wasn't sure how she expected to feel once she was on another continent. She thought she'd feel different, but she felt just the same so far, maybe once she was out of the airports, airports always felt the same in any country.