Chapter 457: (Side Story) Vacation
Danika and Shinichi spent the first morning of their three day vacation in bed.
Danika didn't suspect anything during their leisurely luncheon, but by the middle of the afternoon she started to wonder what was wrong, and she asked Shinichi, "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes?" he replied questioningly.
"Weren't there a lot of places that you wanted to show me?" she asked uncertainly. "I expected you to have a packed itinerary written out for us instead of spending so much time lazing around?"
He didn't tell her that vacations were supposed to be leisurely, instead he looked embarrassed and explained, "After how our last date went, I decided to force myself to limit this trip to only three activities, so that you don't feel pressured and I'm not tiring you out… The one I picked for today is a view of the sunset."
"I'm not at all tired," she told him a little dryly.
He gazed at her for a long moment and then reached for his tablet. "Here's the list of possibilities I wrote out originally," he said quickly as he brought up a document and then handed it to her.
Danika could only laugh as she examined the list. There was a lot more on it than she thought that anyone could cram into only three days. One of the entries caught her eye and she asked doubtfully, "Scuba diving?"
"That's the one I scheduled for tomorrow," he told her happily.
She gazed at him in surprise, and glanced down at her legs. "I don't think that I'll be able to do that…"
"Why not?" he asked. "You can already swim quite well, and the weights can be adjusted to make it easy to maintain a comfortable depth."
"Did you warn them?" she asked doubtfully.
His expression turned stubborn for a moment and she was afraid that he hadn't, and that they were going to show up and be informed that it was impossible. But after a moment he took a deep breath and told her neutrally, "I didn't have to inform anyone. Sakurai is fully certified as an instructor and she agreed right away when I suggested it. The only change she made to the equipment I arranged for you was to what kind of boat we'll be hiring."
Danika stared at him for a long moment, and then she started laughing.
"Danika?" he asked uncertainly.
"Pop stars really do things differently," she explained laughingly as she held his list out to him. "Let's choose at least three per day, or maybe four tomorrow if there is not still time for that many today?" she suggested.
His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes as he replied enthusiastically, "There are lots of things that we could still do today without missing the sunset!"
It only took him about five minutes to choose the first one. He was so excited about the short tour of the historic district that she was really glad that she'd asked, even though his determination to keep the trip leisurely for her did make her feel cherished.
--
Most of the items on Shinichi's sight seeing list were places that he wanted to take photos, including their scuba diving expedition. The rest seemed to involve food.
"We don't have to eat meals," Danika pointed out while Shinichi tried to decide which place he wanted to go next.
"You're not hungry?" he asked with concern.
"That's not what I mean, I mean if you want to go to three different places and eat one thing from each, it's fine? We don't have to eat our food as a meal," she explained quickly.
"Oh. But you always try to make meals to eat together when I tell you that I'm going to be home," he protested mildly.
"Yeah," she admitted. "But you already know that I don't always eat that way, because you're always asking me about what I've eaten or what I'm going to eat?"
"Okay." After a moment he suggested, "Then how about these three for now?"
"Sure," she agreed with a grin.
But later that evening Shinichi asked suddenly, "Have you only been cooking when I'm home because you think I expect it?"
"Not because you expect it, but because it makes you happy," Danika corrected. He didn't look very happy with her reply, so she added, "At first it might also have been so that I could show off a little? And I still feel kind of smug when I've managed to make something that you really like that fits within your current diet restrictions."
He smiled and reached out and caressed her cheek, but all he said was, "I love you."
After they paid for the tiny dessert cups full of iced fruit and coconut cream at the shop near their hotel, she added, "Cooking at home is a lot cheaper too."
He laughed and asked her, "You do know that we won't always have to be so careful about our spending money?"
She poked him and insisted, "But the more careful you are, the sooner you can afford to marry me, like you keep saying you want to."
He looked up at the fancy building they were staying in, and said questioningly, "You haven't complained about how expensive these three days are?"
Danika looked at him for a long moment. He was the one taking pictures of everything, but she thought that he was even more lovely than the scenery around them. In front of the ocean view, his every move seemed to create an image that could have gone on a poster. Even though the people here didn't seem to recognize him as Aichi Shinichi from Underneath, he still drew many more admiring gazes than just her own.
"I want to do these things together while we're still young enough to enjoy them too," she said a little dryly.
His bright grin told her that he could see through her tone, and his kiss was a little too warm for their current publicly exposed location, but she couldn't bring herself to resist.
--
On their flight home Shinichi leaned over and whispered into Danika's ear, "Actually, now I'm kind of glad that you decided we should wait to get married."
A strangely numb sensation spread out from her heart, and she looked down at their clasped hands, where the warmth of his fingers seemed to be the only thing that she could focus on. She swallowed and he reached up with his other hand and tapped her gently on the nose.
"Stop that," he demanded with exasperation. "How many times do I need to repeat that I love you to death? You're stuck with me until you die, okay? I just meant that now I'm really looking forward to our honeymoon, but it's definitely going to be hard to get two whole weeks free in the next couple of years."
She started to laugh, but she couldn't stop the tears that started at the same time. He was probably the only guy in the world who still wanted to kiss her after she had to blow her nose because she was laughing and crying at the same time. He was definitely the only one who would insist, "You are so freaking cute!"
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