Merry Christmas! Hopefully, I wrote this well despite the fact that I started writing it late last night! I hope that this little story becomes a lovely Christmas gift for you. I hope that it makes you smile and that it makes your day! I hope that Christmas went well for you! It made my morning/night/whatever time that it was, a lot happier to receive a message from you, because I've really missed you. I'm really glad that I decided to look through my Fanfiction account before bed yesterday or early this morning as it made me unbelievably happy! You're an awesome friend, and I really, really miss you!

Time may have passed and yet she still remembered the man that had taken her heart and left her feeling absolutely enchanted.

Antonio was her version of forever and perhaps that's why she was waiting at the dock for his arrival after Felicia had exclaimed that he'd be in today.

There was a beauty to a long fulfilled promise and beauty to a loving person next to you that lit up your world with only one word.

She smiled as she watched many get off of that boat, the boat that for so many right now, promised a brighter future than their past had ever held.

Lovina smiled as she felt the chill of the air melt away and arms loop around her in a tentative hug; Antonio was safe and in this moment before her, wrapping his arms snugly around her.

It was a combination of every favorite memory and emotion, rushed to the surface and made all the more special.

She stared at the way he looked, captured in the slowly setting sun and stunning with his slightly nervous grin; she knew he was fighting for words to say.

Three years had taken the words right out of his mouth, "They didn't get you, did they?" Perhaps it was not the greeting that Lovina had intended starting this reunion off with, but it was something and that in itself was better than nothing.

"They missed me." Antonio smiled and that was closer to a rising sun, a new beginning than Lovina had ever expected or realized before.

"I'm glad. You couldn't send a letter or anything?" Lovina shifted from where she stood as she watched his smile become more of a nervous pout.

"Alfonso wouldn't let me. He said that it wasn't safe." Antonio's voice held a level of sadness that felt as if it would have been caused by a much lengthier stay in the painful difficulty of fighting such a battle.

"Where is he?" Lovina found her searching for her 'boyfriend's' brother herself though she didn't see him on the boat and Felicia hadn't mentioned him either.

"He's gone." The words were uttered so softly that Lovina realized that Antonio did care for the brother that he'd always complained about and that he'd chosen to head home despite whatever difficulties that he'd faced then.

The Southern Italian watched the way her boyfriend from three years ago shifted and smiled when he leaned forward and tentatively let their lips touch in a warm and sweetly loving manner.

"Lovina, I still love you, if you'll have me." Antonio muttered and within that promise was the look of a man who would not be heading back out to fight for such a noble cause again, not after losing his brother and possibly his girlfriend.

"I love you too." Lovina knew better than to let any pretense of past inflictions and thoughts keep her from loving him regardless of the trials that they'd faced and would face.

Love never faded with distance nor did time take it away from those that felt it.

Love was a beautiful thing, and Lovina treasured the return of all of those old hopes and dreams of hers and the return of the man that she loved more than life, itself.

She smiled even though her smiles were usually hard to come by, and she felt the steady thrumming of a much too excited heart, and it gave her hope for the future.

A future that she'd be sharing with the man that she loved more than anything.