author's note: for this prompt - “Are you ticklish?”

There’s a lot of thinking that can be done on an 11 hour flight, especially for someone like Jonghyun who finds it hard to fall asleep on airplanes and usually ends up letting his thoughts wander while he’s conveniently up in the sky. It’ll mostly lead him to either composing new songs or rearranging melodies and changing lyrics of songs he has already written. Still, that typically requires some sort of inspiration to get himself in the correct mood. So when Jonghyun is feeling none of that on their flight to Los Angeles, his mind travels to other random places as he looks around his surroundings.

The mini screen in front of him shows that they’ve been flying for 6hrs 21mins, which means that everyone but Jonghyun has pretty much been asleep for at least 3hrs. That’s also about the same amount of time the cabin lights have stayed dimmed, and also how long Kibum has been fast asleep. Jonghyun’s eyes has long adjusted to the darkness so when he looks to his left, he can clearly see Kibum sleeping soundly in the business class seat, all wrapped up in the airline blanket with a pillow at the side of his head and earphones still plugged in.

Staring at Kibum, Jonghyun continues thinking about random things. Like whether the blanket has been washed or has it been reused from previous flights, whether Kibum is dreaming while he sleeps and what he dreams about, if he should help Kibum apply more lip balm before his lips get too dry, or if Kibum’s feet are as cold as his since the blanket only covers up to his ankles. With this thought in mind, Jonghyun sits up right and leans over to pull the blanket down for Kibum.

At such close proximity, Jonghyun is able to see Kibum’s face more clearly. He realises that Kibum is frowning as he sleeps. There’s a crease between his eyebrows that Jonghyun wants to smooth out. And so, he does. He lifts his hand up and reaches towards Kibum’s forehead, gently the crease away. Of course, it doesn’t work that way and it leaves Jonghyun unhappy. He doesn’t just want Kibum’s frown to disappear, he wants more than that. Glancing down at Kibum’s lips, Jonghyun wants to make Kibum smile. He wants those lips to curl upwards even in his sleep.

“What the- hyung, what are you doing so close to me?”

It’s only when he sees the pair of lips move and hears Kibum’s voice that Jonghyun realises he has accidentally woken Kibum up.

“Sorry, I just…” Jonghyun meets Kibum’s puzzled eyes and suddenly, an idea comes to him, “Are you ticklish?”

Kibum pulls out his earphones, “What?”

Unfortunately for Kibum, he has no time to be confused or for that matter, do anything else. Before he can figure out what is happening, Jonghyun’s hands has found their way under the blanket, his fingers perfectly positioned at the right spots on Kibum’s sides, as he begins tickling him without warning.

Kibum lets out a muffled shriek and squirms in his seat, laughing while he tries to fight Jonghyun off. The smile on Kibum’s face is priceless and Jonghyun doesn’t want it to go away. He continues tickling Kibum, fingers prodding under his arms and down his sides until Kibum’s body is almost flipping around in the seat like a fish out of water.

Having too much fun, Jonghyun finds it too funny that he never realized Kobum is this ticklish and ends up laughing along, both of them forgetting they’re making a nuisance on the plane, let alone in public. That is until…

“How can I-”

At the same time the air stewardess’s smile freezes on her face, both Jonghyun and Kibum jerk up and turn towards her, obviously shocked at her sudden appearance.

Although surprised, the air stewardess quickly clears and regains her professionalism.

“Let me just turn this off for you…” With a smile, she reaches towards the arm rest and presses the flight attendant call button to turn off the light above their seats.

“Sorry!” Jonghyun manages to say in his embarrassment once he realises either he or Kibum has accidentally pressed it while he had been tickling Kibum.

“It’s alright, Sir.” With that, the air stewardess bows and quickly takes her leave.

“Look what you’ve done.” Kibum hisses, equally embarrassed, as he pushes Jonghyun back towards his own seat.

“Oops?”

“Idiot, why on earth would you even tickle me?!”

“I just wanted to see you smile.”

Kibum rolls his eyes, “There are others ways to do that, hyung.”

“Like what? You know I’m not the type to tell jokes…”

“Yeah, but you can do this.” Kibum leans across and gives Jonghyun a quick kiss.

Jonghyun smiles and sees that Kibum is smiling as well.

“If only I knew earlier…” Jonghyun thinks out loud.

“Too bad, hyung.” Kibum rolls his eyes, “Now if you will excuse me, I’m going back to sleep now.”

“What? No…” Jonghyun pouts, “What about me?”

“Go back to doing whatever you were doing before you stupidly decided to tickle me.”

“Fine.”

A minute later, Kibum peeks an eye open.

“Why are you staring at me?”

“That was what I was doing before I tickled you.” Jonghyun replies with a straight face.

Kibum lets out a sigh and lies on his side to face Jonghyun, eyes wide open.

It is in that moment when Jonghyun happily concludes he’s going to have company for the rest of the flight.