The gate they were waiting at was packed. Jinki found the variety of people a little amusing. There were the people in pencil skirts and heels, and the ones in matching jumpsuits. Some looked like their blood was coffee, others were walking zombies, and the few others could be seen visibly waking up as they sipped on their crutch of choice. Jinki pouted a little. He missed coffee a lot more now that he couldn’t have it. Kibum had suggested an early morning flight to his parents so that they had time to relax before having to actually deal with being social. Kibum was quietly scrolling through his twitter feed, softly chuckling every now and again at something amusing, humming when he agreed with another. Jinki found that observing people was a little difficult with the bad taste in your mouth and nausea flooding his senses.

          He laid back in his seat, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to try and make the queasiness fade a little. All it did was cause him to catch the scent of the airport employee’s strong as hell perfume, and his nose scrunched unpleasantly. He turned to Kibum with a pout on his face, laying his chin on the man’s shoulder. “Bummie, I’m nauseous.”

          Kibum reached over to grab the hand on his thigh, rubbing the back of Jinki’s hand with his thumb as he asked, “How bad is it?”

          “On a scale of Lil to puke central, I’m at a strong gagging level.”

          With a deep frown on his face, Kibum reached over into his carry on. He moved his hand around for a moment before he pulled out a pack of saltine crackers. He held them out to Jinki with a soft smile, “These should help a little.”

          “Kibum~” He softened, his emotions getting the better of him slightly. Not only had he remembered to bring him saltines, they were the one brand that always seemed to work. “You’re gonna make me cry.”

          “That wasn’t my intention.” Kibum wrapped his arm around Jinki and kissed his hair. “We still have 30 minutes until we start boarding. Lay down Baby.”

          After a little shifting Jinki was able to lay his head on Kibum’s thigh and bring his legs up onto the line of chairs. He gently nibbled on a cracker as Kibum moved his fingers through his hair. Jinki’s eyes fluttered a little at the soothing gesture. He just hoped that the smelly airport employee stayed as far away from him as possible until he boarded the plane.

——

          Kibum let Jinki board the plane first, walking a step behind him as he found their seat numbers that were printed on the tickets held in his hand. Once they found them Jinki took the window seat as Kibum put their carry on’s up. Usually, they would take turns getting the window seat. One would get it the way there and the other on the way back, but with Jinki’s uncomfortableness by touching at all recently Kibum gave his turn up to make sure he didn’t get brushed by someone going up and down the aisle. Once finished he slipped into his seat and pressed a kiss to Jinki’s cheek. “Feel any better?”

          “A little.” Jinki pushed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie, palm over his tummy. “Our lil nugget is being good.”  

          Jinki looked out the window at the rain pelting the wing of the plane as Kibum observed the last few people moving through the aisle to their seats. When that got boring he leaned his head on Jinki’s shoulder and curled his arm around Jinki’s to tug it closer. “I’m sleepy.”

          “We’ll get to nap when we land right?”

          “As long as we keep our nugget a secret, we’ll be free until dinner.”

          “I’m stuck between wanting everyone to know,” Jinki softly said as he leaned his head against Kibum’s gently. “And wanting to keep it to ourselves until we leave because I don’t wanna be squished.”

          Kibum patted Jinki’s hands that were still in his hoodie pouch. “If they try they’ll have to go through me. I won’t let them make you uncomfy.”

          Jinki hummed gratefully as his eyes fluttered close. “How do you feel about in air naps?”

          “It’ll ruin the naps in the big water bed at my parents’.”

          The other was silent for a moment before he hummed, “That’s true. Must stay awake.”

          “Hopefully it doesn’t get you sick.”

          Jinki pouted deeply with a quiet whine, “Why did you have to think of that?”

          “Heh, my bad.” Jinki just grumbled until the flight attendants began their pre-flight protocols.

—–

          Half way through their flight Kibum was reading the book he brought with him and Jinki was entertaining himself with finding shapes in the clouds just outside his window. He was debating if a particular cloud looked more like a flamingo or a banana when the gross smell hit his nose. He wiggled a little in his seat and brought the hoodie over his nose so that his eyes and hair were the only things seen from the mass of fabric. Kibum glanced over at the extra movement and a little laugh left his lips at the sight. Jinki turned toward him, “You okay there Love?”

          “Smelly person,” Jinki said in the cutest little voice. “Me Queasy.”

          “Oh Baby, C’mere.” The book was closed and slid into the small backpack at his feet as he wrapped the other arm around Jinki, kissing his hair.

          “Bad smells,” Jinki made a disgusted noise and nuzzled into Kibum as much as he could with the armrest between them. “I wanna land.”

          “Only two more hours.” An almost too quiet of a whine left Jinki’s lips and Kibum chuckled as he kissed his hair. “I know Baby, I know.”

—–

          When they finally landed Kibum’s older brother was waiting for them. Jinki smiled fondly as his mate ran to his brother, both alphas colliding in a mess of limbs as rushed words of excitement. Jinki slowly pulled their carry on behind him as he made his way over. Kibum’s brother’s eyes landed on Jinki with a smile. “Hey Jinki.”

          “It’s good to see you Kwangsu.” The smile on his face fell as the man hugged him. He looked at Kibum uncomfortably as he awkwardly put his arms around Kwangsu.

          “Let’s get going,” Kibum said, causing his brother to remove himself from Jinki, “We’ve been looking forward to napping in the guest room all flight.”

          “Ah, right, sorry. C’mon.” He flashed a smile as he took the luggage from Jinki. Kibum fell back to wrap an arm around Jinki’s shoulders.

          Jinki was about to say he could pull his own damn luggage, but Kibum was squeezing his shoulder and quietly saying, “ It’s a pride thing.”

          With a reluctant sigh, he settled for being snuggled. His mood changed the moment he was climbing into that water bed, arms open for Kibum who was locking the door and kicking off his pants.

——-

          Kibum had been right when he said they would be free until dinner. They weren’t bothered at all until the food was about finished and someone was sent to knock on their door. If the smell of dumplings hadn’t reached his nose, Jinki would have been completely content staying in that room of silence wrapped up in Kibum’s entire being, but food and his grumbling stomach called. He carefully moved to the edge of the bed. Napping without feeling sick had been a success, but he didn’t want to push his luck by moving too much on the jiggly bed.  He was slipping on his pants when Kibum came around to kiss his cheek. “I’ll be helping my Mom with the last few things. Join us when you’re ready Baby.”

          “I just have to find my sock.” Which was harder than he anticipated. He found it under the comforter than had fallen off the end of the bed about ten minutes later. Once it was secure on his foot he shuffled out. He found Kibum sitting on the other side of the table and quickly made his way over there.

          His hand was gently squeezed after he had slid into his seat. “I was about to come look for you.”

          “My sock wanted to play an unplanned game of hide-n-seek.” Jinki’s tummy grumbled when the rolls were brought into the room, causing Kibum and the other members of the family around the table to laugh. Jinki blushed, embarrassed. “Sorry. I haven’t eaten since the tiny pretzels on the plane.”

          “It’s perfectly alright son,” Kibum’s father softly said with a laugh, “The hungrier the better I always say.”

          “That’s a good motto for my cooking if I do say so myself,” Kibum’s mother smiles wide as she directed Kwangsu to set the bird on the table in the middle. “Dinner’s served!”

          Kibum pulled off a leg of the turkey and softly laid it on Jinki’s plate as the man worked on getting a piece of that gorgeous bread into his mouth. Jinki lost track of the conversation as he focused on eating. He was moving to get more corn when the volume of the voices around him skyrocketed. He looked around bewildered, mid motion of bringing the corn over. It took him a moment to make everything not so murky sounding. “Congratulations! That’s amazing.” Kibum’s mother happily squealed.

          Jinki looked over at Kibum, eyes wide and confused. The Alpha looked positively flustered and guilty. “It slipped, I’m sorry.”

          “Wha-”

          “I knew there was something different about you,” His mother continued, cutting Jinki off. “I wish you had told me sooner I would have gotten special tea for you.”

          So many questions were thrown his way and it all got very muddy and overstimulating. Kibum’s father was touching his hand. The gesture was probably meant to be supportive and comforting, but all it did was make him want to curl into a ball. “Excuse me, I have to use the restroom.”

          Kibum followed him with his gaze like a hawk on a mouse and was quick to grab his mother’s wrist when she moved to hug Jinki as he walked past her. She sat back down bewildered and aghast at his actions. “What was that for?”

          “Jinki doesn’t feel comfortable with a lot of touching right now.” He answered after the bathroom door clicked close. “So if you wouldn’t mind holding off on the physical support it would mean a lot.”

          “Understood.” Kibum relaxed against the back of his chair as his family resumed eating. He gazed around the corner for any sign of Jinki when his mother’s voice brought back his attention. “Oh Goodness! This means we can go shopping at the boutiques tomorrow. They have the cutest baby things.”

          “We only found out a couple weeks ago,” Kibum stressed, “We really don’t need to look into buying anything extra right now.”

          “Nonsense.” She shook her head with her words, “It’s never too early to buy things for the baby. I bought a lot of things each day I found out I was pregnant.”

          Kibum groaned. “I get to come right?”

          “Oh darling no!” She answered with a tone of concern. “Those boutiques are no place for an Alpha.”

          He really missed the more open society of Jinki’s reservation, the place he now called home. Jinki finally returned just before he was about to go to see if anything was wrong. Still, Kibum leaned over to whisper in his ear, “Everything okay?”

          Jinki smiled over at him, but Kibum could see how uncomfortable and taken off guard he was feeling. “Just felt a little sick is all.”

          Kibum didn’t buy it one bit, but his family seemed to. “Oh, morning sickness is the worst. I had it so badly with my dear Kibummie.”

          “Ma~” He whined. When Jinki softly laughed, it was genuine. He leaned over and pressed a long kiss to the man’s cheek, and whispered, “I love you.”

          Jinki smiled softly at him and squeezed his knee under the table. “I love you too.”

——-