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All Etho had to do was get out of his car, walk into the airport, find the cafe where he was supposed to meet Bdubs, and go over to him. Or, if he hadn't arrived yet, find a seat and wait. It should be very simple, very easy, and something that didn't take a second thought to do.
And yet, Etho had been sitting in his car for ten minutes staring at nothing whilst trying to push down the anxiety that swirled in his stomach and made his heart race. He shouldn't be this nervous, he'd known Bdubs for a decade for goodness sake! He was hardly meeting up with a stranger! But this was the first time they'd met in person. Bdubs had, somehow, finally convinced Etho to agree to it, and despite Etho saying that it would be better to wait for the weather to warm up, Bdubs had booked his flights barely 48 hours later.
So now, here he was, sitting in an airport carpark in the middle of January, trying to convince himself to go inside and find his friend.
Bdubs' excitement this morning had been so sweet and endearing, Etho wanted to see it again with his own eyes, not just hear it over a voice call. But that was part of the problem, everything Bdubs did these days left a fluttering in Etho's chest that he didn't want to put a name too. And- well... He was scared of how prominent that was going to become when Bdubs was right in front of him.
He couldn't keep Bdubs waiting, his plane should have landed a while ago, he was probably wondering where Etho was.
Etho grumbled and rubbed at his eyes under his glasses, before grabbing his keys and getting out of the car, the cold evening air chilling his face and trying to bite through his clothes.
Once he'd locked his car he took one more breath, and then finally bit the bullet and started walking towards the airport. He was meeting an old friend, that's it. He needed to calm down.
Thankfully, he'd managed to park relatively close to the building and didn't have to walk too far, and he knew roughly where he was going even if it had been a while since he had last been here.
Etho fiddled with his car keys in his coat pocket as he walked up to the cafe and stepped through the door. It was fairly quiet, and spotting Bdubs sitting at one of the tables near the wall, scrolling through something on his phone, wasn't at all difficult.
Following that with walking across the room to say hello, however, did prove rather tricky. Distantly he knew he must look like a creep, standing by the door staring across the room at someone. But his feet felt rooted to the spot as his heart beat too fast in his chest.
He needed to keep these feelings in check, otherwise it was going to get very annoying very quickly, and Bdubs would definitely notice that something was off.
Etho took a deep breath and finally managed to push himself into walking over to the table. Bdubs didn't notice him approaching until he was standing right next to him. He looked up at Etho, a hint of confusion in those dark eyes of his.
It was almost funny, that the one time Etho actually wanted to be recognised was the time that he wasn't - not that he should have expected it, despite all the years they'd known each other, Bdubs didn't know what he looked like either.
"Hey," Etho smiled, and in an instant Bdubs' eyes lit up and a grin spread across his face, scrambling to his feet so fast he almost knocked his chair over in the process.
"Etho!" Bdubs beamed. "It's you!"
"Yeah, hey. You don't need to shout you know, I'm right here," Etho chuckled, Bdubs' enthusiasm and excitement was as endearing in person as it was over the internet, it seemed. Though that shouldn't be such a surprise. "It's good to see you, Bdubs."
"Yeah you too. Literally see you, finally. You know how long I've waited for this, dude?"
Etho hummed as if he had to think about it. "I don't know. Ten years? Give or take?"
"Ten freakin' years. More than that probably. Jeez," Bdubs smiled fondly, and just the sight of it left something warm in Etho's chest. "You are taller than me though, which I already knew, but seeing it in person is something else."
"Well, you're not quite as short as I was expecting, so that's a surprise," Etho teased, waving a hand above Bdubs' head to prove his point.
"Oh you think you're so funny, don't you?" Bdubs glared, but there was no anger behind it and he was barely fighting off the smile on his face.
"Maybe a little," Etho said, and couldn't help how he laughed a bit as Bdubs rolled his eyes. "You want to get a coffee or something whilst we're here? I could do with a bit of a buffer before driving all the way home again."
"Sure. Are you gonna blindfold me in the car so I don't know where you live?"
"We'll see," Etho joked, and his heart fluttered at the little laugh Bdubs let out.
He was about to walk over the counter to get coffee when Bdubs caught his wrist and, without giving Etho much of a chance to stop it, pulled him into a tight hug. Etho froze, his cheeks burning as his thoughts ground to a halt, before slowly spiralling into things he didn’t want to think about right now.
It took him a moment, but he eventually managed to pull himself together enough to wrap his arms around Bdubs and return the hug.
"I have waited so, so long for this and you're just gonna have to deal with it, okay?" Bdubs said, his voice slightly muffled in Etho's jacket.
Etho swallowed, not sure what to do or what to say, but Bdubs was warm and fit so perfectly in his arms, and that was all he could think about.
"Wouldn't have it any other way.." Etho muttered, and he meant every single word of it.