June 18, 2016
T Minus 6 days

Margo’s alarm went off at 4:20 in the morning, and it took her all of five seconds to remember the occasion and fall hastily out of bed.

It had been, what, a year since the last time she’d seen her brother? They’d been too busy: Richard because of his job, Margo because she’d actually tried in all of her classes this year, and because any “free time” she had had had been spent either working at the cafe or volunteering somewhere on the other side of the city. She’d texted him things like how are you doing and happy birthday and merry christmas, of course, and they’d talked on the phone; none of that could replace actually spending time with each other, though.

That was why she’d suggested, now that school was out for the summer, that they go on an adventure. Richard had answered in the affirmative. After a long and awkward conversation with her dad, in which the girl had to clarify several times that no she did not have a boyfriend and no she wasn’t going to do anything stupid, her dad— bless his suddenly overprotective heart— had chipped in to buy their plane tickets.

Her bags lay at the foot of the bed. She’d packed them the night before; well, she’d finished packing them the night before. She’d been packing them for a week, because she was just that excited.

At 4:37 that morning, Margo slung her bags over her shoulder and quietly left her room at the Mansion behind.

She had a flight (6 am, nonstop, from NYC to Dallas) to catch.

Richard was exhausted, it had been a long few weeks? No. Months? That sounded more like it. It had been one crazy project after. Installing, debugging and tuning a super-computing cluster at Jagger Worldwide, upgrading security systems at LaGurdia Airport, the list went on and on.

He was overdue a holiday. Throughout all of this madness, the occasional text conversations with Margo were there to brighten up his day. Working this hard tended to put a damper on ones social life. Not that Richard had much of one. Work friends tended to be just that. Margo had been busy with school and the few friends he had this side of the pond were either in other states with work or MIA due to life events like marriage, having kids, etc. So when Margo had suggested that they go on a trip together, Richard a literally jumped at the chance. He had enough holiday accrued for a nice long trip.

Thus it was with grogginess and grumpiness that accompanied waking too early whilst getting far too little sleep, mixed with jubilant excitement and anticipation that Richard grabbed his bags and tiredly yet excitedly skipped to his car and turned towards the airport. It had been far too long since they last saw each other. Richard was mortified that as an older brother he had let it go that long.

By the time Margo got down to the street, her taxi was already waiting for her. The driver offered neither conversation nor issue on the way to the airport. She paid him and he drove off again, leaving her on the sidewalk in front of her terminal.

As early as it was, the airport was already bustling. It was a steady flow of in and out, of people getting off their flights and others hurrying to catch their flights. The girl was surprised by how many of them had coffee in hand; most people didn’t function at this hour in the morning without some sort of caffeine, she supposed, but surely they couldn’t carry it with them through security?

Margo looked around and didn’t see Richard. She checked in. Still no sign of him, so she sent him a quick text while she stood in line.

going through security. see you on the other side?

Richard arrived at the airport. Driving there involved sitting, sitting did not involve much work. At this time in the morning the roads were clear, hence driving did not involve alot of thinking, and instead involved the liberal imbibing of coffee.



Richard still had access to contractor parking so did not have to hunt around for a space. It was times like this he was thankful for the diverse clients of Firebird Industries.



He had just gotten in line when he spotted a familiar head of chestnut brown hair passing through the other security check point. Richard did his best to be sneaky and not be seen. He was almost spotted when Margo looked around after clearing the security checkpoint but managed to hide behind a tour group just in time.



He waited patiently until Margo started texting... then pounced. He grabbed her in a bear hug and did a little spin, all the while smiling like a Cheshire cat.



"Sis, it has been far too long. I have missed you so." Said Richard when he finally put Margo down.

Message delivered 5:01 A.M. Margo looked up from her phone, and that was when recipient of said message seemingly appeared out of nowhere to wrap her up in a hug. She let out a little startled sound before she could help herself, but quickly relaxed and returned the hug once she had recognized her ambusher.

”Sis, it has been far too long. I have missed you so.”

“Missed you more,” said the girl, once Richard had set her down. She was trying, and failing, to stop grinning like a maniac. It was kind of embarrassing to be picked up and spun around like the little kid she no longer was, true, but she didn’t mind so much; this was her big brother, after all, and she had missed him. She had missed him more than se had ever missed anyone in her life except for her mom, and yet she hadn’t realized just how much that was until she saw him just now.

Margo opened her mouth and closed it again before she could start spouting poetic nonsense about family and about John Green, who said… something irrelevant about loving people versus missing them.

“I was just texting you,” she said instead, with a laugh. “10 points to you for being sneaky and scaring me out of my wits, not that it doesn’t happen all the time.”

Alas Margo did not let out the squeel that Richard had secretly hoped for, but he would settle for the rather cute squeak instead, although he would never tell Margo this, she would probably get a little bit exasperated with him, which made her look rather adorable, again telling her this would do nothing, so Richard moved swiftly on, he did love his little sister. His sister, he had always wanted a little sister, and now he had found one. In a coffee shop of all places. Wooooooosters, perhaps he should buy a copy of the book, support the author that had made this meeting possible.

"Missed you more." Earned a "Humph!" from Richard.

Richard was about to comment on Margo's rather large grin when he realized that he was wearing one just as large, if not larger. Thus two grinning idiots, walked handing hand, no skipped down through the airport swinging their arms, much to the amusement of onlookers. Honestly Richard could not remember who started skipping first...

Richard did a solemn bow at the comment. "Why thank you madam, I do try." He said theatrically. Recalling as he did so that he needed to find a chance to encourage his little sister to get into theater or musicals. Hmmm he had never heard her sing, he would have to find an excuse to remedy that...
It was at this point that he discovered that they were already at the gate.

Brother and sister skipped down the terminal. Two apparent lunatics, hand in hand, though in all honesty Margo didn’t care anymore what the passerby thought of them. Prancing through the airport was fun, and totally appropriate considering the circumstances.

She made a conscious effort to tone her grin down. The feeling of giddiness at finally seeing Richard again, though, remained.

"How much coffee did you have this morning?" she teased, and eyed Richard's bags. "Did you bring your coffee machine with you too, or have you suddenly become a morning person since I've last seen you?"

It was too early to board. Margo found them seats in the waiting area, and settled into hers.