Absolute bliss .
The faintest rays of sunlight poked through the curtains into the room, complete silence , not the faintest sound could be heard , it was just cold enough to share the blanket ... and each other .
Kazuya was not aware of any of this , he was still fast asleep ,he snored gently, still tired out from the journey and of course the late night exertion .
Chizuru however had just woken up .
She was surprised even before she opened her eyes , not because of Kazuya's presence,she was vividly aware of what had transpired last night ,rather because of how they were positioned currently.
She'd expected it to be just like the last time , instead this time around they were both on their side, facing the same direction , him behind her , her back pressed into his front , his right arm wrapped firmly around her , pressing her into him , his face just inches away , close enough for his breaths to warm the back of her neck .
She tensed up for just a second more out of shock than anything else before she relaxed with a long sigh of contentment, not moving even an inch feeling his warmth wrapped around her .
That moment for her ... was perfect , absolute bliss
Until a jolting but steady thumping sprang from the front door .
Immediately they both sat up straight almost like they'd been electrocuted.
Kazuya had not recovered any sense of orientation but instinctively responded to the knocking and so crawled out of bed and stumbled towards the door .
Thankfully Chizuru regained her senses quickly enough to yell out before it was too late ,
"You idiot , you're not wearing anything ".
Kazuya glanced down at himself , at first her words didn't register and when it finally did he too yelled out.
Almost shame-facedly he crawled back to bed where by this time , Chizuru had already put on her yukata .
As he covered himself in the blanket , she smoothed out a few strands of hair before walking upto the door and answering it .
There she found the rather cheery waiter with the breakfast they'd requested to be delivered .
She smiled and thanked him before closing the door and walking back towards the bed .
She set the tray down before pouring out two cups of coffee and handing one to Kazuya, who was now clothed as well .
He didn't take it at first , he didn't even stretch out his hand , he just gaped at her open-mouthed.
"What's wrong? ", she asked before she noticed how red his face had become .
"N...nothing's wrong ", he stammered out but she smiled understandingly ,
"Just remembered last night ? ", she asked.
He looked away from her and nodded before asking back , a little shame-facedly,
"How come you're so calm about it ? "
"Because I woke up before you and already processed all this ", she answered, laughing as she did , before adding a little more seriously,
"Though believe me , I did freak out when I opened my eyes " .
Kazuya blinked for a couple of seconds before remarking,
"I wish I'd seen that , stupid breakfast spoiled it "
"Why did we even ask for it to be delivered so early? ", he complained.
"It's 9 O clock ", she answered rather pleasantly before continuing
"Remember? We wanted to take advantage of the whole day instead of just laying around ? "
"Yeah ", he accepted but still slightly unhappy .
Chizuru watched him as he tried to sneak a glance at her , at first she thought it was because of how she was dressed with the hastily tied yukata starting to slip off but once she saw him trying to slowly lie down again, she pressed the cup to his cheek which made him almost jump once again , this time with a yelp .
He sat up once again before cautiously accepting the cup of coffee this time .
He wasn't a regular coffee drinker so it had an almost immediate effect on him , he perked up in front of her eyes and that twinkle in his eyes returned .
It was only then that Chizuru realized that she herself was feeling lighter than she had in days .
Almost unconsciously she tightened her grip on the mug as she thought about her last few nights back at her apartment.
"I'm grateful that Kazuya didn't notice ", she thought to herself .
"But I should tell him " .
She hesitated for a moment , wondering ,
"When though ? Right now , we're in such a good moment , I don't want to ruin the rest of the short trip by bringing up those unpleasant things .
I'll just make him worry ... and then he'll blame himself. "
She took another sip of coffee before deciding,
"If I get a chance , maybe tonight... otherwise I'll wait till we get back ".
She focused on Kazuya again , leaving her thoughts behind ,
" We have the whole day ahead of us ...
And it's not like what I have to talk about is a problem now ... and him being here takes care of that anyway ."
She watched him snuggle into the blanket as he drank his coffee and then she crawled back into the blanket herself and layed her legs across his outstretched legs before placing the breakfast tray across his lap .
"Well .. we don't have to leave right away", she whispered to Kazuya .
After a rather lengthy breakfast (where more time was spent snuggling under the blanket rather than eating) , the two got dressed and left to explore the city of Kamakura .
They started their day by visiting some of the various shrines around the city , each one was uniquely beautiful in its own right and had its own stories to tell . In between the different shrines, they stopped at various food stalls and cafés, to sample some local snacks and sweets such as Karinto (deep-fried bread in various flavors) and a special Kamakura cheesecake .
After the shrine visits , they went to a busy shopping street , where they mostly just walked around taking in the sights before buying a couple of souvenirs.
They had lunch at a famous local curry restaurant before they decided to take Fuyuko's recommendation once again and take a local train to Enoshima Island (just twenty minutes away ) where they headed to the famous Enoshima aquarium .
Kazuya was ecstatic as they watched the dolphin show, walked through the jellyfish hall and took in all the other marine life .
Right after that , they headed back to Kamakura , stopping only a local brewery to buy some Kamakura beer before they walked back to the ryokan .
"It's kind of warm today isn't it ? ", Kazuya asked as they walked to their room.
"Well ... it's probably not as cold when you're not drenched in ice-cold water ", Chizuru pointed out .
"Yeah , you're right ", Kazuya agreed with a grin before she added ,
"You are right though,I already checked the weather report , it's supposed to be a warm night , at least comparatively ".
"Huh ", Kazuya commented as they entered their room and closed the door behind them.
"You think maybe , we came back too early?Its just after 6 ", he asked her .
"Maybe ", she replied.
"But we've done everything there is to be done ,plus its probably better we got back in before it got dark ", she explained .
Kazuya glanced out at the balcony , frowning before replying ,
"Kind of feels like this holiday got over too soon " .
"It was just a day after all ", she reminded him before sighing out loud ,
"I know what you mean though " .
She watched him silently gazing outside for a few seconds before an idea popped into her head .
"Hey , how about we have a little picnic on the balcony then ? We could sit and watch the sunset and talk .
I know it's not much but ... "
"Yeah", Kazuya interrupted, smiling again now .
"That's a great idea " .
In just ten minutes, they'd laid out the spare sheets , pillows and blanket on the balcony along with the beer and some leftover snacks from earlier.
They turned out to be just in time to watch the glorious sunset which they followed till the sun had dipped well below the horizon and the stars had come out .
They'd eaten the snacks while watching the sunset and now they opened the beer, clinked the bottles together before taking a long sip .
"We don't actually drink together too often , do we ? ", Chizuru remarked .
"Yeah , we've had some sake together a couple of times like here and at our birthdays last year but other than that ... " , Kazuya paused to think for a second before answering with a cheeky grin ,
"Unless you count the time you got drunk at Saize and wanted to know... "
A solid punch in the gut from a glowering Chizuru stopped him in his tracks. As he bent over more in laughter than pain , she hissed at him
"Stop bringing that up all the time ! ".
He held up his hands in surrender before she muttered ,
"You idiot " .
After a couple of seconds, Kazuya admitted,
"It is really nice to just sit down with you like this ".
"It is ", she agreed wholeheartedly, even though she was still blushing .
They gazed at the darkening sky for a while before Chizuru spoke ,
"This brings back memories.
Remember? All those nights we spent on our balconies , just talking to each other ? "
"Of course , I remember ", Kazuya replied .
"For a long time... that's all I felt I had ... those nights when we just spoke to each other . It was the only time we were alone together, the only time ... "
"We weren't putting on a show for everybody else " , Chizuru continued.
"It was just ... us . No pretences , no lies , no agenda , no one else .
Just us ".
She paused for a second before adding ,
"Those first couple of months we were at each other's throats so often ... it was only when we started talking on the balcony that we started to get along ".
"Yeah , we used to fight a lot back then right ", Kazuya agreed
"I think those talks are what thawed our relationship , though".
Chizuru was silent as she stared at the moon which was slowly becoming brighter before she admitted softly ,
"I'd spent so many nights by myself on that balcony, by myself , I almost didn't believe I was actually talking to another person .
I couldn't see you , I could just hear your voice , so I would just close my eyes and listen and it ... really helped me be more open with you .
It was really comforting to have you there , to talk and plan and figure out what to do and get things off my chest ".
The wind started to pick up a little and so they pulled the extra sheet around them and shifted closer to each other .
"Is there ?" , Kazuya prodded gently .
"Something you want to get off your chest ?".
She turned back to him , they were so close that if she moved an inch, her head would be resting on her chest .
She sighed softly ,
"There you go ,reading me like a book again " .
He watched her fiddle with the sleeves of her yukata before she answered,
"Yeah .
It's about the last few days ".
She could see the exact second her words registered in his mind , she could feel his body stiffen unconsciously.
"I'm not ... it's not your fault... I don't want you to ", she began before Kazuya stopped her .
"It's fine ", he told her .
"Just tell me " .
He waited patiently for her , watching as she inhaled and exhaled slowly before she spoke ,
"What happened this last week ... it happened.
We fought, we made mistakes, we kept ourselves apart .
We both had a pretty bad time of it , we both suffered a lot .
To be honest ... I couldn't even sleep properly , our fight just kept swirling in my head , I regretted everything I said and I started to fear that I wouldn't get a chance to take amends .
I didn't know how to deal with my feelings, I didn't know how to handle knowing how I felt about you but having to stay away .
I began to think about you more and more .
I began to wonder how you did it.
For almost two years , you loved me . For almost two years you had to stay away .
I don't know how you did it .
3 days was too much for me .
I was lost .
But then ... you reached out .
We made up , we got back together, we even strengthened our bond .
I love that .
I love that we were able to do that , I love that we were able to forgive each other and move on .
I love that our relationship is so strong .
I feel so grateful that you held onto your feelings for me for so long .
And I hope we can continue like this in the future, I hope that even when we fight , we can find our way back to each other ".
She finally finished , slightly pink in the face , a bit out of breath ,but almost radiant in her blissful smile .
"I don't know what to say ", Kazuya admitted slowly.
"But I feel the same way , about everything".
Under the blanket , her hands slipped around him , embracing him , resting her head against his heart, she chuckled as she teasingly told him ,
"You really have a way with words , don't you ? "
Kazuya put his hands around her shoulders and lifted her up so that he could look her in the eyes as he said ,
"I love you "
Her chest was on his and so he could feel her breath escape her body , he could see the blood draining into her face as she almost stammeringly admitted,
"I guess... you do know the right thing to say ".
"I meant it sincerely ", he told indignantly .
"It wasn't to embarrass you " .
"That's what makes me feel like this ", she complained before resting her head once again and whispering into his chest , almost into his heart,
"I love you " .
Kazuya tried his best but he wasn't able to stop his heart beating like a jackhammer, her triumphant smile signaling that she could hear it .
He smiled too and his smile pushed the triumph away and brought the joy back in hers.
"I was completely sincere too ", she told him .
"I know ", he accepted .
A/N: A relaxing day followed by a night of reflection, brings to a close a great holiday for Kazuya and Chizuru.
Now they head back home where friends and foes await them .
Next time : The next truth ?