Hannah's P.O.V

When I woke up the next morning, it was a bit strange, I didn't know where I was at first, but then I remembered, this was Ballista's room, and all the memories of last night came flooding back. I got washed and dressed to take my mind off it and went down for breakfast. Ballista was on the phone to the exorcist, hopefully they'll come as soon as possible. Kook was talking to Knightriss about something, please be good news, I need something to cheer me up.

I sat down at the breakfast table and Kook came over to me, a huge smile on his face.

"You ready for a day out?" he asked.

"Why? Where are we going?"

"I've been speaking to Knightriss and she agrees with me that we should all have a day off, so we're going to the beach for the day, the castle guards are going to cover our shifts."

"The beach? I haven't been to the beach for months."

"Well, get your sunscreen and swimsuit babe, because you're coming too."

This is great, it's just what I need to take my mind off things, and if the exorcist comes today it'll give them some space.

After breakfast, I put my bikini on under my clothes, a bottle of sun cream and sunglasses in my bag, plus a book to read or some crochet to keep me occupied.

The beach wasn't that far from the castle, so it wasn't a far way to walk. As soon as I saw the sand and the sea, I smiled and it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

We chose a spot to sit in a nice quiet area of the beach, I got a towel out of my bag and laid it down on the soft sand. Before I laid down, I changed into my bikini and covered myself in sun cream, I could feel someone looking at me, I looked up and Kook smiled.

"You look great." He whispered.

"Thanks."

Finally, I put my sunglasses on and laid down on my towel, I closed my eyes and just listened to the noises around me, the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the sand, the seagulls calling out in the distance, and the sound of the others talking away.

After an hour I must have fallen asleep, I woke up feeling rather hot, so I turned over onto my front.

"Kook." I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favour and rub some sun screen into my back?"

"Erm…yeah, sure."

I handed Kook the bottle and turned around, there was a quick spark through my shoulder as Kook gently massaged the cream into my back. I took off my sunglasses and I noticed a bucket full of water near me, I got that voice in the back of my head, "how funny would it be?" it asked.

When Kook finished rubbing in the cream and handed me back the bottle, I was about to grab the bucket when I heard Gildar cry out.

"Seriously Kook?" He shouted. "You put mayonnaise in my sunscreen?"

Kook sniggered. "Come on Gildar, take a joke."

While Kook's back was turned, I jumped up, grabbed the bucket and threw the water over him. Kook gasped at the cold temperature.

"Hey!"

"You're not the only one who can play a prank." I laughed, dropping the bucket.

"You little minx, come here, I'm going to get you for that!"

Kook jumped up and chased me down the beach, I tried to out run him, but her was too fast, Kook grabbed me around the waist and lifted me off the ground, my legs kicking frantically as he began to tickle me.

"Kook! Put me down!" I squealed.

"Serves you right for getting me wet. I'm going to get you back for that."

Kook put me down and we went back to the others, I laid back down and it wasn't long before I was asleep again.

I was woken by Kook nudging me, were we going back already?

"Babe, there's something on your leg." He whispered.

I opened my eyes and looked down, on my thigh was a crab, I've never been keen on them since and incident when I was a child, I screamed and jumped up, as I did my bikini top dropped off, mortified, I flung my arms across my chest. Kook was covering his mouth to hide the laughter.

"You beast!" I shouted, but I was now starting to laugh.

"Sorry babe, I warned you that I was going to get you back." Said kook, wrapping his towel around me.

I went to put my bikini top back on but it had been cut, that's why it came off, I threw it over at Kook.

"Keep it as a souvenir." I said as I got my shirt out of bag.

That was the last prank of the day and it was soon approaching two o'clock, it was about time that we got back to the castle. As we walked inside the exorcist was just about to leave.

"Any luck?" Ballista asked.

"He was rather reluctant to leave, but I've managed to convince him to move on."

"So my room's definitely not haunted?"

"Not any more, you can sleep easy tonight."

I hope she was right, I didn't want to see him again.

I sat in bed that night, still feeling a bit uneasy, what if he hasn't gone at all, what if the exorcist got it wrong.

As I sat there, picking at my nails and looking around the room, jumping at anything that moved or made a noise, Kook walked past my open bedroom door.

"Babe, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I just don't dare to go to sleep, what if he's still here?"

"Hannah, the exorcist told you that he was gone, you've got nothing to worry about."

"I know, I'm just still in shock about what happened last night."

Kook sighed and looked around him before coming into my room and sat down on the bed next to me, he held my hand and I instantly started to calm down.

"I shouldn't really suggest this, but…how about I stay here with you tonight, so if he is still here, then I'll be able to stop him." Kook suggested.

"Are you sure?"

"If it means you'll be able to get a good nights sleep, yeah."

"Erm…okay, but close the door, we don't want anyone getting the wrong idea."

Kook got off the bed and shut the bedroom door, he took off his shoulder pads and goggles and belt before getting back onto the bed, Kook decided that it was best for him to sleep on the outside of the bed sheets, he said that he didn't want to make me feel uncomfortable, I insisted that I was fine with it, but Kook insisted that it was for the best.

As I lay there in the dark with Kook's strong arms around me, I finally started to relax and very quickly began to fall asleep.

I woke up the next day to the sound of rustling of fabric, Kook was already awake. I slowly opened my eyes and looked over my shoulder, Kook was already dressed.

"Morning." I said, sitting up and stretching.

"Morning babe. Did you sleep alright?"

"Much better thanks."

"See I told you there was nothing to worry about."

I smiled, rubbed my eyes and looked out of the window. It was barely even sunrise.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Five in the morning."

"Five in the morning? You mean I've only had seven hours sleep?"

"I tried my best not to wake you."

"Do you get up this early every morning?"

"Yeah, all birds get up during the dawn chorus. It's the best time to go for a walk and enjoy the best of nature. You can join me if you like."

"Erm…no thanks."

"It's alright, you can go back to sleep if you want."

"No, there's no point, I'm wide awake now."

While Kook went for his morning walk, I got my dressing gown on and went down to the kitchen to make myself a coffee, that'll no doubt wake me up a bit. I decided to wait for Kook to come back, I sat on the courtyard steps with me coffee in my hands, my eyelids were still pretty heavy and I couldn't stop yawning. It was a rather chilly morning and the sound of the dawn chorus sounded beautiful.

At around half past five Kook finally came back from his morning walk.

"Seriously babe, you've got to come on an early morning walk with me some day." He said, sitting next to me. "There's something about being out in nature that makes you feel so alive, so…so…"

"So not going to happen." I said, mid-yawn.

"You should at least try to get some more sleep, we're going to be working on your training again today."

I'd forgotten about that, I finished my coffee and dashed off to get washed and dressed. After a quick breakfast, I joined Kook in the courtyard for my training, I was definitely starting to get the hang of it.

"You're definitely getting better babe." Said Kook. "You'll be a qualified defender in no time."

"Great."

We trained and trained all the way through the morning until lunch, I was completely exhausted by now, I definitely won't have trouble sleeping tonight.

"So how's the training going?" Ballista asked.

"Great, expect I'm tired out now."

"Bad night?"

"Not exactly, it's mainly because I was woken up so early."

I looked over at Kook, who was trying to look anywhere else than me, his cheeks going a subtle shade of pink.

After lunch I spent a few hours either watching TV or crocheting, occasionally falling asleep on the sofa. After three hours, I was woken by a tap on my shoulder.

"You okay Hannah?" Shaiden asked.

"Yeah, I'm just tired."

After three o'clock I decided to join Kook at the lookout tower, he'd been there hours, so I took him up a little flask of coffee.

"You okay up here?" I asked.

Kook looked surprised to see me.

"Oh, I didn't expect to see you up here babe."

"I've brought you some coffee, and…I thought that you might be getting a little bit lonely up here on your own."

"Now that you mention it, I am a bit."

"Maybe you could show me the ropes of lookout duty."

"Yeah alright."

While Kook was showing me what he did, I couldn't help but notice something going on in the Splatalot village, they were building some sort of platform and bonfire.

"What's going on down there?" I asked.

Kook looked and smiled.

"Well spotted, that's for the annual celebration."

"I thought we'd already done that."

"We have here in the castle, the villagers have theirs a bit later, it's pretty much the same, dancing drinking, basically just having a good time."

"Wow, sounds great."

"Yeah, it's a shame that we're not allowed to go."

"Oh, shame."

"Yeah."

There was a brief silence.

"You know…just because we're not allowed to go, it doesn't mean that we can't."

"You mean…break the rules?"

"Yeah."

I was rather excited, but I didn't know what about, was it the excitement of breaking the rules, or the excitement of spending more time with Kook?

"Meet me at my room at nine o'clock and we can get ready there." Said Kook.

"Okay."

It felt like forever waiting for nine o'clock to come around. Finally, when it was time, I snuck down to Kook's room, I tried my best not to act suspicious.

I gently knocked on Kook's bedroom door, he checked to see if it was me before letting me in.

"What's all this preparation for?" I asked.

"We can't go there dressed the way we are now, we'll get noticed, we have to blend in."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"With these."

Kook opened his wardrobe and handed me an outfit.

"Erm…why do you have a villagers dress in your wardrobe?" I asked.

"Well you never know. It's not the first time I've done this, and I always hoped some day I'd be able to share the experience with someone else."

I just smiled and went into the bathroom to get changed, luckily the dress was just the right size for me.

As I walked out of the bathroom, Kook was just putting on his waistcoat, when he saw me emerge he slowly looked me up and down and smiled.

"Don't laugh." I said putting on my bonnet to hide my hair.

"You look beautiful."

I smiled as my cheeks started to burn.

Once Kook had his hat on to cover his hair, we were ready to go, what I couldn't work out was how we were going to leave here without being spotted.

"So where do we go? Do we sneak out the back?" I asked.

"No, I've got a better way." Kook replied opening the window and holding out his hand. "Do you trust me?"

My eyes widened.

"You mean…out the window?"

"Yeah, don't worry, just hold onto me tightly and I'll fly us down."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

I smiled and took Kook's hand, I joined him on the window ledge and wrapped my arms tightly around him.

"Whatever you do, don't let go."

"Okay."

I closed my eyes tightly as I could slowly feel us lifting off the ground, I could feel the wind blowing against my face and hear it whistling in my ears, I wanted to look but my eyes remained shut. Kook chuckled.

"Babe, open your eyes." He said.

I slowly opened one eye, we were high up in the night sky, the stars shining and the moon gleaming bright, this was amazing, I looked down and finally realized how high up we really were, I gasped and closed my eyes again, burying my face into Kook's shoulder.

We finally landed behind one of the village cottages, my legs were a bit weak now from the whole flying experience, but I still had enough control to stay upright.

Kook held my hand gently and led me towards the party, the bonfire was already ablaze and people were dancing around on the platform.

"Come on, let's dance." Said Kook.

"You know I'm not the best dancer."

"Don't worry, just follow my lead."

Kook took my hand and pulled me up onto the platform, the music was playing and people started to clap along to the music, Kook put his hand on my waist and I put my hand on his shoulder as we began to dance around the platform in time to the music, this dance was very different to the one before, it was much faster and loads more fun.

Once the dance was finished, which had lasted quite a while we went to one side to get some drinks.

"So what do you think?" Kook asked.

"I'm loving it, this is the best fun I've had in ages."

I looked deep into Kook's eyes, there was something different about them, something I haven't noticed before, Kook just smiled and gently stroked my cheek, I smiled back and put my hands on Kook's shoulders slowly leaning towards him, Kook put his hand behind my head and pulled me towards him, firmly pressing his lips against mine, I sighed and put both of my arms over Kook's shoulders, Kook's hand moved from behind my head to down my back, pulling me closer, my heart began to pound against my ribcage and my legs started to tremble.

As our lips parted I rested my forehead against Kook's taking in his sweet scent.

"I love you." I whispered.

"I love you too."

We spent the rest of the evening dancing and laughing occasionally stopping for a drink. I didn't know what was in the punch, but I was starting to feel a bit merry.

By around half past eleven, it was about time to get back to the castle, both me and Kook were pretty tired, we snuck away and Kook managed to fly us back into his room without anyone spotting us.

As soon as we got back I leaned over to give Kook another quick kiss.

"I've had a great night. Thank you so much." I said wrapping my arms across Kook's shoulders.

Kook put his hands on my waist and smiled, I ran my fingers gently through his soft emerald green hair as I gently kissed his soft lips.

"Well, I better get back to my room."

I went to get changed into my normal clothes but Kook grabbed my hand to stop me.

"Babe, it's eleven o'clock at night, if someone sees you walking down the corridor now, you'll be in trouble."

"Well what do you suggest then?"

"Well…I, erm…I suppose you could stay here for the night."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah of course."

Wow, what a night this truly is turning out to be, sneaking out to the village celebration, spending quality time with the man I love, please don't let this end.