“You know that this is all your fault, right?”

“Save your breath and just hurry!”

“Daniel, I’m going to murder you if we miss this flight! My shoes are killing me!”

A heavy backpack on his shoulders, the crowd a mere blur past him, Chris wondered how in the name of the Globe they had managed to miss the shuttle to the airport and had been forced to wait an hour for the next one.

Somewhere ahead, Daniel and Julia were having another argument about whether or not Julia should just take her shoes off (“But you’ll be more comfortable!”, “Out of the question!”), and Chris appreciated that they didn't stop even for that.

It had been Daniel’s fault, Chris reflected; if he hadn’t decided to leave packing until the last minute, he wouldn’t have stayed up until 4am needing help, they wouldn’t have gone to bed so late, Chris wouldn’t have forgotten to set his alarm that way and—

Alright, so maybe it wasn’t entirely Daniel’s fault, Chris had to admit, but he wasn't the one who had left all his packing until the last possible minute--

“Here we are!” Daniel raised his arm in victory and took a deep breath as they reached the check-in counters. There didn't seem to be other passengers left in the queue for their flight. “Tickets... Chris, are our boarding passes with you?”

“I… think so, hold on.” Thinking of how embarrassing this could become if they'd forgotten to print these, Chris dropped his backpack on the floor and fumbled with the zipper while Julia flopped down on her suitcase to catch her breath, holding her purse to her chest. The clerk at the desk just looked on with very badly hidden annoyance.

Julia urged, “Can't you get them any faster?”

“We wouldn't be here if we didn't have a suitcase to check in,” mumbled Daniel. His comment didn't go unnoticed. Julia's face turned slightly pink.

“I need everything I have in it!”

“I didn’t say anything about--”

“Here, here!” Chris held up the crumpled boarding passes along with his own ID with a victorious cry, more than relieved that he'd managed to prevent yet another argument.