Lan glances at his watch as it creeps past the 1pm mark. Leaning down, he rubs his eyes as he tries to keep a little more lucid than the Xanax was allowing. The withdrawals hadn't crept up on him yet, thanks to it, but it wouldn't last forever, hopefully they'd be at his father's before it was a problem.

  “Ah, this isn't my trip anyway. Do you.. have anywhere you want to go? I realize that it's all kind of last minute, there are THINGS to do in Hiroshima..” He leans back in his seat, looking over the top of the passengers in front of him, drawing a blank at what there actually was to do there.

  “Oh! I have a few ideas, I didn't end up buying it because I wasn't sure I was going to say yes, but I looked through a guide a while ago.” Saya squints a bit, trying to remember herself what she wanted to see.

  “Crap, all of them seem really somber for a holiday, now that I think about it.”

  Lan laughs and shakes his head, “It's.. Hiroshima. Which is best known for.. you search for the name, what's the first thing that would come up?”

  She couldn't argue that, and it was honestly what she first thought of when she thought of the city. Instead, she pauses for a moment, and reverses the question.

  “So, you know the big places. The memorials, the museums, if it were up to you, as a native.” He glances down at her incredulously, to which she rolls her eyes, saying, “okay, semi-native. Where would you go?”

  Lan breathes in, a loaded question even if I wasn't loaded myself, and starts trying to remember locations around the city, starting with his father's home.

  His memories course through thin lanes and train lines, places that would seem normal to him, but not to a tourist. Things that left an impact.

  “Itsukushima comes to mind. Just as a starter. It's this..”

  “..shrine, with the gate in the water. That's on my list.” She finishes his sentence, chuckles and taps her temple. “Up here. What else?”

  “Mmm.. hm.” He shifts in his seat and continues down his exploration of his hometown in his head, all of his stops were sentimental to him for unremarkable reasons, but there were a few.

  “What do you think about eel? Yay, nay?” He wavers his hand side to side.

  Saya scrunches up her face a bit which makes Lan laugh again, nodding. “It's not for everyone. Buuut.. there is a 'best restaurant in the city' that we could go to. It's been ages, I don't really like eel myself, but apparently it was great?” He rubs his forehead, thinking. “I was maybe.. ten. I'd have to look up the name.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He counts on his fingers towards her. “Museums, castles, peace.. everything. You know all those.”

  Lan shakes his head and blinks as he remembers a certain spot. “Oh, shit, the..” He sighs and ponders how to put it.

  “When you were a kid, did you have.. model trains or cars?”

–

  Saya wasn't expecting that, she had her toys, and her brother had his, he was big into everything with wheels. “I.. David had Hot Wheels.. I mean, sorry. My brother, David, had a lot of toy cars, model cars, remote control, that kind of thing?”

  “Hiroshima has this great museum, and it sort of sounds like a boring Tomorrowland, but it's like a museum of transportation. And I just remember loving it as a kid.”

  “It was a lot of models and buttons and noises. Which for a kid is.. just a great time.” Lan rubs his jawline idly. “Aquariums are great, museums are great, but they weren't ever as interactive. And I don't want to touch a horseshoe crab.” He shudders back a bit, touch pools weren't exactly his thing.

  “To me, those kind of places were right up my alley. Pushing buttons, the more.. electronic side of science than biological.” He realizes he's gushing a bit, and that the medication isn't helping – no matter the substance, Lan did most of his talking while somehow inebriated.

  Saya raises a brow as he quiets down and taps the armrest between them, “And you are afraid of flying?”

  “I'm not!” He ducks down as his voice was a bit loud for a tiny plane cabin. “I'm not afraid of flying, it's the leaving-and-returning to ground part.”

  A soft chime echos from above them as Lan's hand jerks up and slams against the upper compartment above him as the pilot comes on the intercom, explaining their descent in muffled tones. The lurch in his stomach was enough to tell him they were on their way down.

  Saya jerks back at his reaction then holds up her hands in front of him like some wild animal she's trying to placate. “Wait, just.. wait. You were fine for an hour. No..” She grabs his chin and turns his vision back to her when it starts darting around.

  “You were fine for an hour. You were fine when we took off. Look at me. Five minutes, and it's over, okay?”

  A few of the passengers around their seats had turned to look at Lan's hand hitting the ceiling, the flight attendant even tilting a bit in her chair to look down the aisle.

  “Trust in the pilot.” Not working. “Trust in the plane.” Not working. “Trust in me, this is nothing. Close your eyes and breathe,” Saya says.