you are my life, my love, my only
The sand is hot and loose under her bare feet. It trickles into the spaces between her toes as she sinks down, her body melting under the blazing midday sun. Serena tips her face up and lets the warm island breeze rush over her cheeks, ruffle through her hair. Fat, white clouds float happily across the sky; she watches them drift and morph, a smile pulling at her lips. She used to spend hours sprawled across the grass with her mother, watching the clouds weave across the summer sky and picking out random shapes, making up ridiculous stories about fluffly bunnies jumping over giant mushrooms in a sea of melting ice cream. Her eyes slip shut as she leans back against the sloping dune, allows her minds to drift along with the clouds.
The graceful arc of the sun is her only indication of the passing time. She left her watch in New York, her phone buried deep within her suitcase. This vacation was his idea but she's flung herself into it wholeheartedly, dedicated all her efforts into making certain that he knows that she's here with him one hundred percent. That there's no place else she'd rather be.
He's wearing her out with adventures but she can't bring herself to tell him, not when he looks at her with such uninhibited joy scribbled in the lines around his eyes. She hasn't seen him so free, unencumbered by fear and longing, in over a yer and she'll be damned if she's going to let anything ruin it.
The light filtering through her dark tinted sunglasses and closed eyelids dims and she grins, holding a hand out into the thick air, fingers wiggling. Sand scatters, abrading her bare stomach and legs, as he plops down next to her, his hand warm against hers.
"You found me."
"Were you hiding? 'Cause if so we really need to work on your evasion skills, Serena."
"Not hiding", she laughs, bright and airy. "Just relaxing." She turns her head to look at him, squinting the blinding sunlight. "Is it time for the tour?"
Dan shakes his head and he leans back, stretches his body out next to hers on the sand. "I cancelled it."
"You've been going on about seeing lava close up for days, Dan."
"There are other tours," he shrugs, pushing sand up into his ears. "Right now, I'd rather watch the clouds."
"Why?"
His fingers tighten between hers and Serena can see the lines radiating out from the edges of his sunglasses as he grins and points his face toward the sky.
"Everyone needs to relax sometimes, Serena."