Sighing to herself as she often did when she was alone and away from one of her siren sisters, yet still anchored via some inane thing, Aria Blaze lounged outside a blue-tiled entrance to an area with a couple of chrome drinking fountains. This entrance, in turn, served as the entrance to two large bathroom areas that split off from each other. She passed the time by looking across the hallway and out the large, plate-glass windows as passenger-sized airliners taxied across the runway outside.

Regarding Aria’s anchor, physically it was a backpack shaped like a hard-shell taco and clearly designed for a child. Less physically, it was the fact that Sonata had a habit of getting hopelessly lost at airports if left alone and often had to be rescued from another state, country, or sometimes she simply showed up back home bearing waterlogged gifts, covered in seaweed and blood from who knows where.

While a break from the taco-obsessed bubble brain sounded nice, the stress from wondering where she was, probing questions of if Aria or Adagio had sung ‘Somewhere Out There’ at the exact same time Sonata was singing while hijacking a speedboat or making friends with the local sharks had gotten stale as did the question ‘Did you two even try to find me at all?!’

Still… What the heck was taking Sonata so long?!

As Aria momentarily considered bailing and scrawling ‘BOMB’ on a piece of paper to leave by the taco backpack, Sonata finally exploded out of the men’s side of the bathrooms with her face appearing much more teal than its usual blue.

“Urinal cakes are a lie!” Sonata shouted seconds before she scraped at her tongue with her fingernails.

Snapping back to reality courtesy of Sonata’s dumbness, Aria snorted out a laugh. “Wait… are you seriously that stupid?”

“YES!” Sonata exclaimed. “And I need help!”

“Pffft! Well, obviously if you’re making over 10-year old references!”

Sonata’s face contorted in confusion. “… Wait, what?”

“Yo! two-thousand and seven called! They want their video game meme back.”

“Did you tell them about the housing market crash?!" Sonata let out a hacking cough. “Ghah… My mouth is on FIRE! And it somehow tastes worse than actual fire!”

Aria shook her head. “You eating a spoonful of cinnamon in there, too?”

“…Wait, was that the powder in the metal box dealies they had by the sink?!” Sonata asked. “Maybe that would make the cakes taste better!” she exclaimed before dashing back into the bathroom.

“Sonata, wait!” Aria exclaimed. “I’m not done mocking y—”

“BLEEECK!” Sonata cried as she ran back out of the bathroom. “Not better! NOT BETTER AT ALL!”

“Well, good thing you’re back,” Aria said.

Sonata gave her fellow Dazzling a hopeful smile. “Because you’re going to help?”

“No, because 2001 called—”

Sonata frowned. “What month were they in? It’s kinda important…”

Aria ended up frowning herself “—they want Aria Blaze to know if tries to eat a spoonful of cinnamon, she’s going to end up in the hospital for like a week. So like… she should at least wait until the challenge is popular to do that.”

“…Shouldn’t they tell past Aria and not future Aria that?! Also, why are you the go-to person for calls on the ‘future phone’, and why are you keeping it a secret?!”

Sauntering up to the pair with a wobble that seemed slightly less ‘sexy’ and more unintentional than normal, Adagio Dazzle gave the other girls a glare as if they were already wasting her time and likely to do so in the very immediate future, the other girls tended to simply refer to this as Adagio’s ‘resting hate face.’

“Hey idiots, we need to go,” Adagio informed. “The airline people are getting pissy about me shotgunning drinks instead of us getting on the airplane.” She shook her head. “Something about needing extra time to get my hair into an overhead compartment. Let’s get a move on so I can wait some more to be airborne, so I can drink more, and also make some lucky stranger a member of the mile-high club.”

“Okay, but I need a soda or something!” Sonata said as she returned to trying to scrape her tongue clean.

“At an airport?!” Adagio exclaimed. She shook her head. “That’s too expensive! I mean, my bar tab was like $50 for three drinks!”

“But I’m suffering!” Sonata whined.

“Pfffft, I’ll say,” Aria replied as she folded her arms across her chest. “From forgetting what decade it is.”

Adagio frowned heavily. “Did she hit her head again?! I mean, watching Sonata prance around in flapper wear was cute enough, but we may have to board her up in her room if she starts playing Disco.”

Sonata frowned. “Poor Lizy Bath-story…”

Aria shook her head. “Naw, Sonata just made a Portal reference.”

Adagio’s forehead scrunched in confusion. “Like… the one that sent us to this world?”

Aria’s brows tightened. “What?! No! You know, the video game?”

Adagio groaned. “Is this one of your stupid obscure indie games you care so much about?”

“It won like a million game of the year awards when it came out!” Aria shouted.

Adagio rolled her eyes. “Still apparently one or more too short.”

“Why isn’t anyone helping?!”

“Oh my god!” Aria exclaimed. “If you need a drink that badly, the airplane has a ton of free blue kool-aid!”

Sonata gasped. “THEY DO?!”

“Yep! They offer it for free in the in-flight restroom. Give it a whirl.”

Adagio suddenly looked visibly queasy as Sonata threw a fist in the air, grabbed her taco backpack from Aria, and sprinted off. “Yay! Can’t wait.”

Adagio bumped Aria in the shoulder and shot her a glare. “What the heck do you think you’re doing? OR are you even thinking at all?!”

Aria just shrugged. “I’m helping. Doesn’t mean it’s the right kind of help.”

Adagio motioned to herself with both hands. “But you’re also ruining my in-flight entertainment!”

“Exactly! That’s for calling Portal an indie game!”

Adagio let out a very audible groan as she smacked a hand against her forehead.

“Don’t worry, Dagi!” Sonata shouted out from down the hall. “I’ll share!”

Author's Notes:

Thanks to Tired Old Man, Nova Quill/Firimil, and
Steel Resolvefor their edits and suggestions. Nova came up with the "resting hate face" bit and TOM is responsible for most everything past 'Why isn't anyone helping?!" save the last line.