"When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew." - William Shakespeare

Our story begins with a seventeen year old boy named Arthur Morgenstern, graced with good looks but not the ability to do anything with them.

It's five seventeen am and Arthur is currently slouched in an uncomfortable metal seat in the airport waiting room, piano music drifting through his earphones. His fingers, long and calloused from playing the keys too much, fiddle with the wire.

Slowly, his eyelids flutter shut, unsurprising given the current time. Sleep has just begun to reach him when a loud noise somewhere between a beep and a bell ringing sounds, startling him back to consciousness. He flinches, eyes flashing open, and looks around.

The lounge, which had previously been brimming with people, is almost empty.

"Last call for flight 0530 to Vancouver International! All remaining passengers, please prepare to board!" A voice blasts from the speakers dotted around the room.

Arthur leaps up and joins the end of the queue, shuffling forward until it's his turn to show his passport and boarding pass. The bored looking young woman scans them both, then nods and passes them back.

"Have a nice flight," she says, holding his gaze for a moment then winking.

Arthur coughs, nods and shrugs all at once. "Uh, I will, thanks."

♡

There are many things that frighten Arthur (wasps; roller-coasters; indeterminably deep expanses of water; people, most of the time) but thankfully air flight is not on this list. He settles into his seat, content, and plugs his earphones back in. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata begins playing, which makes him simultaneously smile and sink further into his seat, exhaustion taking over.

Once again Arthur shuts his eyes, this time knowing he has hours in which to catch up on some well needed sleep.

Cue our next character, Arabella

"Excuse me, you're in my seat." The voice that forces Arthur from his rest for the second time that hour is stubborn and sharp.

He opens his eyes and pauses his music, preparing to commence in an argument, and sees her, partially silhouetted by the bright airplane lighting. She's staring down at him, mouth fixed in a tight line. In her hand is a boarding pass bearing the name Arabella Pannone.

Arthur shakes his head. "Actually, this is my seat; I'm row D seat 4."

"I'm row D seat 3, so I should be sitting there actually."

As it turns out, Arthur is in the wrong seat. But he doesn't realise this until they've been arguing for a fair few minutes. (If firing "You shouldn't!" "I should!" back and forth can really be classed as anything other than immature, that is.)

Eventually, he gives in and shifts across to the seat by the window, mumbling that it's whatever, he likes window seats better anyway. Arabella sits down triumphantly.

With a sigh, Arthur hits play on his phone and music floods through his earphones again. Frustratingly, he's become too worked up to go to sleep. And, even worse, the girl next to him has started prodding at his arm.

Arthur yanks the earphones out and twists in his seat to face her. "What?"

"You need to turn your phone off," Arabella tells him.

"It's on flight mode."

She shakes her head, persistent. "No, it has to be switched off. They announced it."

Arthur's eyes follow the gesture of Arabella's elegant hands to the cabin crew who are currently going through the tedious motions of demonstrating how to inflate a life jacket. He shrugs.

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes, it does!" Arabella snaps, so forcefully that Arthur actually complies.

He makes a show of turning the device off and shoving it in the front pocket of his backpack.

"Happy now?"

There's no reply. He glances at his fellow passenger and sees that she is in fact not happy at all. Far from it - Arabella is staring straight ahead and chewing frenetically on her bottom lip.

Then Arthur realises that the plane is now moving, picking up speed up until it's thundering down the runway. With a jolt, they lift off and Arabella's hands move to the armrests, gripping them so tight that her knuckles turn white.

Perhaps it's bad, but Arthur can't help but smirk. "You don't like flying, then?"

Arabella rigidly shakes her head, eeking out a "no". A couple of minutes pass like that as they ascend into the clouds: Arthur staring out the window whilst Arabella focuses on not passing out.

Eventually, the angle of the plane evens off and they're travelling steadily through the air. An announcement from the cabin crew informs the passengers that it is now okay to use electronic devices, as long as they're on flight mode. So Arthur does just that, switching on his phone and listening to his music again.

By his side, Arabella is feigning an interest in the pattern on the back of the chair in front of her whilst her hands still clutch the armrests, though not quite as forcefully as before. But Arthur is oblivious, so wrapped up in his music that his fingers have started tapping out the melody against his thigh. Before long he falls asleep, this time not waking for several hours.

♡

Arabella glances to the boy next to her as he sleeps. His eyelashes, long and dark, brush against his sharp cheekbones. She can't help but notice his lips, chapped and slightly parted. Okay, so she thinks he's gorgeous.

But he's also aggravating, the way he refused to move seats for so long when he was clearly in the wrong. Or maybe he's just ignorant. Whatever, Arabella doesn't need to spend any more time pondering on his existence.

She's infinitely thankful when the air hostess comes trundling down the aisle, pushing the refreshments trolley. Arabella raises a hand to grab her attention. "A large black coffee please."

The woman sets about getting the coffee and Arabella takes it. As she passes across the cash she's unaware of Arthur watching her through bleary, half open eyes.

"Anything else?" asks the air hostess, with her customary smile plastered on.

"I'll take a regular hot chocolate, please," Arthur says and Arabella jumps, her eyes darting towards him.

"I didn't know you were awake," she comments evenly.

He shrugs, raking a hand through his messy, slightly curled hair. Arabella looks at her lap.

They sit in silence for a while, both sipping at their drinks. When Arthur stands up and edges past Arabella, she stops him.

"Where are you going?"

Arthur frowns. "The toilet. Why does it matter?"

She sighs, fiddling with the end of the dark braid in her hair. "Can you get me another coffee, please? Here's the money."

There's a five dollar bill pressed into Arthur's hand before he can refuse. Instead, he rolls his eyes towards the low ceiling and heads towards the end of the cabin.

You see, number one on Arabella's list of things she hates is airplane travel. But at the same position on the things she loves list is coffee. Therefore by keeping herself on a permanent caffiene high she can just about counteract the worst of the flying phobia.

Of course, the cute boy sitting next to her throws off the balance slightly, so she's firmly keeping him out of the equation.

♡

Through out the duration of the flight, Arabella drinks a total of three black coffees. Arthur does a lot of sighing and blocks everything and everyone else out by listening to music (his speciality, really).

On the bumpy descent and landing, he watches Arabella once again cling to the armrests as though her life depends on it. After a few minutes the seatbelt light pings off and the plane is full of the sound of everybody unclicking them. During the repetitive announcements by the cabin crew, Arthur fumbles around under his seat for his bag.

When he looks up, Arabella is gone; disappeared into the crowds of passengers exiting the airplane.

♡♡♡