Lunick was on a mission. He needed cold, hard facts – data he could use to prevent a fate worse than death! What's more, this mission was one that he and he alone could undertake. He left Solana sleeping, despite the relatively late morning hour. At that very moment he was envying her rest. He was actually having to 'self-medicate' due to his own lack of rest.

The triple ristretto he was drinking should have him wired for hours! He needed it, considering, by his estimation, he had gotten only two to three hours of actual sleep over the last three nights. Not that he was complaining. It wasn't like he had spent his normal sleeping hours fighting bad guys! But in the arms passionately making love to his new bride.

He was still a little worried. The pace they were setting was…substantial. That's why he had slipped out of bed using every bit of his strength training to be utterly silent. Of course, he needn't have bothered. Solana normally was the lightest of sleepers, able to wake up and function in mere seconds, but this morning she was in the deepest of slumbers, to the degree he could have rolled out of her arms singing at the top of his lungs.

Stage 1 of his mission was afoot: Research! He started with the most obvious of sources – the various men's health type magazines. Oh yes, there was plenty there related to what he was looking for! Too bad it was all in the ads near the back of the publication. He knew better than to believe anything he saw there anymore than what used to be in his email inbox before he had Iyori install some really effective SPAM filters.

Thirty minutes were burned up, wasted looking for any kind of real information. It just wasn't there. That meant digging deeper, going where no man had gone before! Well, at least where men shouldn't have gone before, at least where he was concerned.

It was worse than he could have ever imagined.

Women's magazines, it turned out, were apparently ninety-five percent advertisement, and what wasn't ad looked amazingly like some cosmetic or clothing company must have paid them to run what they were.

He also discovered that he could never really think of Solana as thin again. Compared to most of the models used by those magazines, she was full of delicious curves! Not to mention her battle with anorexia three years ago had left her so gauntly, he'd hardly recognize her for months until her feeding treatments and therapy had her looking like her healthy, sultry, and bodacious self again.

Lunick was starting to despair that he would not find the answers he needed.

He was afraid of what might finally happen if he failed! He had been threatened with this before and the last thing he wanted to do was fail his beloved wife, especially now!

Just short of three and a half years earlier he had finally moved out of his childhood home and in with Solana. Just barely seventeen at the time, a compromising situation with the new recruit Iyori complicated things between them where moving out and giving her Lunick's house was practically essential for them to remain together. Officially they were roommates. He was sure that fiction never fooled anyone, especially with the looks he got from his mother and Solana's father at first. (It was rather interesting that his father seemed inordinately proud and Solana's mother inordinately happy with the arrangement.)

A month into their new living arrangement together they set a pace that he was sure would be impossible to maintain. He even remarked on it to Solana. She simply smiled and said everything was going to be just fine, after all, anything was possible with their love and drive! Then she flashed him a smile that stiffened his resolve. Fortunately, for his sanity (and the fact he needed enough rest to perform in other areas such as his school work) things calmed down relatively quickly, though "Lunshine" took on a whole new dimension. The week leading up to their wedding things kicked into high gear again. Even though they had so very much to do they still managed to find as much time as they could to be together. In fact, every waking moment they weren't tied up with guests and caterers and tux rental people and family members, they spent together, sending many a tongue wagging among the older matrons of both families.

Solana didn't care. Her dress was white and it was going to stay that way! Besides, even if they had pulled off the impossible task of waiting all the way through a three-year promise those same tongues would have been wagging anyway. It was the nature of the beast. He found he didn't care either. It was the Twenty-First Century anyway!

He had now wasted an hour looking through magazines without getting anywhere closer to the answers he wanted. His ristretto was also long gone and his stomach was starting to rumble. It looked like his mission may fail after all.

Solana sat up in the bed, clutching the soft warm sheets to her. This so wasn't like her. She usually woke up early, ready for the day. Instead she felt like it would be really good to lie back down and close her eyes. In fact, that's exactly what she did. Still, despite her body's craving for sleep, something was just not right. A very key ingredient to her coziness was missing.

She craned her neck slightly, surveying the room through her sleep-addled senses. She spotted her shiny purple silk camisole sitting at the foot of the bed and decided she was much more accustomed to sleeping with at least something on. She slipped it over her head and slipped back under the covers once more. There, that was much better!

No, it was better, but that wasn't all. She grabbed Lunick's pillow and pulled it against her, scrunching herself to it like it was an over-sized Jiggypuff doll. Then it dawned on her.

Where was Lunick?

It was just after ten in the morning and, considering the late hour they finally went to sleep, he should have been dead to the world. If she was still down for the count, he should have been totally KO'd. Maybe one of his other needs, one of the strongest of them all had drawn him out of bed. Maybe he was just getting them breakfast, though they could have anything the cruise prepared brought directly to their room.

Oh well. She let her head gently down on the pillow and closed her eyes again. If he was there, he'd probably want another round. She wasn't sure she'd even be able to walk today, not after the extended adventure of the previous night and early morning.

Solana was finding herself trying to recall some of her mother's advice about keeping up with the male drive. Lunick sure had kicked into high gear over the last week. He couldn't keep his hands off of her the week leading up to their wedding, to the point she was sure his parents were going to have to bodily drag him to their house to spend the night before.

It didn't occur to her that her parents were thinking the same way about her when they took her that night. Thinking quickly, her mother rounded all the bridal party up for a "Girl's Night Out" to prevent any wedding-day mishaps such as the groom seeing his bride. Mishaps such as any one of the many family members happening to walk in on the two love-sick kids.

She heard the door open, admitting Lunick, who was singing to himself.

"So, how's my most bon-diggity newlywed this morning?" He asked brightly, casually tossing an empty grande-size coffee cup into the waste basket.

"Better, now." She said, smiling at him, though she couldn't get her eyes to open fully.

"Well, don't lollygag in bed all day! We've got a full day ahead of us. I've even got us a great, carb-loaded breakfast for us to give us the energy we'll need!" He went back to the sitting room, returning with a large tray covered with pastries, with a can of high-powered energy drink on the side.

"Energy? Baby, how about some more marinating today. You know, slow down, take it easy."

"Nah, I'm too pumped now. I found some stuff about how lots of activity can improve everything about your life, so I've planned lots of activity today."

"Oh…sure." She said with a half smile. I'm going to be leaving this place in a wheelchair! How did I ever think I could keep up with Lunick?

"So, here's the itinerary for the day." He held up a hands to tick off a list.

What has gotten into him? I thought he liked being spontaneous about intimacy?

"Okay, first off, I've rented some bikes and signed us up for a guided ride around the island!"

Bikes? That's the activity? That's not so bad!

Then she realized something.

Bikes have bike seats. Hard, uncomfortable seats that can be hell on certain regions.

Gulp!

Lunick's "Bike Tour of One Island" went far, far better than Solana had suspected. For the first thing, he had taken her into consideration much more than she first anticipated. She was expecting a ten-speed (road bike, Lunick would correct her) or one of the heavy looking old fashioned beach cruiser single-speeds that both tourists and natives alike made their way about the island on. Instead, waiting outside of their rooms after breakfast and some freshening up were two rather unusual looking bicycles. Their frames were elongated and the seat was much closer to the ground with a back made of nylon webbing stretched over an aluminum frame. The handlebars were tall, allowing the rider to hold his or her arms straight out. The whole contraption could best be described as a chaise lounge merged with a bicycle. He called them recumbents, or 'bents for short. The ride was pleasant, slow and the wide, padded seat did not cause any of the discomfort she was afraid of. She found herself pedaling along side him as their guide chattered away about the various points of interest, from the wide, sandy beaches to Mt. Ember which was rumored to host the legendary Pokémon Moltres. Solana found all of it beautiful and romantic, though she found herself spending more time just looking into his eyes. The riding was that easy and the pace was such they never really tired.

Once the ride meandered its way back to the cruise, they were loath to turn the bikes in. Since they had rented them for the day and not specifically for the ride, they packed a picnic and headed out once more when the ship docked at Two Island, intent on exploring the island at an even more leisurely pace. It dawned on Solana that Lunick must have planned on this, as he led her to a secluded meadow in the hills just outside of town, with a picturesque waterfall and an uninterrupted view of the ocean below them. They spread out a large, traditional checkered picnic blanket and settled in for a meal of local delicacies.

Lunick found himself looking at the waterfall. Over the centuries it had worn a deep, round pool at its base, the water draining from it in a series of smaller falls before winding down the shallow slopes to the sea.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Solana asked, her arms wrapped around his waist as they lounged on their picnic blanket.

"It's nothing, just remembering things."

She looked up at the falls. By itself the waterfall was not overly impressive. It was only the setting that made it part of the beautiful whole. She looked back to Lunick, who was holding a tiny bit of grilled Basculin on a tortilla for her to eat. They had taken their time with the meal, feeding each other tiny bites, enjoying each other's company.

"You're expecting some super-freak to emerge from behind that waterfall, aren't you?" She rolled toward him, giving him a light kiss.

"No. Well, now that you mention it, maybe, yeah, but that's not the main thing I was thinking of."

"Okay, what then?" she asked, draping an arm around his chest and nuzzling his cheek.

"I was just thinking it would be fun to go skinny-dipping in that little pond at the base of the waterfall."

She sat back slightly and looked at his face. Instead of the sly smile he had given her at the pool the day before, he had a lopsided, goofy grin.

"We went 'skinny-dipping' yesterday." She said playfully.

"That doesn't count. That was a private pool with a big, high wall around it in the comfort of our own suite. Nah, that's not what skinny dipping is about. Out here we can get caught. That's the fun!"

She put her head down on his chest again, giving him a light squeeze. "Lunick, I think today what we need is a bit of…rest."

"Solana, I'm fine. I talked to the ship physician this morning. He said at my age I should do just fine, and if I don't, I don't."

"You talked to a doctor…about that?" She let go of him and sat up, her expression changing just a little.

"Well, not in so many specific, uh, words and all. But this being our honeymoon and all…well…I didn't want you to be disappointed."

"Disappointed? How on Earth could you disappoint me, Lunick?" she started to look slightly concerned.

"I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with you. I mean, you're like a force of nature sometimes and I'm just a normal guy…"

"Lunick, you are so not a normal guy. You are a bigger hero and better ranger than I ever will be, simply because you make yourself be one."

"I know, Babe, but I'm just your average guy. I'm stronger than I ever believed possible, and yeah I've built some muscle and am a bit lean, and have been able to maintain a decent four-pack, but I'm always going to be a pretty slender guy and I'm never going to be anything like very muscular or broad like Keith. Besides, for a guy who used to say 'Never be normal' I'm really very, very normal."

She gave him a very long, slow kiss, one that told him very clearly how much she loved and cared for him. Then she fixed his dark blue eyes with her luminous ruby brown orbs. "First of all, you are not an average guy. Average size does not make an average guy. I didn't fall in love with any big hulking guy. Think about it. Did I ever crush on anyone like that?"

He thought about that. It had never occurred to him before. Aside from him, she never really confessed to crushing on any guy before, but the few talks he had overheard with her and Leilani, the guys she was into really weren't overly muscular or strongly physically built.

"In hindsight, I think I had already decided what I wanted in a man. It just took me way too long to recognize that. It took me too long to realize that falling in love had to be with the person, with the soul. Do you remember what you asked me when you proposed?"

"I remember getting really wet." He laughed, remembering the park sprinklers coming on at the very moment he popped the question.

"You asked me if I believed in soulmates. Then you asked me to be yours. That was the easy part, because, at least in my heart, I knew I already was. There you were, your car had broken down, the restaurant kicked us out when they lost power, the park sprinklers coming on, yet you still dropped to your knee and asked me to marry you. That's not an average, ordinary guy…" Her eyes narrowed a bit, her smile deepening seductively. "…and let me tell you, you are by no means a little guy."

His eyebrows went up. "Oh, and should I be worried about what you have to compare?"

"Lunick!" she popped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Gotcha." He smiled back at her.

"Anyway, I have girlfriends, Leilani and Shauna, you know…and they…talk."

"Okay, I think we just turned down TMI street." He blushed slightly.

"Sorry," she laughed, "though I have been careful about one thing. You notice how little I say 'no big' anymore?"

"I've noticed there's a lot of things you stopped saying so much. I just thought maybe you were growing out of them."

"Huh, maybe you're right. Okay, how's this. You are a ferociously awesome major hottie."

"I can live with that." He laughed.

"I do have a bit of a confession to make, though."

He raised one eyebrow, as if to say this should be interesting.

"I was actually getting worried about keeping up with you."

"Wait a sec. You mean to tell me I was getting all worried that I'd run out of steam, and you were too?"

"Uh huh." She giggled.

"You don't think we've been overdoing it, do you?"

"I didn't say that."

"I just didn't want you thinking I was losing interest or something if I got too, uh, too pooped to pop, so to speak."

"Lunick, you're a human being. We both are. Okay, let's get this straight, right here, right now. Making love is just that and it doesn't work unless it's something we both want and need so I promise you, if you don't feel up to it then I won't feel hurt. Got that?"

"Sure, Babe. Just promise me one thing, though."

"Uh huh?"

"Promise you won't give it up too easily if I need some…inspiration."

"Deal." She leaned over and kissed him again, caressing his cheek with her hand. He leaned back, pulling her down with him so she was draped halfway across his body, not breaking the kiss, letting her warm body form against his, letting the embrace be the wholeness of their passion without having to take it any further.

After what must have been many minutes, Solana came up for air. She sat up, then got up on her knees and pulled her light purple tank top over her head, revealing a white bikini top under it. Standing, she shimmied out of her shorts.

"It may not be true skinny-dipping, but let's get wet." She said cheerily, holding her hand out to help Lunick up. He was already wearing his trunks, so he wasn't able to perform a striptease for her in return. He pulled his green T-shirt over his head and started following her to the pool beneath the waterfall. He happened to glance at her bottom as she led him from their picnic.

"Babe, when did you get that?"

She looked over her shoulder at him, wearing her most seductive smile. Her hair was long enough now that it covered her entire backside, but it swung out of the way to give him an unrestricted view of the barely-there white bikini and the black ink that was tatted on the small of her back just above her rear.

"Oh, this old thing? Leilani helped me pick this out as a wedding present for you. You like?"

"I like, I like, I really like!"

Solana stopped walking and leaned forward to kiss him fiercely on the lips before somersaulting and diving into the water. She popped out moments later, beckoning him with her finger.

"Booyah!" He shouted as he followed her in, thankful for the trunks, as the water was very cold, with all the physiological effects that came along with it. "Eep!"

Solana swam up to him, meshing her body with his as she kissed him once again on the lips, her tongue exploring his mouth as she placed his hands on the curve of her hips.

"Let me warm you up." She whispered seductively.

She did in fact remain true to her word. They both got very, very warm.