Cresswell: The Lunar Chronicles

Chapter Sixty-Two

It was weird to watch the Rampion soar up into the sky and disappear, and Thorne kept feeling like he was forgetting something. Having not seen his ship in over a week, only to be without it yet again was a little unsettling. More so than he would have thought.

"There they go." He sighed, turning from the window.

"Our baby." Cress snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Thorne laughed, turning to sling an arm around her. "You finished packing yet?"

"Yes! This backpack is so much fun!" she added with another excited grin.

Thorne had thought to tell her it was a rather expensive designer, but decided against it. He had only bought that one because he knew it would last her forever and was well made, he didn't want to come across as looking for more thank-yous by telling her it was some fancy designer.

Besides, he kind of liked how excited she was about it not even knowing.

"And I asked the hotel to pack us some sandwiches to take," she added.

"Nice. The hover should be here any minute."

"How far is the airport?"

"Not far. Maybe an hour? But it's small, so we'll take a short plane ride to London and that's where we'll get to do the whole 'real airport/real plane' experience."

Cress excitedly grinned.

While waiting for the hover, Thorne did a double check that they hadn't forgotten anything in the room before returning their room key at the front desk.

"I want some ice coffee," Cress murmured, craning her neck towards the restaurant.

"Let's see if they have any."

They didn't, but they did have ice lemonade. Which wasn't exactly a coffee substitute, but it was cold and delicious. 

The hover ride to the airport wasn't as long as Thorne was anticipating and after the first few minutes Cress got board staring out at the terrain and leaned against him.

The airport was small, that much he had known, but it was nothing in comparison to any other airport he'd seen—international or not. He could tell Cress was disappointed with it and he almost hoped she would fall asleep for that plane ride so she would wake up and get to experience a real airport. He didn't realize she had actually fallen asleep until the plane landed and she almost jumped out of her seat.

"Did you fall asleep?"

Cress nodded, her cheek creased with wrinkles from his shirt.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah." She yawned.

"Come on, we're here."

"In California?"

"No, London."

"Right." Cress, apparently still half asleep, stumbled a little as she slung her bag over her shoulder and stood up.

"Here." Thorne took her bag from her, wrapping an arm around her waist to keep her from falling.

As soon as they walked through customs and into the bigger part of the airport, Cress woke up a little more.

"It's colder here." She giggled.

"Once we get through security I'll give you my jacket." Thorne said, grabbing two of the plastic bins stacked up and setting them out on the metal table. "Take your shoes off and put them in here. And anything metal."