An: Only the epilogue after this, okay guys?

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Somewhere in the South Pacific

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"Oh wow, feel that humidity, and look at the sun!" Sumire declared as they stepped off the plane.

"This is actually considered a winter month, even here," Nick told her as they descended the stairs.

"Really? because it feels and looks pretty damned summery to me," she replied, doing a little twirl on the tarmac. "God, this is glorious!"

They quickly gathered their bags and found the car that would take them to their hotel.

At least, that's what Sumire thought when she fell asleep on Nick's shoulder.

She woke up, feeling refreshed, not sure how much time had passed.

"How far away is this hotel, Nick?" she asked, looking around. The road had narrowed to a twisting, two lane affair, with the thick, jungle growth coming right up to its edges.

"Well, it's not a hotel, exactly," Nick admitted with a smile.

"What? I thought you said it was a resort," Sumire reminded him.

"No, I said it had all of the amenities of a resort," Nick corrected. "You said that you'd gotten used to being around lots of people, but you still preferred being alone, and I thought it would be nice if we could have some alone time, so I rented us a house. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, I don't mind. Sounds nice. Cozy, even."

"It is nice, it's right on the beach, but has valet service to a hotel that's about five minutes away," Nick informed her.

"Sounds expensive," Sumire worried.

"Merry Christmas!" Nick told her, pressing a kiss to her temple.

And when they saw the place twenty minutes later, after checking in at the main building, Sumire had to revise her opinion.

"I guess 'cozy' wasn't really the word," she said as they stepped out of the golf cart they'd ridden in from the hotel. "I'm going to go with 'opulent, luxurious, gorgeous, and insane,' wow, Nick!" She turned to him. "All this space, just for us? We're not sharing or anything?"

Nick shook his head as he tipped the driver of the golf cart to carry their bags to the bedroom. He smiled at her happiness. "God, I hope not. I paid for privacy."

Sumire planted her hands on her hips and stared at him. "I didn't marry you and forget or anything, did I? We're not, like, actually on our honeymoon or something? Because this place is so over the top in every way!"

"And you haven't even seen the private beach yet," Nick said.

"Private beach?"

Nick just nodded, reaching for her hand.

"So you've been here before?" Sumire asked as they walked around to the beach side of the villa.

"I brought Darcie here for her birthday a couple of years ago," he said. "We had a great time, and I thought you'd like it, so I requested the same place."

They rounded the corner of the house, and Sumire stopped in her tracks, floored by the sight in front of her.

Wow.

"I mean, I saw the water from the plane and everything, but it's not the same as seeing it all spread out in front of me, with the sand and the sky and the waves breaking and the trees moving in the breeze?"

She turned to hug Nick. "Thank you so much, so much, for bringing me here. I love Japan, and I'm so happy I was there, but I needed this so much, Nick-san."

He hugged her back. "Me too, and I'm so happy to be here with you."

"And thank you for the privacy, too, Nick. I know you like to be social, and I know you spent a fuckton of money for us to be alone like this. Thank you, thank you."

"Are you kidding? Being alone with you is, like, the most fun thing ever." Nick blinked owlish eyes at her. "Especially the new and improved you? My god, Mimi-chan, I've never had so much fun with one person in my life, probably."

Sumire shook her head at him.

"You're such an infant sometimes, Pensieri."

"But you love me anyway."

"I do."

"Come on, let's go get some food."

Sumire nodded and slipped an arm around her man's waist. "Is there a restaurant or something?"

"There is, and we'll go for sure, but this place comes with a fully stocked fridge, and all kinds of fruit and stuff, come on, I'll show you."

So they went in the villa, which turned out to be just as gorgeous on the inside as the outside, and the kitchen was indeed stocked with amazing sandwiches, salads, and delicious fruits, not to mention the most amazing tropical drinks Sumire had ever had.

They ate until they couldn't eat anymore, then they took a romantic shower together under the huge outside rainfall shower head, and Sumire found out how much fun it was to make love under running water.

"Nick, Nick," she called, holding him to her body as he pressed her against the stone walls of the shower.

"And now, it's nap time, I think," Nick murmured as he carried her, still joined to him, into the house and laid her on the big, fluffy bed.

"But I'm all wet! Nick, my hair's all wet! And I'm naked!" Sumire protested.

Nick shrugged.

"We have nowhere to go, and no one's coming, so who cares? And it's so hot here that you and your hair will dry while you sleep," he promised.

He slipped out of her and lay down next to her, turning on his side and resting his head on his hand, arm bent at the the elbow so he could admire her.

"You're so beautiful," he said seriously, trailing his finger from her collarbone down her breast and her navel to rest at the top of her pubic hair and her sex.

"You don't--you don't think I look like a little kid?"

Nick snorted. "You don't look like any little kid I've ever seen."

He bit his lips together. "Speaking of which, though, have you thought any more about all that? About confronting him? Or pursuing legal action? I checked out a few things with my lawyer--" He stopped at her sharp intake of breath, continuing when she didn't say anything, "--and the statute of limitations in Massachusetts on what he did to you is fifteen years, so you still have time. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure the clock stops running on that when the victim leaves the state..."

Sumire inhaled deeply through her nose and let it out before reaching to cover herself with the cotton sheet. She finally shook her head. "No, I haven't really thought about it. I wasn't really in a position to think about it until a few months ago, you know? But after we get back to LA and I find a therapist, I think I'm going to at least want to think about it.

"No, no, don't get all eager and happy, Nick. I'm not saying I'm going to do anything, I'm saying I'll think about it, that's all, so you can put your big guns and your lawyers and your hot Italian temper away for now, please."

She turned to face him, this person who had grown so dear to her in the months that she'd known him. "I can't imagine how hard this is for you, Nick-san, but you know that as hard as it is for you, it's much, much harder for me, right?"

He nodded, grasping her hand and kissing it.

"So you have to let me own this, and you have to let me own how I deal with it, even though I know you feel very passionate about wanting to rend him limb from limb and feed him to crocodiles or whatever, okay?"

Nick gave her a little smile.

"Okay?"

He nodded.

"Okay," he said, pulling her in so he could hold her.

They fell asleep that way and woke up a couple of hours later, in the middle of a beautiful, warm, tropical afternoon.

"Hey, you never told me how and when you uh, practiced your oral skills," Nick teased as they were getting dressed in their swim suits to go to the beach.

Sumire was putting her suit on in the closet, but she stuck her head out to talk to him.

"You really want to know?"

Nick looked at her.

"Oh god, you're not going to say Darcie again, are you?"

Sumire shook her head. "The ladies in the make-up trailer."

Nick's jaw dropped. "You're shitting me!"

"I'm not!"

He shook his head. "But they must be, like, a hundred years old!"

"Nick! They were not! Aya-san was in her fifties, and Mieko-san was in her forties."

"Whatever, they were old"

"Well, they knew a lot, and they're the ones who told me, and showed me, what to do, so there!"

Nick stared at her. "They showed you? How?"

Sumire shrugged. "The usual, bananas and carrots.

Nick raised his eyebrows. "That must have been interesting.

"You have no idea."

Sumire stepped out of the closet, finally dressed.

"Yowza, where'd you get that?" Nick asked.

Sumire was wearing a workout bikini, certainly modest by today's bathing suit standards, but again, Nick had never seen her in anything close to that revealing before.

She did a twirl. "It's okay, isn't it? It's part of the new me that I want to be. I figure no one's here, so I have nothing to lose?"

"Yeah, you look adorable, and you have exactly the right body for it, too," Nick assured her. "You look very athletic and fit, not to mention sexy as hell."

Sumire laughed. "I think you've been on such short rations in the sexy department for so long that whenever you see any skin at all you just lose your head," she teased. "Come on, Nick-san, let's go hit that beautiful beach."

They put on sunscreen and went out their front door to the beautiful white sand, putting their towels and water on some convenient lounge chairs and table.

Then they cavorted and frolicked to their hearts content in the warm water, not paying any attention to the time.

It was Nick who noticed the man carrying the large handled box who came around the corner of their villa.

"Mimi-chan? I think it's break time," he called when she came up from underwater, where she'd been looking for shells along the sandy bottom.

"Oh? Why?" She looked and saw the man. "Who's he?"

Nick just smiled enigmatically.

"Nick? What's going on?"

"Just come on," Nick said, grasping her hand so they could both wade out of the water.

He waved to the man, who was wearing a T-shirt with the hotel logo on it, Sumire could see. While he was still about twenty-five yards away, Nick gestured that he should stop.

"Right there is fine," he called to the man, who smiled,nodded and set the box down.

"Nick? What in the world?" Sumire looked from the smiling man to Nick, completely mystified.

"You don't remember what you said when I asked if I could sell my house in Bel Air and move in with you?" Nick asked, slipping an arm around her waist.

Sumire shook her head. "What did I say?"

The man opened the box and lifted something out, something that was--moving?

"Oh my god," Sumire murmured, dropping to her knees.

"Over here!" Nick called. "Over here, boy!" And he gave a sharp whistle.

The man set the wriggling thing down, and now Sumire could see that it was a puppy, mostly beige, but with one brown floppy ear. He heard NIck's whistle and started running toward them as fast as his little puppy legs could carry him. At one point his feet got tangled under him and he did a summersault, as puppies are wont to do, but he righted himself almost immediately and continued toward Nick and Sumire, who was waiting with outstretched arms.

"Come here, puppy," Sumire called, clapping her hands. Nick knelt next to her, and the baby dog hurtled into her arms, getting sand everywhere as he licked her face, entire body wagging in his eagerness to greet first her, then Nick.

"Do you remember now?" Nick asked her, a huge smile on his face.

Sumire could only nod.

"Are you saying we're taking this little guy home with us?" she asked in disbelief.

Nick nodded. "He's had all his shots and is travel ready," he told her. "He was a starving stray. The island's riddled with them."

"You must have jumped through so many hoops to make this happen, Nick-san," Sumire said, her voice filled with amazement. The puppy was now dancing around them on the beach, tail waving.

"I sent a few texts to my people in LA the day after you said what you said, that's all," he said modestly. "I just paid for everything, that's all.

"And speaking of paying," he continued, picking up the puppy to kiss him. "No complaining when we have to take a private plane home, okay? Because I didn't want this little guy to have to be in a crate the whole way home, and I didn't think you would, either."

Sumire shook her head, unable to stop smiling.

"The only thing we need is a name for his paperwork, and that's your department," Nick told her.

She stopped Nick as they were walking back to the villa, putting a hand on his arm.

"You are the best man I've ever known," she said to him. "And I love you, and I always will. I know you haven't always thought much of yourself, but you should. You should." And she went up on tiptoe to kiss the corner of his mouth. The puppy licked the same spot right after.

Nick swallowed, hard, and blinked, but that was all, which made Sumire smile.

So they went back up to the house to shower again, this time with a fat puppy gamboling about their feet, and they ate dinner outside, as Sumire considered what to name the newest member of their household.

And that night, she and Nick fell asleep in each other's arms, a good, exhausted sleep, the first night of many, with their new puppy, Chester, sleeping peacefully by their feet.