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Elesa liked her girlfriend very much. She knew this better than anything else; that she would do absolutely anything for Skyla. No one quite made her feel the way that she did, and nothing could match the warm, bubbly feeling that rose in her chest when she stared at her with those blue eyes, as clear and bright as a cloudless sky.
They had been dating for four months now, and Elesa could definitively say that they were the best four months of her life. Being with Skyla made her feel like she was walking on the clouds that her brilliant, talented girlfriend often flew through. Being busy with their respective gyms, they’d been going on dates on the weekends. Elesa had come to look forward to these dates with a sort of giddy anticipation that made her feel more like a teenager than a full-grown woman.
They were scheduled to meet tomorrow morning, bright and early, for their date. She should have been thrilled.
Instead, she felt as if a pit were yawning wide open in her stomach. Because she was scared.
Shitless.
You see, Skyla was going to take her flying tomorrow.
And she was afraid of heights.
She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t mentioned her fear when she’d proposed the idea. No–scratch that. She knew exactly why. It was because Skyla had been bouncing on her toes with enthusiasm at the idea and had squealed with delight when Elesa had agreed to it. She’d been so happy to share her passion for flying with her that Elesa couldn’t possibly have brought it up.
Stupid–she was so stupid. Why hadn’t she just told her? What was wrong with her?
Again, she knew. She was afraid of heights, yes–but more afraid that this would be a deal-breaker for her girlfriend, the pilot. What if she wasn’t interested in pursuing a relationship with her any further if she couldn’t share her love for the sky?
Currently, she was regretting this, and every other questionable life decision she’d made as she sat at the bar of the Nimbasa City restaurant that Emmet had agreed to meet her at. She stared straight forward at the bottles on the wall, her fingers pressed into her temples, and contemplated her imminent demise twelve hours from now.
“Wow. A full thirty seconds without blinking. Impressive.”
Emmet’s voice shook her from her thoughts as he slid onto the stool beside her. His wide smile and grey eyes greeted her as she turned his way. Judging by his outfit, he’d come straight from his shift at the Battle Subway.
“Oh, hey, Emmet,” she mumbled. Although she was happy to see her friend, she couldn’t quite lift her voice as she continued, “Thanks for meeting me.”
“Uh-oh,” he remarked. “You look miserable. What’s wrong?”
Elesa was too overcome with embarrassment to come right out with it, even though she’d called this emergency meet-up thirty minutes ago.
“Emmet… have you ever been in an airplane?” she ventured tentatively, spinning the little straw in her martini glass with her fingers.
“No. I’ve never had need to. The subway takes me anywhere I’ve needed to go.”
“Oh… no…” Elesa moaned, burying her face in her hands once more.
“Why are you asking?” Emmet pressed, leaning in. “Are you flying somewhere soon?”
“I’m flying somewhere tomorrow,” Elesa admitted, looking up. “Skyla is taking me.”
“I thought you were afraid of heights. Didn’t you have an anxiety attack on the ferris wheel last summer when you, me and Ingo went on it together?”
“I am afraid of heights,” Elesa groaned.
“So then why did you agree to go flying?”
“I don’t know, okay!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been asking myself that question ever since I agreed to it yesterday.”
Emmet stared at a few seconds, one hand pressed to his lips thoughtfully. After a moment or two, he pointed it at her.
“I know,” he said. “It’s because you’re in love with her.”
Elesa’s cheeks burned as a flustered feeling filled her chest. “I’m not–”
“Don’t even try to deny it. I’m certain of it. You’re so in love with her that your affection has overridden your common sense. There's no other way you would have made such a bone-headed decision as to go flying even though you’re terrified of heights.”
“Fuck,” she said. “What do I do?”
“Well, you could tell her about your overwhelming, all-encompassing fear of heights–”
“Absolutely not.”
Emmet sighed and drew the glass of water that the bartender had slid over to him into his palm. “There’s no helping it, then. You’re going to have to go flying with her.”
The next morning, Elesa took the subway to the closest exit to the airport on the outskirts of Nimbasa City that Skyla had told her to go to. It wasn’t the busy, commercial-service airport in the heart of the city that airline flights to different regions took off out of, but rather a smaller, quieter strip on the northwest side of the city that she hadn’t even known existed.
The airport was not very busy. In fact, she was the only person occupying the small terminal building, other than the woman behind the desk. Skyla had described the building as an FBO–whatever that meant.
Her foot bobbed up and down nervously as she waited on Skyla to land. She had told her that she was going to fly down from Mistralon City in her airplane to pick her up so that they could embark on their adventure together. She’d sounded so excited on the phone thirty minutes ago when she called to let her know that she was on her way.
After her incredibly unhelpful meetup with Emmet last night, she’d thought a little bit more about what he’d said, and decided that, perhaps, his advice wasn’t entirely useless. On the commute over to the airport, she’d resolved herself to telling her girlfriend the truth. She had to. Besides, what was a relationship worth if it wasn’t built on trust and honesty–
The sound of a running engine snapped had her looking out of the wide windows towards the ramp. An adorable little plane with a propeller on the front had pulled up in front of the building and parked there. After a few seconds, it was cut off and the door opened.
Elesa’s heart fluttered in her chest as Skyla hopped out onto the ramp. Even from here, she could see the huge smile on her face as she hurried towards the building.
At the sight of that smile, at Skyla’s windswept red locks, all of Elesa’s resolve drained away. She couldn’t tell her. She just couldn’t. It would surely crush her heart.
The door opened and Skyla rushed into the building. As soon as she laid eyes on her, her eyes lit up and she wasted no time in crossing the distance between them and throwing her arms around her in a tight embrace.
Despite her nerves, Elesa was comforted a tiny bit at the familiar scent of her strawberry shampoo. After a moment, Skyla pulled back to arms length but twined their hands together. “I’m so glad you’re here! Did you find it okay?”
“Oh, yeah, it was easy to find,” Elesa assured her, smiling a bit in return. “I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t even know this airport was here.”
“Yeah, it's pretty small. But I figured it would be better for us to fly out of here than Nimbasa International! Not that I haven’t flown into there plenty of times–the airspace is just really busy, and they don’t really like getting general aviation traffic.”
Skyla stopped abruptly, then blushed. “Ah… I’m rambling, aren’t I? I’m sorry, I’m just so excited to take you flying today! Come on, let me show you the plane.”
Skyla tugged her out the door by their intertwined fingers and out to the ramp. It was a pleasant morning, and the sun glinted off of the shiny silver exterior of the plane. It was small–smaller even than it had looked from the building.
How was she going to fit into that thing? She’d have to scrunch up her legs like an accordion to fit inside.
“Allow me to introduce you to my pride and joy,” Skyla said, grinning from ear to ear. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
Elesa felt vaguely nauseous as she looked at the airplane, but when she swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath, she could admit that objectively, the plane was kind of cute. It was silver with a sky blue stripe down the side. Long, rectangular wings attached to the top of the plane and a propeller was attached to the front.
“It’s adorable,” Elesa admitted, and Skyla preened at the compliment. “What kind of plane is it?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Skyla said, and sounded genuine about it. “It’s a 1965 Cessna 150. Small, but mighty. I love flying it. It’s so vintage!”
Elesa pasted a smile on her lips but alarm bells rang in her head. Were they seriously about to go flying in a plane older than she was? Would the ancient machine even make it above the trees?
“I thought we’d take it sightseeing. We can go wherever you want,” Skyla continued, completely unbothered. “I figured we’d stick to the north side of the city, though, so we’re not in the way of all the international traffic…”
Elesa found the words fading into the background as she began to question every single decision she’d made up until this point. She should have called her girlfriend last night to tell her about her fear of heights. She should have never gotten on the subway this morning. She should have taken her by the hands and confessed to her in the building before they’d walked out here together–
“Elesa? Did you hear me?”
“Huh?” Asked Elesa, jarred out of her thoughts.
Skyla implored her with wide blue eyes, now looking slightly concerned. “I was just asking, is there anything in particular you want to see?”
“Oh. Um… Can we fly over the gym? That would be cool.”
“Sure, but listen… are you alright? You’re looking a little pale.”
Elesa squeezed her hand and flashed what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Oh, I’m just a little tired, that’s all.”
Skyla stared at her with narrowed eyes. “Did you eat anything this morning? Have you had water yet?”
Elesa hadn’t, afraid that eating anything would be the last straw for her already uneasy stomach. She opened her mouth to lie, but her empty stomach betrayed her by growling… loudly.
A ten minute delay to her untimely death followed as Skyla dragged her back inside and forced her to eat some of the little snack cookies from the vending machine inside the FBO. Once she’d eaten the whole thing–and drank at least half of the bottle of water that Skyla had handed her, they were right back where we started… and Skyla was just as excited. She practically bounced on her toes as she opened the door for Elesa.
Elesa took in a deep breath–one of her last–as she climbed inside. It was just as small on the inside. When Skyla closed the door for her and circled around to the other side, she got the impression of being closed into a tin can with wings.
Skyla wasted no time, swinging her legs elegantly inside with a practiced ease. Skyla was attentive and helpful as she explained how the seatbelts worked, how to open and close the door, and how to put on the headset that they'd be wearing to talk to each other. When she closed the door and began running through the "starting engine checklist", Elesa breathed out the tiniest exhale. It was cramped, yes, but something about Skyla’s closeness made her feel the smallest bit relieved. Like maybe everything would be okay after all.
The sensation dissipated immediately as soon as the engine roared to life. Because the engine sounded exactly like a lawnmower–and an underpowered one, at that.
“Man, I love this airplane. It starts right up, every time!” Skyla said, smiling as she spoke into her headset. The sound of her voice came out slightly staticky through her ear muffs. “Alright, let’s get moving…”
“Hey, um… Skyla?” ventured Elesa as they began to move. She could feel every bump in the asphalt that the tires rolled over.
“Yeah, Elesa?”
“How powerful is this engine?”
“Oh, it has about 100 horsepower, I’d say.”
Elesa did not feel any better by knowing this information and regretted asking about it. Was the power of a hundred horses enough to get them over those impossibly tall pine trees at the end of the runway? She imagined a hundred horses hauling the tiny plane into the sky and almost laughed. She might have, if she weren’t so terrified.
After an extremely short taxi, Skyla brought the plane to a stop and started running through a checklist that she called the ‘before takeoff’ checklist. She tested the control wheel, glancing out the window to make sure that the flight controls were moving the way they were supposed to, fiddled with the instruments, then ran up the engine and tested a few things. She explained everything that she was doing as she did it, but Elesa couldn’t repeated back a word she said. It all went way over her head.
Meanwhile, she watched as the treetops rocked with the wind outside, thinking about how it would all be over a few minutes from now.
“Alright!” Skyla declared at last, “Pre-takeoff checklist complete! Are you ready to fly, Elesa?”
“Skyla, I have to tell you something,” Elesa blurted, unable to stand it anymore.
“Oh? What is it?” Skyla asked, her look of excitement morphing into one of concern in half a second.
Even as Elesa’s heart ached at the expression on her girlfriend’s face, she couldn’t hold back any longer. “I’ve lied to you. I’m so sorry. I said I’m fine, but I’m not. I’m very much not fine, actually.”
“Why?” Skyla asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m afraid of heights,” Elesa confessed, burying her face in her hands. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you before.”
A moment of silence, punctuated only by the steady hum of the engine, followed. Elesa waited with bated breath for Skyla’s reaction. She was scared to uncover her face and glimpse at the expression on Skyla’s.
She certainly didn’t expect the laughter that came after.
“That’s okay!” she said. “So am I!”
Elesa removed her hands from her face to gape at her girlfriend. “What?”
“Yeah. Absolutely terrified. I can’t stand to even get within ten feet of the edge of a cliff.”
“But… but you’re a pilot.”
Skyla shrugged. “Lots of pilots are afraid of heights. Being in a plane has never bothered me. The sensation is just… completely different, you know?”
“No, I don’t know,” said Elesa, and it was true. She’d never been in an airplane as small as this one before.
“Okay,” said Skyla, reaching over to clutch her hand, “How about this? Give it a try, and if you’re afraid, tell me. I’ll come back and land right away, and I won’t be offended, I promise.”
“But… but what if I can’t handle it?”
“Then that’s okay! Flying isn’t for everyone. I care about you, Elesa, not whether or not you can handle being in a small airplane.”
Elesa was rendered absolutely speechless. Her cheeks burned and her eyes stung.
Skyla broke her out of her thoughts by planting a kiss on the back of her hand. She then released it, grabbing the throttle. “So what do you say? Are you ready to fly?”
“Yeah. I think I am,” said Elesa, even though it seemed as if her heart had already taken off.
Seconds later, Skyla lined up on the runway and they took off into the big blue sky. Elesa held her breath all the way until they cleared the treetops. They had to have climbed a thousand feet or more before she dared to peek out the window.
And immediately breathed out an exhale of wonder.
“Wow,” she remarked, a smile spreading over her face as the world beneath them spread out. She leaned closer to the window to get a better view, although it was already fantastic. She could see the glittering lights of the gym even from here, could make out the shape of the stadium and Gear Station. Light glinted off of the ferris wheel and it rotated lazily in the distance.
“So… What do you think?” ventured Skyla.
“It’s beautiful,” Elesa admitted. She had to admit that she was feeling some sort of way, watching as the city she knew so well sprawled out below her. Everything seemed so small from up here; small and distant. Incidentally, so did her worries. She couldn’t seem to remember why she’d been so worked up before they left the ground.
“Oh, yay! That’s wonderful!” Skyla exclaimed, and Elesa turned towards her just in time to see the wide, incandescently happy smile on her face. Her eyes glowed with affection as she glanced her way, cheeks rosy. "Come on, let's go fly over the gym."
And in that moment, Elesa realized something.
Emmet was right. She was hopelessly in love with Skyla.
The thought sent her heart to fluttering, and suddenly, she felt a little lightheaded.
Because, as it turned out, she’d never been afraid of heights. It was her fear of falling that had been holding her back all along.