Come Fly with Me

u have this weekend off right?

Attilio paused in the act of taking a sip of her bottled water. Her phone had been in her bag backstage while she worked, and Haoyu, with their impeccable timing, had apparently texted her about five minutes after she'd come in for the day.

She didn't have that long of a break, and she needed to grab a quick lunch. Still, she set her water down next to her mask and shot a quick text back.

Yeah, I've got the whole weekend. What's up?

want to go somewhere?
u haven't been in my flying machine yet

For better or worse, that was true. Haoyu's plane -- they could always just call it a plane, but they never did -- seated two people at best, and while they happily volunteered to take people up in it, a lot of them were busy and so was Haoyu half the time. Yuri, Fiona, Sana, and Cal were the only ones who'd actually gone flying with them, at least so far.

Sure!
Where were you thinking?

Attilio could get anxious and freeze up, but it had nothing to do with heights or thrills. The fact that Haoyu had built that plane themself didn't make her any more nervous, either; they'd built it six years ago, and hadn't had any real trouble since, so it had proven itself pretty well!

it's a surprise!!
but srsly free up ur weekend lol

That gave her pause where nothing else had. It wasn't a bad kind of pause... At least not exactly. She felt a shivery sort of anticipation in her chest, an excitement that almost threatened to turn into panic. She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes and trying to diffuse that.

Nerves were fine. Excitement was more than fine. She liked Haoyu, and Haoyu had made it clear enough that they liked her too, even if neither of them had said anything about dating yet. She'd gotten a lot better about getting paralyzed before making a decision that felt important -- and then spiraling about both the prospect of making a decision and not making one -- but not much time had passed since her own time in the Wonderworld and sometimes her old bad habits still threatened to rear their heads.

She opened her eyes again and looked back down at her phone. Haoyu had sent a third message while she'd been trying to center herself:

i mean if you're okay with that

She had to smile; Haoyu texted with full words more when they were trying to be serious and make sure people read them as sincere, she was starting to recognize that.

That sounds fun. Want to pick me up in the morning?

10am good? i'll make sure to get u back b4 u turn into a pumpkin (aka b4 work mon)

I'm a clown, not a princess, remember?
10am's good
bbl

Attilio didn't wait to get a text back, even if it was tempting. Instead, she stuffed her phone back in her bag; she had about ten minutes to eat her lunch and get back to work, but... It had been worth it. She liked her job, but she was in an even better mood now. Better to concentrate on that than on her nerves.

Outside of her job, Attilio tended to prefer to wear pastels with a few pops of color. She got dressed the next morning in pale blue jeans and a light green shirt with brighter blue accents that matched her eyes -- not nicer than usual, exactly, but something she knew she looked nice in.

Haoyu had texted her again after she'd gone back to work, asking her to meet them at a cafe at the outskirts of the city, one that overlooked the flower fields. She'd packed a small bag with some toiletries and changes of clothes, deciding there wasn't any point in trying to bring anything else, because she'd be walking to meet up with Haoyu and their plane didn't exactly have any storage space.

She'd already ordered and was sipping at her coffee when a few gasps from others sitting on the terrace made her look over. Haoyu was landing their plane out by the field, letting it coast to a stop on the grass, solicitously not touching either the flowers or the streets of the city itself. When they clambered out of their seat and looked around, Attilio raised a hand in a wave so that they could more easily spot her.

They jogged over, already grinning. It was a familiar expression; the way their hair was windswept and messy was also familiar, and they didn't bother to reach up and try to tame it down. "Good morning!" they greeted, sliding into the seat across from her. "What'd you order?"

"Morning." Attilio returned the greeting with a smile. "Eggs Florentine, fresh fruit, and a macchiato. Are you going to have anything?" Haoyu lived just shy of three hours away from the city, even by plane, so she wouldn't be surprised if they'd eaten already, but it would be a bit awkward to just hang out with them watching her eat.

"I had breakfast," Haoyu said, "but it's been a while, and we'll be flying for a while too, so... I'll probably get a muffin."

They got a muffin, and some orange juice, joking that they didn't need more caffeine, and while they ate the two of them chatted. It wouldn't be as easy to talk in the plane; it had an open cockpit and the wind would make it hard to be heard, so this was most of the talking they'd do before they got to their destination. Not much new had happened in either of their lives; Haoyu was helping Jose out a bit more at his farm now that they'd graduated, and Attilio had started learning photography from Sana. Yuri was apparently learning chess from Cal. That was about it.

"It feels like our lives have changed a lot, and also not much at all," Attilio observed.

"Yeah, after everything, it feels like the world should be different?" Haoyu agreed. "I mean, this is a world that the Wonderworld exists in, or next to, but... The only things that have changed are us."

"I guess if we've changed, that's good enough." They'd all needed to. They hadn't all talked about what had happened to them and why they'd been in the Wonderworld, and those who had had sometimes made veiled or vague comments about it, but they'd all agreed about that. What had happened in there had been frightening, but they'd all come out the other side better somehow. Happier.

And in retrospect, Wonderworld had been amazing. Despite her words, and knowing that it might have to be good enough, Attilio wanted to go back someday, just to experience that kind of magic again. She knew she wasn't the only one, but that was also something else none of them really talked about plainly.

As they approached Haoyu's plane, Attilio looked it over again. It was really something else: metal painted a bright, clean white, sleek wings, a propeller at the front and a larger one at the back, and all mounted with a bicycle as its core. At first that had seemed dangerous, but... Haoyu really seemed to know what they were doing. They had an engineering degree, but they'd made their flying machine before that -- right after getting out of the Wonderworld six years ago. They'd adjusted it so that it actually could seat two people, adding in a closed seat behind their own so that their passenger wouldn't need to pedal or let their legs dangle, but other than a few tweaks like that one it was the same as when they'd first made it. It was like them, a little wild-seeming and like it might be trouble, but really reliable.

"Normally there'd be some room at your feet to put your bag," Haoyu said, "but I've got mine there already, so unless you'd like a footrest..."

"It's fine, I'll hold it."

Haoyu did reach into the sort-of-backseat for their bag, though, digging in it for a moment before pulling out a pair of goggles that almost matched their own, turning to grin at Attilio as they offered it out to her. "Here. You don't want to be up here without these."

"Do I get to see how bad your eyesight is?" Attilio teased, and Haoyu stuck their tongue out at her as she put the goggles on.

"Nice try, Arlecchino; those aren't prescription."

Once the goggles were on, Attilio solemnly kept her hands up by her head, positioning them with spread, waggling fingers like antlers, and stuck her tongue out in return. That caught Haoyu by surprise, and they laughed, turning away to climb into the plane. "You're goofy."

"You forget?" Attilio got into her seat herself, holding her bag in her lap and feet bumping up against Haoyu's bag. She felt a little nervous at the lack of seat belts, but it was more of a thrill, like riding a roller coaster, than anything actually negative.

"Sometimes! You look a lot more serious than you are. Like a wistful poet instead of a clown."

Attilio was still thinking about that one, unsure what to say and not as able to rapid-fire a response back when she wasn't joking, when Haoyu started pedaling and the flying machine began to move.

It was slow at first, and Haoyu really had to work at it; they'd explained before that it was more difficult to get going with another person, but they were used to it by now. Once they really began to pick up speed, flowers whizzing by them, Attilio felt the odd sensation of the little plane actually starting to lift up off the ground.

"You know, I used to have to pedal off a cliff to launch this thing!" Haoyu called back cheerfully.

"--What?"

But they were already going up, the odd machine climbing into the air like something magic, like it was more than some amalgamation of bike and wings and rotors. The air rushing by and the sound of the propellers -- not that loud, surprisingly, but still audible -- made it as difficult to keep talking as Attilio had expected, and she took deep breaths to try to slow down her heart and just enjoy the ride.

It didn't take long. As alarming as it was at first to be so high up in such a small, light craft, cockpit uncovered and the experience totally out of her control, once she got used to it, it was almost... relaxing. Especially that last part. She'd always liked carnival rides, because they were a thrill but also because any worry was out of her hands the moment the ride started. Whether the experience was safe or not wasn't something she could do anything about, and perversely, that soothed her.

And she knew she could trust Haoyu -- probably more than some carnival rides, honestly, outside of those at Christmas Rose Park. They could be reckless, but not with other people. They could be impulsive, but they'd worked hard on this flying machine of theirs and it had been working consistently for a long time now.

Looking down was still unnerving at first, though. So she didn't. Attilio looked around them, at the sky and the horizon, at the birds that sometimes flew so close by that it seemed like they were trying to flock together with the plane. And eventually she did look down, at the landscape below them, fields and treetops and rivers and lakes; she tried not to lean too far, in case that would unbalance them, but Haoyu seemed unbothered.

"I wish I'd brought my camera," she said, and the wind whipped her words backwards and away. Haoyu didn't hear her, and that was fine.

This wasn't magic, not really. It was regular real-world brilliance, and she was so impressed with Haoyu all over again that it made her feel overwhelmingly fond. But the flight still felt magical anyway, closer to her memories of the Wonderworld than anything since then. She hadn't seen Haoyu's "stage," and this made her wonder what it had been like. Hers had been a mix of homey and intimidating, familiar and wrong, a mixed-up amusement park where morning never came, haunted houses and funhouse mirrors showed up all over, and tracks appeared in thin air requiring the type of leap of faith that Attilio had always struggled with...

She couldn't have asked even if she wanted to, not during this flight. It took a little over two hours before they reached the ocean, and for a minute she thought that they'd fly right out over it, wondering if maybe they were going to see Fiona or something like that. But then Haoyu banked and started their descent, and this time Attilio was able to watch with a thrill as the ground slowly got closer until with a bump their tires met the sand.

Attilio took her borrowed goggles off when they'd rolled to a stop, climbing out of the plane, but she was surprised. "The beach?"

"I was doing a delivery here the other day," Haoyu explained, gesturing vaguely towards the little seaside town they'd landed near. "And they don't get a lot of tourists in October, so I thought it could be nice. We probably shouldn't go swimming, but we can fly out over the water." They shrugged. "Or just hang out. Spend a little time away."

They seemed almost a little nervous, though they were smiling. Attilio wasn't sure if that made her feel more or less nervous herself, but she returned the smile. "That does sound nice. Usually when I have a little time off, I just spend it at home."

"Well, you don't have to do that anymore! Unless you want to, I mean." Haoyu gave an exaggerated bow, popping back up with their smile now a grin and their cheeks pink. "You have a pilot at your service, signora."

Attilio felt her own cheeks burn, and for a moment she powerfully wished she had her mask to hide behind. She tried to imagine that she did have it, that she was in costume right then, and managed to return the bow. "I'll keep Chang Airlines in mind for any of my travel needs," she promised.

The only actual hotel in the little seaside town was actually a collection of houses on the beach that had been renovated for the purpose; about half of them were two stories, and each story was its own "room." It was pretty cheap, given the season, to split the price of a room for twenty-four hours; they'd need to check out by two the next day, but they'd both packed so little that it wouldn't be a problem to just take their bags around with them if they didn't leave immediately. Haoyu arranged for parking for their flying machine with the hotel's bemused proprietor while Attilio went to check out the room, and joined her there with a little brochure for the town, combing their fingers through their hair to settle it a little.

"They don't have their beach markets in October, but they have glass bottom boats and a nature reserve," Haoyu reported. "And like five gift shops. And mini golf?"

"I haven't played mini golf since I was ten." Attilio took the brochure when Haoyu offered it out; she took a look herself as they rummaged through their bag again.

"I haven't played mini golf... ever."

"It's kind of fun. And the glass bottom boats sound nice, too, but maybe we can just walk around for a while until lunch." The brochure had a bright and welcoming little map, but actually taking a look around in person would be better, Attilio had a feeling.

"Sure. Nature reserve after lunch?" Haoyu had pulled out a little glasses case and replaced their goggles with their glasses, and was actually combing their hair properly instead of just messing with it with their fingers. Though they weren't bothering with a mirror.

"That sounds nice."

Attilio didn't have to ask if this was a date. She knew it was; they both knew it was. As they walked around the town, they walked close enough that their arms bumped and didn't actually talk much; after getting fresh seafood at a bistro (and sharing off each others' plates after Haoyu had stolen one of her scallops), they chatted a bit more at the nature reserve, mostly about what they were seeing there. Attilio was getting better at recognizing birds now -- anyone who spent time with Sana got better at that -- but she wasn't an expert; Haoyu asked her about every single unusual bird they saw and if she didn't know what it was she made something up, and then they tried to guess if she was bluffing or not.

"You keep trying not to smile when you're making it up!" Haoyu proclaimed, squinting at her. Attilio tried waving them away, turning her head.

"I keep trying not to smile when you stare me down like that!" she protested. "It's a kingfisher! I don't know if it's a beach kingfisher, but probably!"

When they got tired of that, Haoyu grabbed her hand and tugged her back towards the town. She walked along beside them, and neither of them let go until they were back at their hotel.

It was nice to get off their feet for a while. They turned on the television to have something on in the background while they talked, but Haoyu, sprawled out on their stomach on one of the beds, ended up falling asleep, and Attilio absently watched the TV movie as they napped. When she got back from using the bathroom after the movie was over, passing by the bed, something on Haoyu's bag caught her eye and she paused.

She hadn't spotted it earlier, because she hadn't really been looking at Haoyu's bag, but there was a pin on their bag from Christmas Rose Park. Christmas Rose Ferris Wheel it proclaimed, words framing an image of the Ferris wheel in question, though with a white Christmas rose blooming at the center where the hub would otherwise be.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Haoyu asked, only sounding half-awake, and she turned to look at them, only a little embarrassed.

"I didn't know you got a souvenir from us."

"Well, yeah. Two of my friends work there. Gotta support you and Cass." They sat up and stretched, then grinned at her, hair out of place again. Everything they did that wasn't walking or sitting around sedately seemed to muss it up. "No, I got it when I first met you guys. I mean, re-met you," they corrected themselves, holding up a hand to do a little 'back-up' gesture.

"That was almost a year ago. You still carry it around?"

"It was a good day for me! I want to remember it." Haoyu looked away from her, scanning their eyes around the room as if they were looking for something. "I want to get one from here, too, before we leave."

Attilio's stomach squirmed, but her head and chest felt light. "...Yeah, I'll... I'd like to get something, too."

Haoyu glanced back over at her, then jumped up to their feet in one bouncing movement. "Okay! I feel a lot more awake now. Want to go flying before dinner?"

If she was asked to choose, Attilio would pick a flight over the ocean in Haoyu's flying machine over a tour in a glass bottom boat any day. Mostly because Haoyu was the one flying them, and they really did seem excited to share this with her. The sea breeze was cold, especially as they climbed higher and as the sun inched towards the horizon, but Attilio didn't care.

"Did you really fly off a cliff?" Attilio raised her voice so that she could be heard, and Haoyu shouted their answer back at her, joking and cheerful:

"I learned nothing from Wonderworld!"

She laughed, leaning forward a little against Haoyu's back, so that maybe they could hear her without being her having to be so loud. "Liar. You're brilliant!"

She watched their ears turn red, and leaned back in her seat again, but for once the nervousness that came with the way their friendship was shifting and changing felt more like the exhilaration of a carnival ride than anything frightening.

By the time they landed, they were both hungry, and the sun was already setting. Attilio went to pick up a few scones and a cinnamon roll for breakfast in the morning while Haoyu put away their plane again, and she met them back at their room, already poring over the brochure again.

"I think a lot of the cafes might already be closed," they noted. "Want to get a pizza?"

They ended up getting a large Hawaiian to go, and taking it out to the end of the pier to eat, with a couple of root beers. There was a small restaurant out there, but it had already closed, and while there was a souvenir shop that also rented fishing rods as well, only one or two other people were out there besides them. It still felt a little too crowded, though; they sat out there for a while after they'd finished eating, but after a few minutes, Attilio stood up.

"Do you want to go for a walk?"

Haoyu smiled as they stood to join her, gathering up their trash to throw it away. "Yeah. That'd be good."

Off the pier again, they walked along the beach, near where the water lapped at the sand but not quite close enough to get their shoes wet. When Haoyu's hand brushed hers, Attilio was the one to take hold of their hand that time -- taking a breath and holding it, then letting it out with a sigh when they squeezed her fingers.

"There are so many stars away from the city," she noted.

Haoyu nodded. "I wish it were safer to fly at night," they said, voice wistful. "Can you imagine?"

Attilio tilted her head back. There were so many stars dotting the sky, only occasionally broken up by clouds, and the sky itself was a deep purple-blue. "I wish I'd brought my camera," she said, voicing her thought from before a second time.

"Maybe next time?"

Attilio looked back over at them. "Next time?"

"Welllll... We should probably come back and actually swim sometime, right?" Haoyu grinned, but looked away from her, out over the water. "Sorry, I try to take things slow. You seem pretty nervous... I feel pretty nervous," they corrected themself. "So it's not like it's just you."

"I kind of like that you just jump into things that make you happy," Attilio admitted. "Things that excite you... I've never been very good at that. And the more important something feels, the more I lock up over it. I've been trying to get better about it, but..."

"It's been about a year for you, right? A little more than that?" Haoyu looked back over. "I mean, if that's part of why..."

"It was." Attilio admitted, "I had a crush on Cass, actually. She was nice, and pretty, and confident, and everybody liked her. I barely even knew her, but I was convinced I was in love with her, and it made me completely panic. I almost stopped coming in to work. And then I found the Theatre..." She shook her head ruefully. "And it still took me months to figure out that I wanted to be like her. In a lot of ways. You know how we all got corrupted in there; I turned into some nightmare princess-clown and I had no idea why, really. I always just... overthink and can't come to any conclusion, and then I can't move."

"I really admire that you think a lot about things, though," Haoyu said. When Attilio looked at them in surprise, they gave her a little smile.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... I've always had kind of the opposite of your problem. If something is important to me, I just get really stubborn. When I was trying to make something that would let me fly, it was disaster after disaster after disaster. I wouldn't get off the ground, or I'd get maybe ten feet up and just crash, and sometimes things would just explode. I had hit a wall and I just kept running into it again and again, even if it hurt. I went into town to buy more parts and things to repair my workshop, and then a Tim stole a wrench I'd just bought and I chased it into the Theatre. I probably wouldn't have gone in otherwise; I was too focused on flying and I didn't want to think about anything else, but I wasn't really thinking anything I was doing through at that point either? I was just rushing and building and failing. I got so frustrated I turned into a giant plane monster, I guess because I wanted to be in the sky but also it felt like it had taken over... everything."

Attilio squeezed their hand. "Whatever you figured out in there worked," she pointed out. "What did you do?"

"I had to sit down and calm down." Haoyu stopped walking and turned to face her, hand still gripping hers. "That's why I admire you! I'd started barely planning out what I was going to make, jumping in and building things and getting more blindly determined every time that didn't work. So I made myself take a week and not build anything at all. Just sketched out the plans. And I actually caught a few mistakes in there while I was working on the blueprints, things that could have made it just another failure. But that's my flying machine."

They straightened up a little, proudly, but then they added with a wry grin, "...I did still pedal off a cliff with it to test it."

"Haoyu!"

"I know!" Haoyu held up their free hand. "Looking back, that was a really bad idea. I was still pretty stubborn and reckless. But I was also really confident in my work that time."

"Well, I'm glad it worked out." Attilio sighed. When Haoyu tugged at her hand, she joined them in sitting on the sand, facing the ocean and looking out into the waves. The sound was soothing, and something in her relaxed, enough that she scooted closer to them.

"...Have you ever tried to find the Theatre again?"

Attilio looked over, but it had gotten dark enough that it was hard to read the expression on Haoyu's face with any accuracy. "A few times, yeah. Or it's more like I'll be walking around the city and realize I'm looking around and hoping I can see it."

Haoyu nodded. "Or see one of the Tims. Or Balan, or even Lance. Every town and city I go to, even this one, I look around and think 'what if?' I don't know if that feeling's ever going to go away."

Attilio considered that. If it never went away, if it was with them their whole lives... that would make sense. The Theatre, the Wonderworld, those had been magic. Even with the negative parts, the sad and scary parts, the Wonderworld had lived up to its name.

She clearly remembered seeing all the others for the first time. After everything had been fixed, after they'd all broken free of their own traumas and insecurities and fears. It had been a year and two months for her, but in that magic place they hadn't all come from the same town or the same time. Haoyu was two years older than Attilio, but on that stage they'd been eighteen. It was always a little jarring, even with those smaller differences; for some of them the gap spanned a decade.

And even six years later, in their mid-twenties, Haoyu still looked around for that magic. Even ten years later, Attilio knew that Cass did, too.

"Maybe if we all keep trying, one of us will find it again someday," Attilio said. "But maybe it will just always stick with us."

Haoyu leaned over and nudged her shoulder with theirs. "That wouldn't be so bad."

It was getting cold even in the city; out here on the beach at night it was starting to feel freezing. When Attilio leaned against Haoyu's shoulder, though, she felt a little warmer, and more so still when they put their arm around her. That was its own kind of magic, she thought, the kind that they could touch their own lives with, and each others'.

"No," she agreed, "it wouldn't be."