“Snack cart is coming around again soon, I think.”
Not soon enough for Rory. He sighed and rifled around in his backpack, pulling out a bag of already popped popcorn to snack on. They’d both stocked up on overpriced snacks at the airport.
“What are you up to?”
“I want to get some preview photos ready to send the couple when we land,” Nash said, too cheap to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi. Rory set his chin on Nash's shoulder to look at the photos.
“Oh good, the portraits turned out.”
“The portraits floored me,” Nash said, paging through them one at a time so Rory could get a good look.
“Oh, that’s the sex-and-pasta aunt,” Rory pointed out. Nash pulled the photo to edit.
“You have such a good eye, holy shit,” Nash said, pointing out the lighting on a photo of one of the groomsmen kissing the bride’s brother on the cheek.
“I like portraits,” he said, shrugging.
“These are special. They’re going to love them. These are way better than drunk ‘photo booth’ photos. They’re…classy.”
“I think Italy did a lot of the heavy lifting there.” It hurt Nash’s heart to watch Rory dodge every compliment.
“Do you always feel like your work isn’t good enough? Because the photos you took are spectacular.”
“Is that just because you want to get in my pants?” Rory joked, the punchline falling flat. Nash always looked at Sam and Rory and saw this unbridled confidence. But that was just what he saw. “I’m used to Sam being good at everything, and me being the other one.”
He shrugged again like that didn’t matter, and it tugged at Nash's heart. “I understand that feeling. Maybe not the same way you feel it, but God, there’s so much that comes so easily to him that I have to work so hard at.”
“You get it,” Rory said, leaning in to kiss his cheek. Nash turned into the kiss, catching his lips for a quick, appropriate kiss.
Rory rested his head against Nash's shoulder again, helping him pick out a few more photos.
“Thank you for saying that, by the way. That you liked my photos. I was nervous that I was going to fuck this up, and I’m glad that isn’t how it turned out.”
“You didn’t fuck up anything. You saved our asses.”
“Sam owes me big-time. Though getting a boyfriend—boyfriend?—out of it is pretty good compensation, now that I think about it.”
“Yeah, boyfriend sounds good,” Nash confirmed, letting the word flutter around in his chest.
“Speaking of Sam…”
“I don’t want to think about it,” Nash whined. “I think it’s poor form to date your best friend’s little brother.”
“God, it’s not like Sam has a lot of wrath or anything, but I am also not excited to tell him. Should we…rip off the Band-Aid?”
“We can bring him lunch tomorrow and show him the photos.”
“And kiss in front of him and watch his heart stop,” Rory joked. They would need a different strategy than that, but it was funny to think about. Rory made it seem easier, lighter. He made everything easier. He made Nash laughon an airplane. That alone is enough to convince Nash that Rory is worth fighting for, even if Sam doesn’t like it at first. They could do it together.
