"I'm afraid I don't understand, darling." Aro's arm leant on the opened door of the Cadillac, body bent so he could talk to me. "If you are so afraid of flying then how did you ever manage to travel to Italy in the first place?"

My scared eyes, that had been staring past his hunched form at the large black plane behind him, darted to meet his ruby ones and I glared when I could see the hidden humor he had with this whole situation that he was trying not to show.

"Is my terror funny to you?" He pulled an offended face and opened his mouth to probably disagree, but I continued my angry tirade anyway. "Last time I was on a plane, the circumstances were rather dire and I wasn't given time to worry about myself. On top of that I could barely focus due to the pain our bond was causing me–this is completely different."

I blanched as Caius's voice met my ears; a bit jarred at the fact that I couldn't see where he or Marcus were standing from my position in the car. "Come on out, carissima. You can't stay in there all morning. Honestly, there is nothing to be afraid of."

Rolling my eyes I fiddled with the seatbelt and glowered at the tarmac under Aro's shoes. "See, that would be a lot more believable if I couldn't literally hear the smirk in your voice."

In response he groaned impatiently and it was my turn to smile in satisfaction. Two can play at this game, bitch.

I wasn't trying to be difficult, really, but I'd always had an irrational fear of airplanes. I was convinced that every flight I took would be my last and this was no different. I understood it was difficult for them to grasp why I was afraid, what did they have to be scared of? But they weren't the ones who would die a horrible death should something go wrong.

Marcus's face appeared over Aro's shoulder and I relaxed slightly at his warm smile and kind eyes. He was always such a sweetheart. "Come, my love. There really is nothing to fear, we will let nothing harm you."

Shivering, I pulled my black sweater tighter around me as a breeze from the early morning rolled in through the open door. By early I mean it was about 6:30 am, probably the reason I was so fucking grouchy–well, that and the fact I had decided to just wear a sweater and shorts, some basic socks and chunky boots. I was regretting that now, it was freaking cold!

I pondered on what to do. Should I stay in the safe, warm car on solid ground or walk into the cold, flying steel deathtrap?

Yeah...the car wins.

"I'm good here, thank you." I finally bit out, still shivering from the cold wind that was only further coaxing me to stay right where I was.

Aro sighed and thunked his head against the door in exasperation and Marcus lost his pleasantness, rolling his eyes to look at the sky.

"Right, that is it." Caius's voice was a deep growl now; in a split second his form replaced Aro's at the door and he paid no mind to his brothers offended yell at being shoved, his dark expression making me crawl further into the solace of the car.

"Come here, my Nora." The way he purred my name caused goosebumps to appear on the exposed skin of my legs. Regardless of how tempting it would be to fall into his waiting arms, I ignored him and tried to escape his hands as they reached for me. Growing tired of my constant shuffling away from him and senseless protests, he puffed out an angry breath.

I knew I was being an annoying bitch, but I didn't really care. Caius was dramatic, well more like overdramatic, all the time; this was simply him getting a taste of his own medicine and to be honest? I was secretly loving how pissed off he was getting. To make things worse, I decided to be snide too, just to see what he'd do. "Listen here, snowflake. If you think I'm getting on that plane then you—Caius! What the hell are you doing?!"

I released a strangled gasp as I was pulled across the seats. Oh my–he was literally dragging me by my ankles back to him!

Undeterred by my flailing arms and loud screeching he lifted me like I weighed nothing, one arm under my knees and the other behind my shoulders. When my squirming did nothing to make him actually put me down I gave up, wrapping my arms begrudgingly around his neck, trying to ignore his triumphant little grin. "Comfortable, mio piccolo piantagrane?"

He just had to tease me, didn't he?

"Fuck off." I hissed, tightening my grip painfully around his neck as we approached the giant metal death machine, my grip doing nothing to actually hurt him. All my bitterness disappeared as we neared the steps that lead inside, the color draining from my already pale skin."Oh no...oh shit." Hearing the genuine fear in my voice his grin fell, the hand on my leg squeezing it comfortingly.

"It will be fine, amore. You'll see." I nodded dumbly, too preoccupied imagining the fiery death that awaited me once we boarded. What was worse was that they'd be fine, I mean they were fucking indestructible for god's sake, they literally had nothing to worry about. The same could not be said for me if something happened.

This is really not good. What if there's a problem with the wing like in Final Destination? Oh god, I don't want to die like that–that Alex kid literally got his face melted off. Or, what if I survive but then they have to turn me into a vampire or something because of my injuries? No no no no no. Forget it. Maybe I could pull a Phoebe, say there's something wrong with the left phalange? It's not like they'd know if that was real or not. We'll just have to find some other way to–

"Darling?" I blinked, my heart jumping into my throat when I realised we were now inside. Oh hell no.

Gasping, I locked eyes with Aro, noticing his hand on my arm under my sweater and the twitch of his lips as he tried in vain not to smile. Great. So he'd just heard all of that nonsensical babble.

He tapped Caius on the arm, nodding his head to the ground as if he were indicating for him to put me down. Sure enough Caius slowly, much slower than he needed to, lowered me to my feet. He pressed a supporting hand against my lower back when I tried to move backwards and I noticed dejectedly that Marcus was blocking the exit.

Was I really that predictable?

Trying not to let my panic show, I walked quickly down the aisle, falling onto a large and comfortable cream seat that was part of a group of four huddled together. My nails dug so deeply into the armrests that it made that horrible noise that only leather can make–although I wasn't really focusing on that right now. What I was focusing on was not throwing up. Okay, close your eyes and breathe...that's it Nora...okay. We're fine. All cool. Everything is good.

My pathetic internal monologue was interrupted when I heard someone fall into the seat next to me, their finger tracing feather light patterns onto the back of my hand. "We haven't even moved yet and already you look as if you may faint. Humans are...strange." Caius observed with sick fascination.

Yanking my hand away from him, I didn't open my eyes but still tried to find a way to convey my frustrations, so I settled on being snippy. Sue me, he'd picked the worst time to try my patience. "I am not spending this entire flight with your irritating teasing. Either get it all out now or just—shush! You have no idea how stressful this is to me and you're not helping at all with your unnecessary commentary."

He simply hummed, unbothered by my harsh tone, pulling my hand back onto the divider so it was facing palm up and drawing odd patterns along the sensitive skin. Annoyingly, I felt my muscles unclench, my eyelids growing heavy.

Apparently, I had dropped off at some point, given away by the drowsiness that caused my body to ache as I blinked the haze of sleep from my vision. Blearily I peeled my eyes open and scanned the room, noticing all three kings sat around me. Caius sat to my right, Aro and Marcus lounging across from me. Aro's suit jacket was missing and when some semblance of consciousness came back to me I realised he had laid it over me. This man...my god. He even smells amazing!

Pulling it tighter around me, my tired eyes floated to examine them all. Aro was relaxed back into his seat with his eyes closed, the sleeves of his deep navy shirt rolled to his elbows and his expression so serene it was almost as if he were sleeping–but I knew that wasn't possible. He was truly...gorgeous, no–ethereal. They all were. The unnatural beauty of vampires was still such a shock to me; how could someone look so perfect? And those arms...christ.

Marcus was reading, as he often seemed to do, though this time I noticed that instead of Pride and Prejudice he had moved onto Sense and Sensibility. It was interesting to learn that Jane Austen must have been a favorite author of his. I smiled to myself at his invested expression, at the way his eyes flickered so quickly it was difficult to keep up. He was adorable when he was reading, his odd habit of biting his lip when he got to a particularly good part making my face heat up slightly.

My head lulled to the right to look at Caius, who was typing away furiously on a...mobile phone? Since when did they have those? His lips were pursed, chiselled features illuminated by the soft light emitting from the screen, one of the only lights in the dimly lit cabin. He scoffed to himself, his fingers moving so fast it began to give me a headache.

They were all so involved in their own things that they hadn't noticed I had woken up, but I was kind of grateful for that. I never got to observe them when they were completely relaxed; it was a nice change from the exteriors they put on for their...'work', though Caius I assumed didn't ever relax, the clicking of the keys on his phone filling the silence.

My gaze drifted past his head to look out the square window and what I saw made my eyes widen so much it actually hurt them. Just like that the calm was shattered.

"Woah!" I gasped, lurching to my feet, dropping Aro's expensive Armani jacket on the floor.

At my loud movement Aro jolted 'awake', Marcus dropped his book and I accidentally sent Caius's phone flying from his hand in my haste to stand up. None of that garnered my attention, what had captured it was the late evening sun settling over a stretch of land. A stretch of land that was give or take about 35,000 feet below us.

As I stumbled back I finally noticed that Jane and Alec, as well as Demitri and Felix, were in the plane with us, all staring at me with varying levels of confusion and shock.

My stare bounced from them, back to my mates who looked just as disturbed at my outburst. Marcus opened and closed his mouth, seemingly searching for the right words to say. "Nora, what?–"

"When did we start flying?!" I interjected, palms becoming sweaty as I felt the engine of the plane thrumming under my feet. Why hadn't I noticed that when I woke up? Oh, that feels horrible–I think I'm gonna be sick.

Marcus sighed through his nose and stood from his chair, stretching his hand out towards me with a patient smile. "Come here, love. You can sit with me until the flight is over. We only have around 5 hours left."

Only five? Well that's comforting...not.

Still, apprehensive to not feel the engine under me anymore, I let him take my hand and pull me to him. "Okay, how are we going to do thi–hey!" With no warning whatsoever, he lifted me so my arms were around his neck and my legs were wrapped around his waist. Smirking to himself he retook his seat, with me now sat on his lap.

Clearing his throat he leant back into his seat, tilting his head to grin suggestively up at me. "Well? Get comfortable, amore." Despite his smugness he had actually been quite considerate to me, so I bent to place a quick and fleeting peck on his lips, amused myself now when his lips followed mine when I pulled away.

My thigh muscles strained as I sat between his legs on the seat, my back to his chest and his arms loosely wrapped around my waist. I was kind of surprised there was enough room but, I guess being rich means you can afford this kind of stuff, including a lot of space. As I leant my head back against his shoulder and looked out the window, a lot more relaxed now, I realised I wouldn't have been opposed to sitting on his lap for the next five hours.

Caius snatched his phone off the floor, turning the screen to face him and groaning in frustration. "You made me lose!"

Squinting my eyes, I tilted my head in curiosity. "Lose what? Let me see." Without his consent I pulled his phone from his hand, a laugh bursting unbidden from my chest as I saw what had gotten him riled up enough to be so aggravated before my outburst.

"Solitaire?!"

If he could blush he would have been bright red. The mean scowl he threw at me as he took his phone back did nothing to stop my laughter. "Oh my god," I gasped for breath, spurred on as Aro laughed with me, "You really are an old man."

His mouth dropped open and he looked at me, so affronted it was like I'd just slapped him across the face. "I preferred it when you were asleep." He sniffed, sticking his nose in the air as he crossed his arms.

"Don't be sad Caius," His head snapped to look at me as I spoke, my voice soothing and light. "Maybe I'll make it up to you..." He was grinning now, his eyes dark as he leaned forward in his seat.

"Really," He mumbled softly, his hand trailing up my leg. "And how would you do that, piantagrane?"

I moved to meet him halfway, Marcus's arms falling to my hips to keep me steady. "Well..." I brushed his hair away from his face, cupping his sharp jaw in my hand, his eyes staring into mine intensely. "...I'll let you play solitaire with me, if you want? But only as a treat." His face screwed up in anger and I lost it, laughing hysterically and letting Marcus pull me back into his chest.

Caius crossed his arms, ignoring us all and staring angrily out of the window as evening turned to night.

Aro chuckled, trying to stifle it when Caius's withering gaze fell upon him. "Ughm. That was mean, darling." He coughed, scolding me lightly. He relaxed when Caius looked back out the window, his cool lips brushing my ear when he leaned his body against the armrest to whisper to me. "Who knew you could be so fiery...una lingua così tagliente."

Turning so our lips crashed together, he blinked in surprise when I nipped softly at his bottom lip. "Well, now you know." I whispered, brushing my nose against his before turning away like nothing happened. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed his hand balling into a tight fist, his throat bobbing as he swallowed.

I giggled, head falling back onto Marcus's cool chest. A finger and thumb were placed under my chin, and my head was tilted back so I could look up at his smiling face. Brushing his thumb against my lips he shook his head. "You are truly a dangerous woman, my love. Così incantevole." His smile grew when I only blinked innocently up at him.

Wrapping his arms around me, he closed his eyes and rested his head on top of mine. "Get some rest now, love. We still have quite a journey ahead of us, well, at least you do." He didn't need to tell me twice, I had already felt my eyes beginning to droop. As I restlessly tried to sleep, helped by the silence of the plane, my thoughts were consumed with worries about my dad and Bella.

I wonder if this is going to be a shitshow?...Let's hope not.

Translations

Mio piccolo piantagrane—My little troublemaker.

Una lingua così tagliente—Such a sharp tongue

Così incantevole—So enchanting