Hello everyone, look who's back in business! Now shush, I came up with this au where Tsvetan is a pilot at about 12 am and here I am publishing it at 1 am so please bear with me~

Alin wasn't quite sure how exactly time went about its business. It dragged on painfully as he was craning his neck up to the sky, watching a tiny plane fly in circles above his head for what felt like forever. Did time pass more slowly when you were off the ground? That must be why Tsvetan's first test flight was taking much longer than 20 minutes, even though Alin was counting every second. Every second until Tsvetan was on the ground again.

However, time went into overdrive when Tsvetan touched down and climbed down from his plane, because it took no time at all for Alin to sprint towards him and almost knock him down to the ground, his arms flung around Tsvetan's shoulders.

"Whoa Alin, I'm okay!" Tsvetan laughed, hugging Alin back, "I'm back on the ground now, you don't need to worry."

"I know," Alin laughed, his grin prompting Tsvetan to smile back, "I'm just so proud of you. You've achieved your dream! How did it feel to be up in the air at last?"

Tsvetan took a little while to reply, he just pressed his forehead to Alin's and smiled softly with his eyes closed, as if trying to recall every moment of his time in the sky. "It felt… terrifying, to be honest."

Alin couldn't help it, he started laughing. All his worry and anxiety seemed to be released with that laughter, and he rubbed his forehead against Tsvetan's, holding him tightly. "Jeez Tsve, your forehead is so big!"

Tsvetan rolled his eyes, as if he didn't quite know if he should be offended or flustered by this throwaway comment. "Personal space Al, personal space…"

"Too bad, pilot boy," Alin said, placing his hands on Tsvetan's shoulders and dropping a kiss on his brow, "get used to it."

Alin's feet were pounding on the wet tarmac. Their rhythm was all Alin could hear, that and his ragged breath coming out in irregular gasps, lungs burning. He had left the terminal behind, left everything behind in his panic.

His panic to reach the column of smoke now billowing from the edge of the landing zone.

He could feel himself slipping, both on the rain and inside his head, slipping away from what he held most dear, slipping away from his future and his present and most of all, slipping away from the figure he could now see crawling out of the wreckage, out of the plane that had just crash landed in front of his very eyes.

"Tsvetan…"

It wasn't a shout; it was a tiny sound that escaped from him, a tiny whisper of dread and despair. Time was speeding up again, and Alin could now see the figure now lying motionless on the landing pad. There was much more blood than Alin expected. It was that though which was stuck in his mind when he reached Tsvetan, when he gathered him up in his arms and held him to his wheezing chest, praying for his heart to beat along with his own.

There was so much blood…

"Al…?"

It might have been imaginary, but Alin still nodded his head vigorously. "Yeah Tsve, it's me, It's me, I'm here!"

A hand twitched, and Alin grasped hold of it, threading his fingers through Tsvetan's own. He tried not to notice that the mouth trying currently to make its last smile was dribbling blood from the edges.

"Al… Please…."

Alin knew. Alin knew what Tsvetan wanted. Shaking, he bent his head down and rested his forehead upon Tsvetan's, the same way he had done when Tsve had returned from his first ever flight, returned to Alin. That was when Tsve was able to hug him back, able to smile back at Alin. Alin was smiling because he knew that would be the last thing Tsvetan would want to see. Alin was smiling when Tsvetan drew in his last breath, but he let it fall when that breath was released. Instead, he pressed his forehead to Tsvetan's and let his tears roll down onto Tsvetan's lifeless face before turning his head and sobbing into the cold, unmoving shoulder of his loved one, whom he had lost to Tsvetan's dream of the skies.