Gaia shrieked and ran into the bathroom of the hotel, trying to pull the door closed behind her with all her weight but with no luck. Erik pulled the door open seemingly with ease and Gaia feel into his arms with a yelp. "Erik let me go!" She laughed, squirming as she beat on his bare chest.

Erik grinned. "No, I caught you fair and square," he informed her with a prolonged kiss. "And now I get a prize."

"You counted too fast, I didn't have enough time to find a good hiding place," she complained, kissing him back before pouting to emphasize her point.

"I counted just as fast as last time," the nearly naked man informed his bride. "Let's see… what should my prize be…" he pondered out loud, teasingly.

"Make it an easy one, I'm exhausted and Papà is expecting us home for lunch," she teased right back, sauntering away from him and letting her hips sway as she moved to perch on the bed and wait for his verdict. It was a game the couple had been playing all morning, hiding with full intent to be found easily so they could collapse into bed as their "prize".

Erik was surprised at how much Gaia enjoyed sex. His only experience with sex came from watching the campfire debauchery of the gypsies, where love was made openly but the women usually seemed so… fake in their joy. Some of them were either wonderful actors or truthfully excited, but so many of the women were merely at the mercy of their man. Gaia was different. Their shy first time had erupted into a fiery second time, which smoldered for ages in a third and fourth time. They rested between each time, catching their breath and wondering in the feeling they shared as if they were the only people in the world capable of feeling so wonderful. Neither of them had slept at all, too caught up in one another to rest for longer than was absolutely necessary. Twice since their first time making love Gaia had even been the one to take initiative, and it was she who had suggested the sexual spin on her favorite childhood game.

It was unclear when exactly she had fallen in love, and even more unclear when that love had become so deep. She knew so little about him, Gaia thought to herself repeatedly, but she didn't really care. What she knew of him she adored to no end. Erik was incapable of doing anything half way, and was passionate about every task he took on to a fault. Even in bed he was rapidly learning her body and the things that made her squirm and moan not even a full day later. Sex was quickly becoming her new favorite hobby, simply because it was something she got to share exclusively with Erik. The act itself made her feel as close to him as their talks during recovery. Erik had never said so, but Gaia knew she was learning him better than any person, man or woman, alive. That thought made her feel incredibly special, blessed even. Erik was such a strange, amazing man she was honored to be the world's one and only expert on the working of his mind.

After one final playful romp, Gaia lay over him, arms folded neatly under her chin as she looked up his chest at him with a smile. Erik pushed a strand of long dark hair from her face and kissed her tenderly. It was moments like this that made him wish his magic was real, and that he could stop time forever and capture her in this moment.

"I'm thinking about cutting it off," she remarked, absently leaning into his touch. "Now that I'm a bride it seems silly to have such long hair."

"Don't. It's wonderfully enticing," Erik informed her, twirling a strand around his finger.

"I know it is," she laughed. "That's why young ladies are supposed to wear their hair long, to attract men. I've already got the man I want, why keep it so long?"

"Because even after we're married I still find it attractive. Let the other men look, it will be amusing to watch their faces sink when they realize you're taken," and by a masked stranger no less. Yes, watching the young men of Rome slowly realize its greatest beauty was taken by a beast would be entertaining indeed.

Gaia smiled gently and kissed his chest, deciding she would keep her hair in that case. She closed her eyes comfortably for a long moment before a thought came to mind. "Your mother. What was it she wanted?" She asked curiously, opening her eyes again to look up at her husband.

"Nothing but to see for herself if whatever your father told her was true. You don't need to worry about her again, I've told her I am disowning her."

The girl's face moved into a frown. "You didn't have to do that, Erik. She lives so far away we would never have seen her. There's never any use in burning bridges…"

"If you had burned the bridge with Marco he might not have been such a fool," Erik countered, and Gaia's brow furrowed. "Besides, it felt remarkable. That woman has tormented me for longer than even I realized. Seeing her again… it opened old wounds. I don't need her, and she certainly doesn't need me."

"I wish I could have spoken to her," Gaia remarked after a long moment. "I have a thing or two I should have liked to tell her."

"Like what?"

"Like whatever it was she did that made you so… bitter against her and your childhood. She must have been a monster to you, and no child deserves anything but love from a parent. I wish I could have told her how much I love you, so she would always know at least someone could where she couldn't."

Erik smiled sadly and kissed the top of her head. "There isn't any need. I told her all that myself before she left. But I'm sure she would have believed it more coming from you."

"When can we move into our new home?" Gaia asked, changing the subject to a more pleasant one to end their wedding night on with a smile. What was past should remain in the past where it belonged; Madeleine had opened old wounds, but Gaia was there now to kiss them well.

"As soon as it's built." Erik laughed. "I haven't even started quarrying the stone yet. We'll have to move up north and live in an apartment or a hotel for a while until it's ready, it's too far to commute."

"As long as it's half as lovely a hotel as this one is, it will be wonderful. But Erik, what are we going to do about Papà?" She asked quietly, something she hadn't thought about before. Her father still needed someone to cook and clean for him, and company in his loneliness.

"Well I suppose he can come live with us," Erik suggested, having not thought about it either. "In the workings of the bed and breakfast, so we can have our privacy and he his."

Gaia nodded quietly. "I suppose that sounds all right. If he'll come; he built our house for my mother. It might take some convincing to get him to leave."

"Then I guess we will have to stay here until such a sad day comes that he passes," Erik told her quietly, and Gaia closed her eyes. She felt terribly selfish for feeling as sad that she and her husband might have to put their life together on hold as she did that her father would someday die.

"I guess so."

"Don't be sad, my bride. Life is sweet, and it's only just beginning for us," Erik promised her with a kiss. "Let's start heading back. I don't know about you, but I am spent and starving." He smiled, a gesture with Gaia returned as she moved off of him reluctantly.

"Me too. Erik?"

"Yes Gaia?"

"I love you," Gaia's small smile was so genuine it made Erik's heart melt. Those were three words that would never grow old.

"I love you too, Gaia. More than all the stars in the sky," he promised back, kissing her deeply as they laid back down for one last chance to make love in their private little world before returning to reality.