Hey everyone!
I'm so sorry for the MASSIVE delay, but I've been suffering from writers block. On top of that school's been kicking my butt as well, you know how it is :p Hope this chapter makes up for it :) Enjoy!
You are now Mal Fallon.
It's somewhere in the afternoon when the small airstrip is buzzing with activity. Several planes are ready to take the visitors to the nearest big airport. From there on everyone will catch a plane home, since there's simply not enough room to arrange such a departure from this small island. Everyone is getting ready to leave, and thus saying their final goodbyes. People are getting hugged all around. Even though every one is about to go their own way, the mood is still great. Laughter and enthusiastic shouting fills the air. Meanwhile you and Natara are sitting on a fallen log at the edge of the airstrip, overlooking everything that's happening.
You can't help but smile as you watch how Maise unexpectedly jumps on the back of Hannah, thus making her shriek at first. But as soon as she realises who it is, she bursts out in laughter.
"Weird as it may be... But I'm actually going to miss them.." You quietly remark.
"Why is that weird..? They're lovely people after all."
"That's more than true. I guess it just feels weird because I don't even know them that lo-"
You're interrupted by a cute, soft voice coming from your lap. "Bubbles!" Vanessa giggles while she leans dangerously far forward, trying to snatch the bottle from Natara's hands.
Thanks to your quick reflexes you prevent her from falling. Somehow this makes her giggle even louder, as if she liked the feeling of almost falling to the ground. "Hey there little princess, watch where you're going. We don't want you to get hurt, now do we?" You ask, clearly concerned.
The tone of your voice makes her look at you with big eyes before she quickly shakes her head.
Satisfied with her response, you look back up to Natara. And, as always, she'd been observing the two of you with an enormous smile. "Are you ready for some bubbles?" she asks Vanessa, even though she already knows the answer.
As soon as Vanessa hears the word "bubbles" her mood immediately shifts from serious to enormously happy. "Yeaaaahh!" She cheers, while clapping her hands.
"Are you suuuuure?" Natara teasingly asks her.
Vanessa enthusiastically nods in response.
Natara softly chuckles at her enthusiasm. "Okay.. Here it goes..." She dips the stick into the soap while she starts a countdown. "3... 2..."
Impatient as you are, you interrupt her. "Just blow already!" You say without thinking it through.
Natara raises her eyebrows. "Did you just say you want me to blow something?" She gets a slightly naughty look on her face. "...Where did I hear that before?"
You playfully roll your eyes. "Oh come on... That's not how I meant it." You softly scrape your throat. "At least not this time..." You softly add under your breath. You then flash Natara a smirk.
Meanwhile Vanessa, who's not interested in the conversation at all, quickly gets tired of waiting and starts to pull on Natara's arm to make her hurry up.
Natara shoots you a look that tells you that she heard what you said, but chooses not to respond to you. She then focuses on her impatient niece, and blows some bubbles for her instead.
The first round of bubbles completely fills the air around you. Vanessa gets so excited that she starts squealing as she tries to pop the bubbles with her fingers. You make sure that she doesn't fall off of your lap as she does so.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again; you are veryyy good at blowing things.. " you compliment Natara with a grin.
"Mal!" She's clearly trying to suppress a smile "Behave!" She nods towards Vanessa.
You simply shrug. "She's not even paying attention to us..."
The fun is soon over after all the bubbles have been popped, and Vanessa eagerly looks back to Natara, basically begging her with her eyes to blow some more bubbles.
When Natara blows the second round, Vanessa takes your hand and makes you pop bubbles as well. For some reason Natara sees this as a sign to keep blowing bubbles, and you could've sworn you saw a hint of a little evil grin while she was at it. But you don't really care, because Vanessa's happiness and laughter is infectious. And soon the three of you are all laughing, and happily popping bubbles.
After you've popped so many bubbles that you've lost count, you notice how Danieka runs over to you. It seems that Natara has noticed it too, because she softly nudges Vanessa. "Look who's over there!"
The little girls face lights up when she sets eyes on the running figure. "Mooooommy!" She's ready to jump off your lap to run towards her mom, but you stop her.
"Where do you think you're going, princess" you ask teasingly. Then you playfully lift Vanessa up, throwing her in the air a couple of times, after which you let her sit on your neck. Together with Natara, you start walking to meet up with Danieka halfway.
She's barely in hearing distance when she starts talking. "Hey guys, thanks so much for watching over her, again. I finally found Sammie the tiger under the bed." She explains, half out of breath.
You put Vanessa down and laugh at how she enthusiastically runs over to her mom, but mostly to Sammie.
"Don't worry about it. It was our pleasure." Natara answers with a smile.
Meanwhile Danieka swoops Vanessa up into her arms, and gives her Sammie, who immediately gets enveloped into a big hug.
"Yeah, she's an absolute angel after all." You truthfully add with a smile of your own.
Danieka lovingly looks to Vanessa, who is now happily playing with Sammie. "She is, isn't she? But she sure is a hand full… Aren't you, cutiepie?" She then tickles the little girl, making her giggle adorably.
Her laughter doesn't go unnoticed by everyone else on the airstrip. Which is exactly why Jesse walks over. "Heeeey, there's my favourite niece!" He, with permission of course, takes Vanessa out of Danieka's arms and gives her a kiss on her cheek. "Hey gorgeous. Are you going to miss your favourite uncle?"
She nods in response. "Yes. Going to miss uncle Mal very much." She pouts.
Jesse looks a little taken aback by this and takes a second to process this moment. "… Uncle Mal? I thought your uncle Jesse was your favourite!"
She shakes her head. "Yes, but uncle Mal makes pretty sandcastles! I like pretty sandcastles.." she explains herself.
Everyone, except for Jesse himself, starts laughing at her answer. Nikki notices this, and pats him on the shoulder. "That's probably not how you thought it would go, huh?"
"Nah, she definitely caught me off guard this time…" Then he starts to laugh as well. "You'd better step your game up Mal, I'm coming for that 'favourite uncle' spot with all that I have.."
Before you get to answer, other people start to mingle. "Who says I can't be her favourite uncle?" Zac asks jokingly.
Meanwhile Neha wonders out loud who Vanessa's favourite aunt might be, which leads to a huge discussion between all the women.
Surprisingly, it is Raj who breaks the discussion up with the announcement that the plane is about to leave, with or without them.
Everyone is about to say their final goodbyes and head for the airplane when you loudly scrape your throat. All of a sudden you're starting to feel very nervous. It gets even worse when all eyes fall on you. Thankfully you feel how Natara places her hand into yours as a sign of support. You take a deep breath, and urge yourself to man up. "Hey guys, before you go... We'd, uhm.. Like to announce something.." You interlace your fingers with hers, feeling a lot more confident as you do so. You pause for a second to scan the crowd in front of you, and notice a lot of curious faces looking back.
"What's up?" Neha asks impatiently.
You softly squeeze Natara's hand, to let her know that she's up and turn your head to face her. She's failing horribly to suppress the huge smile forcing its way on her face, making you smile as well. "Well... Last evening Mal proposed to me, and I've accepted."
There is a short silence as everyone processes the great news, and then everyone shouts their congratulations from all sides at the same time. Things happen so fast that you can barely comprehend it.
"Oh my god, that is amazing!"
"Congratulations!"
"I'm so happy for you two!"
But the loudest of them all is Neha who yells "GROUP HUG!"
You look around with wide eyes to see people are suddenly rushing to you from all sides. "Oh, are we just gonna-" Before you can finish your sentence you get pulled along into the craziness by Natara, and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a group hug. "Oh... Okay.." You mumble. But you still participate and wrap your arm around the people that are closest to you.
Sadly the group hug comes to an end, and it's time to really say goodbye to everyone. After the last round of hugs and kisses, you watch how they board the plane. Together with Raj, Anita, Neha and Natara you wave until the plane takes off.
The plane has barely left the airstrip when Neha spins on her heels and faces Natara and you with a mischievous grin. "Soooo, how does it feel to be engaged?"
Just imagine a fancy pants dinner with the remaining Mansingh family here, talking about the engagement and how happy they are and stuff.. Cuz I've been staring at this page for ages and I couldn't come up with something that was worth posting.
You are now Natara Mansingh.
After enjoying a delightful dinner with your parents and sister, you and Mal excuse yourself, and head to your temporary home. After all the craziness of the last few days, a little bit of rest would be quite welcome. Especially since it's almost time to leave for the two of you as well, so the time to enjoy and appreciate the beautiful nature around you would be right now. Which is why Mal immediately wants to head towards the deck that overlooks the beach. You let him go ahead, while you quickly head inside to fix both of you a lovely cocktail.
When you finally step onto the deck with two mojito's in your hand, you frown because can't seem to spot him anywhere. "Mal? Where are you?" you call out with a frown.
"I'm down here!" he vaguely answers.
You follow the sound of his voice towards fence at the edge of the deck, and look down. Surprisingly you see your handsome –correction– enormously handsome fiancé lying in a hammock that is tied in between two palm trees. The light of the setting sun is illuminating his face, highlighting all the features you love so much. The gorgeous grin he flashes you as soon as he sets eyes on you only makes it better. You feel that tingly feeling in your stomach, the one that you'll never get used to, but you don't want to either. Your frown immediately disappears, and is replaced by a smirk. "What are you doing all the way over there?" you ask curiously.
"Well, I was leaning over the fence like you are right now, and I saw this hammock just hanging here all abandoned. So I figured we might as well use it.." He then points towards the ocean. "The view is beautiful from here, by the way. You might want to see for yourself."
"You know what? I might actually do that…" You say while you make your way down the stairs and walk towards him, making sure not to spill the precious content in the glasses you're currently holding.
When you come closer he extends his arms towards you. "Finally, there is my most favourite thing in the whole wide world!" he says sweetly. "And I'm glad that you made it here as well…" he adds with an evil look.
You suppress a smile and roll your eyes at him. Then you turn on your heels and walk back to the deck. "Remind me, why am I engaged to you again…?" you ask over your shoulder.
"Wait, wait, waaait!" He hastily scrambles out of the hammock and runs over to stop you by taking you by the arm. "I was joooking. Of course I was talking about you, not about the mojito."
"How do I know you're not joking right now?" You ask, trying your best to keep a straight face. You're about to pull your arm back and continue to walk away from him, to make your little act a little more believable, when he starts talking again.
"Babe…." He spins you around and puts both hands on either side of your face. His stunning blue eyes find yours in a split second. He looks at you in an adorable, loving way, almost making your heart melt. "You are the love of my life." He softly says in a very serious tone, making it unable to ever doubt his words. Before you're able to respond, his lips softly caress yours. He suddenly pulls back, and takes you by the arm again. "Now come on, it's time to relax a bit." He drags you towards the hammock, and gets comfy in it. Then he signs for you to join him.
A big part of you wants to join him immediately, yet you sceptically look at the slightly worn out hammock. "Are you sure this thing will be able to hold the weight of both of us..?"
"Yes." He tries to say truthfully, but his face tells you that he thinks otherwise.
You raise your eyebrows at him, letting him know that you can see through his little façade.
He flashes you an apologetic smile. "Okay, maybe not.. But if anything is going to happen, I will break our fall." He tries to convince you.
You're not really convinced yet, but he doesn't seem to care because he quickly pulls you towards him, until you suddenly sit on his lap. The two of you are share a silent moment for a while, waiting for the hammock to give in.
When nothing happens Mal widely smiles at you. "See, told you it was fine."
You can't help but laugh and playfully slap his chest. "No seriously, why are we engaged again..?" you teasingly ask while you hand him his mojito.
He laughs, and gives you a sweet kiss that temporarily makes you feel like you're in seventh heaven. "That's why.." he softly answers.
Moments quickly pass, and the empty mojito glasses get discarded on the ground. You've cuddled up with Mal and rest your head on his chest. Both of you are looking out onto to the beach, simply enjoying the peace and quiet.
After a while you look up to the man you're laying on top of, who's peacefully looking at the beach next to him. The man that makes you feel all fuzzy and tingly when you look at him. The man who makes your heart beat faster by just smiling at you. The man who you'll proudly call your husband in the foreseeable future.
He notices that you're lovingly gazing at him, so he looks down to you with a curious look on his face.
You shyly smile at him, because he just caught you staring. To avert his attention, you try to say something funny or clever. But only three words come to mind. "I love you."
Those words cause him to smile widely as he wraps his arms tighter around you and kisses your head. "I love you too." He softly mumbles into your hair.
You lay your head back down on his chest again. Several silent, peaceful seconds pass as the both of you are simply enjoying each others company. But then an evil idea pops up in your mind. "I love you more..." You teasingly add.
He softly chuckles underneath you. "You keep saying that, but I highly doubt it..."
"Why? It's true!" you try to convince him, although you barely believe it yourself.
The look on his face tells you that he doesn't buy it either. "Oh, is it? Why don't you enlighten me."
You raise your eyebrows at him. "What do you mean?" you ask confused.
He lovingly strokes some hair out of your face. "Try to explain how much you love me, and I'll say if you truly love me more." He explains himself.
"I can't possibly put my love for you into words.." you say truthfully.
He shrugs at you. "Try it anyway."
"Okay, fine... " You take a second to think it through. "Hmm... Oh, I know! I love you from here, to the moon, all the way to the farthest star in the universe, and back!"
"Heh.. That's funny."
"What is?"
"I only love you from here to that palm tree over there..."
You furrow your eyebrows. "Is that your idea of a joke? Becau-"
He quickly puts his finger on your lips. "Ssssh, you didn't let me finish... I meant to say that I love you so much that you have to take that distance between here and there, and then multiply it by a countless amount of times. THAT is how much I love you."
So many things go through your head all at once, that you don't even know how to respond. You let your head drop to his chest and sigh. "Fiiiine, you win. You're impossible, do you know that?"
"Yes, I do. But it's all love?"
You look up to him and stick out your tongue, making him laugh. Then you change the way you're laying, putting your arms on his chest and letting your head rest on them. From that position you observe his face for a moment. Meanwhile he shoots you another curious look, almost the same look as the one that started all of this in the first place.
"... Is it too late to change my previous answer?"
"Yes." He immediately answers, not even having to think it through.
You fake a frown. "You are mean."
"But I love you?"
"That only makes it worse…"
"Is me kissing you mean?"
You're slightly taken aback by this sudden question. "No, but -"
Before you're able to finish your sentence, he interrupts you. "Then I'm not mean." He then leans forward until his lips tenderly caress yours.
At that very moment it seems like the rest of the world suddenly stopped existing. It's just you and him in that hammock. You can hear the waves of the ocean crashing on the sand and the local birds that are chirping from trees and bushes. You've noticed how the setting sun coloured the sky a beautiful mixture of red/orange. And, even though you know in the back of your head that this is absolutely untrue, it almost feels like all of this was arranged to change this simple, yet mind-blowing kiss into one of the most special, magical kisses you've ever had in your life. Something about that kiss makes the butterflies in your stomach go crazy. Something about that kiss made you forget that you had to breathe. Something about that kiss made you lose yourself in the moment. The best part of all of this, is that every single kiss of him makes you feel as amazing as this one does.
When he slowly pulls back, you almost refuse to let go of him and the wonderful feeling he gives you. You lean down to extend the kiss for a few microseconds longer, and then pull back yourself. As you do so, a smile forces its way onto your face. You don't go too far from his precious lips, making sure you keep hovering a few millimetres above them. You keep your eyes shut as you take a moment to process the kiss. You've barely succeeded, when you already find yourself leaning down for another magical kiss.