[dohtml]<div style="width:385px;text-align:justify;line-height:98%;font-family:trebuchet ms;">reuben was a little antsy. it had been a couple of days since he had landed from the plane and had taken up residence in his mother's house. everything had just fallen to shit. everything hurt. sure reuben was sulking but he didn't resign himself to eating ice cream and crying to his mother asking <i>why</i>. he should have told brendan, told him the truth. he was ashamed though. didn't want people to know. he had asked the people to not show it and they had promised they'd keep the video's to themselves but what a joke that had been. with shades covering his eyes reuben waited in the arrivals area of the airport. trying to hide himself in a sense, look a little incognito if you will. his hat hide his face and no one had asked him any questions. he felt like he hadn't even showered in days. the time he had spent at his parents place, he had been working on fixing the fences with his father and helping his mother keep the house clean. now though shannon was flying out. not really because he asked but because he needed someone. what he and brendan had, reuben didn't even know. it just hurt too much to think. hell he hadn't really even spoken to his mother about it all. looking periodically at his watch he let out a deep breath. her flight should have landed by now and his eyes were searching the arrivals exit. bouncing from foot to foot he tried not to come off as desperate.</div>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; line-height: 98%; font-family: tahoma; font-size: 9px;"> watching out of the window as the plane banked hard and broke through the clouds her eye's scanned the landscape as it came into view. this was the first time her passport would ever have a stamp on it from australia. not that she hadn't ever thought about visiting prior, but she had obviously hoped that her first visit would be under better circumstances than to console a friend who was obviously distraught with the state of his life. then again this was reuben and he was one of those people that she would and had to do anything for. not that she wouldn't do just about anything for anyone else in her life, he just held a special sort of quality in her heart due to the fact that he was always so kind to her and never had a harsh word to say to her about anything or anyone for that matter. how could she not be there for him when he needed her the most? not to mention that brendan was also her friend and if anything she could possibly offer some sort of friendly mediator that would help figure out this thing and possibly help fix whatever was going on here. she had some sort of a handle on it all - but it was hard to have a complete handle when all you had to go off of was a text conversation and an invitation to fly down. all she knew for certain was that things were far from alright. <p> feeling the planes wheels touch down she exhaled a little before sucking in breath and puffing out her cheeks in an attempt to make her ears pop, trying to rid herself from that familiar echoing feeling that her ears often got when a flight would land. once her ears popped she unbuckled herself and stretched for a few moments before starting to gather her wits and get herself together. grabbing her carry on which contained everything that she had packed for the trip she followed the shuffle of people off of the plane one of by one, a few of them not really wanting to move as fast as she would of liked, then again they'd just been on a very long flight so she really couldn't blame any of them much. as soon as she was clear of the terminal she walked towards the waiting area and let her eye's scan the faces of waiting people as her teeth lightly chewed on her bottom lip, nervous about what sort of state she was going to find him in. spotting him she made her way towards him and dropped her bag at her feet and wrapped both of her arms around his chest. "there you are. i was so worried." </div>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<div style="width:385px;text-align:justify;line-height:98%;font-family:trebuchet ms;">to be honest, reuben didn't really know if he was going to come back from this at all. if he and brendan were going to come back from this. it was just too much and as much as reuben loved his lover. his mother had tried time and again to get him to talk, but instead reuben had just focused on helping his father fix things around the house. in fact reuben was silent most of the time. when his mother had come to pick him up from the airport he just hugged her and she took him home. a few days had passed and still he had no phone call from brendan. no text messages, no voice mails. sure he could have called himself but he couldn't bring himself to do so. he fucked up, that was one way of putting it. maybe it was the only way but now he was paying for it. something he did years ago was coming back to haunt him and no matter what the intentions.<p>

waiting, god reuben had no idea how long he had been at the airport waiting. it was cold, he was hungry and he was nervous and scared. he wasn't really too sure what exactly to expect but when he noticed the blonde heading out of the arrivals terminal bags in hand he felt a little bit of relief flood through him. shannon had come, just like she said she would. ignoring the looks people gave them reuben wrapped his arms around her tightly. <b>"thank you for coming."</b> was all he could say, no other words able to leave his mouth. <b>"i'm just happy your hear."</b> pulling away from her he gave her a small smile under his shades and reached for her bag. he didn't care that he'd rake up a bill from the parking meter, it was something he could deal with later. right now shannon was here, and reuben just needed a friend. taking her hand in his he began leading her through the throng of people and towards the exit. <b>"how was your flight?"</b> he just didn't want to talk about the other thing. at least not yet.</div>[/dohtml]