She was nervous; there was no way to convince herself otherwise. She'd changed clothes three times in the past hour and a half, and was standing in front of the mirror frowning at her reflection and considering doing it again.

"You look lovely. And it has only been two days."

April thought Jay's mother had been demonstrating unearthly patience, especially given that she'd had this jumpy stranger dumped in her lap with no warning. "I know, and I'm not usually this flaky about clothes, I swear. It's just..." She shrugged helplessly. "It's different this time."

"Sending you home to his family is certainly different."

She glanced up, but the other woman's reflected face in the mirror told her nothing. "If you've ever been to New Jersey, you know the first priority was for both of us to get out." She had no idea how much Jay had told his mother about the immediate future; she wasn't about to be the one to drop any bombs.

"I don't think that was his priority."

Okay, humor is out. "It all happened so fast, and they weren't giving us time to find out what happened."

"What did happen?"

I don't want to have this conversation. Can we go back to clothes now? "Bureaucracy. I don't know exactly. Hopefully Jay can get some kind of straight answer. Maybe even get me out of your hair and back home."

She watched the other woman consider her, clearly ready to let fire with a hundred more questions. Please just ask your son all this stuff. Please.

"Have you settled on your outfit? We need to get to the airport."

"Then I've settled on my outfit." April tried on a smile, but all she could think of was the car ride. However long it was, silent or more of the same conversation, it was going to feel like forever.

Silent was mostly the plan, apparently. It was awkward, but also a relief. Getting a stranger to like me is going horribly wrong. Imagine that. Why didn't I just refuse to leave Japan? What was he going to do? Drag me?

But she knew why. Because he wanted her to go, and his wanting something was enough. Because she knew that somewhere underneath his wanting was a worry - which it turned out was probably completely valid - that she was going to get disappeared or tossed out of the country while he was gone. Because no matter how much she'd tried to paint it to him otherwise, being away from him was hell for her. She knew just how much now.

She couldn't remember ever thinking an airport was beautiful, but the best looking one she'd ever seen was getting closer and closer.

Right at the moment, the best thing about being home was being able to kiss April without people staring and tsking. It was a challenge even though; she'd wrapped herself around him the moment he'd reached her - about six inches through the jetway doors - so he couldn't get enough space between to be able to kiss her. When he finally managed it, the feeling of her smiling against his mouth was more than worth the wait. "I have something else for you, love."

"What, here in front of everyone?"

"Absolutely."

She knew what was about to happen the moment he dropped his carry-on and went to one knee, but she still couldn't manage to do anything but stand there jaw-dropped.

"I said I'd do this better as soon as I had the chance." He took a little origami box out of his pocket and slid the top open. "I keep escalating what it means to be mine, don't I? Can you do it once more?"

All she could manage to do was nod and make a strange, choked noise that her mind intended to be yes. Jay understood well enough to put the ring on her hand. She was vaguely aware of phones coming out around them. Go on, then. You all had your fun when I was at my worst. Do it while I'm at my best.

When they turned to go to her, they found his mother also taking photos. She wrapped them both in a collective hug. "If you'd warned me, I could have been filming."

"If I'd warned you, you would have fainted, and then she would have panicked, and then I would have had to do this in a hospital waiting room, which wasn't what I had in mind."

April could see as much silent as spoken communication going back and forth between mother and son. She was fairly sure she just didn't want to know.

The talk had to happen; better to have it out right away, Jay thought. And in private, as much as they could. That meant, backwards as it seemed, going out in public. There was a park near his mother's house, and it was a lovely day. They could even hold hands along the way without any dour sideways looks.

He found a tree big enough for sitting comfortably under that was far enough away from anyone else to give them a little space of their own.

"What did they say? Am I going home?"

Jay shook his head. "Sweetheart, this is home now. I can't even get anyone to see me about this. You know what that means."

She'd sworn she wasn't going to cry if it came to this. So much for swearing. She couldn't have stopped it with a gun to her head.

He wrapped her up and pulled her in close. "Oh no, no. Don't do that. It'll be all right, I promise. This isn't such a bad place, you know. And I'll be home every chance I get. Look, I've got two weeks. We get married, go off on a bit of a honeymoon, find an apartment for you to settle us into." He reached in, found her chin, and tilted it up on two fingers. "It's going to be fine, I promise. A life together, with none of what was hanging over us. That can't be so bad?"

"No, not bad at all. Other than how much of it you're going to be a long way away for."

"Hey, I've got to go make that money for my wife to spend, don't I?"

She smiled, but he could see the clouds gathering. "Do you really want to do this? You got backed into a corner."

"Close your eyes. Go on." He waited until she did. "Now, I want you to picture me dragging Tama to about a hundred jewelry shops looking at rings all day. Do you think I want to do this?"

Her smile was less ambiguous this time.

"And what about you? If anyone got cornered..." There were times he thought that all he'd done was benefit over and over from somebody getting her back to one wall or another. "I take you thousands of miles from home and start making all these plans. I barely even asked if you wanted any of this."

"My home is where you are. Even when I can't be there."

"What's this going to be the rest of the time, then?"

"Where I live. And that's fine as long as I've got the good stuff, too."

"I'd like it if this was more than that for you. It could grow on you if you let it."

"Like moss?"

He laughed. He knew she was scared. How could she not be? But even if they'd been forced into this in a way he wouldn't have chosen, it was his best chance to give her as much of a normal life as he could. She deserved that a thousand times over.

His eye kept being drawn to the ring he'd put on her a few hours ago. He'd spent most of the shopping time imagining how it would look on her, wanting something she wouldn't see a hundred just like everywhere she went. He thought he'd managed that finally; it looked like a flower and leaf made of a round and a triangular diamond, with vines made of swirls in the band and another strip of smaller diamonds. The wedding band to match he had safely tucked away, along with his own. She had to be hidden away here, true, but she didn't have to be a secret; he intended to wear it and let it being seen start whatever it started.