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“It’s been too long since we last did this,” Mark mused, watching as the beach slowly came into view. “I’m glad we’re going.”
“We’ll start going out again, chaton,” Celine promised, looking away from the road for just a second to smile at her husband. Gods. She finally had her husband back. “We’ll go out a lot. To make up for everything. I promise.”
Mark smiled back at her softly, utterly in love. It had been hard , getting back to this point. It had taken months and months of healing and discussions… but they were here. They weren’t totally okay, and maybe they would never be quite back to the way they were before everything that happened, but that was alright. They had each other again.
They hadn’t been to the beach in years. Since before their wedding. It seemed like they had always been just… too busy, afterward.
It was nice to be doing it again.
Celine parked the car rather haphazardly on a hill, making Mark wince a little. Celine rolled her eyes at him.
“Don’t be a baby, chouchou, the car will be just fine. Now come on- we have a picnic to get to.”
They had planned the entire day out. It was a small, isolated beach, so they would have the entire thing to themselves. They had prepared a massive picnic, in order to spend the entire day together, and Celine would physically fight someone before she let them ruin it.
They set themselves up on the grass under a tree in the shade, laying out the blanket and setting down the basket before Celine got a mischievous look in her eyes.
“Mark~” she called with a wicked grin, and Mark looked up with the instinctual fear that came from spending decades around Celine. The word had barely left her mouth- “Run”- before Mark was sprinting away, nearly losing his balance as the ground changed from grass to sand. Celine laughed as she chased after him, lunging forward to tackle him to the ground. She grinned at him.
“I caught you,” she laughed. “Now you have to do whatever I say, remember?”
“This is so unfair,” Mark protested, “I wasn’t prepared!”
“All is fair in love and the game of chase, mon amour.”
“It absolutely is not.”
“Isn’t it?”
Mark started to say something again before Celine kissed him to shut him up, making the man melt.
“Okay,” he murmured once they had broken the kiss, “Mayhaps it’s a little fair.”
“Mayhaps indeed, chouchou.” Celine stood up, brushing the sand off of herself before grabbing her husband by the hand from where he was still dramatically laying on the ground and hauling him up with her. Mark too brushed the sand off of himself before dramatically spreading his arms.
“Alright then, my darling- take your pound of flesh. What is it that you want?”
Celine hummed in contemplation, tapping her chin. Suddenly, she grinned again.
“For the rest of the day, you have to address me as ‘my queen’. Even after we go back home.”
“If you’re a queen, does that make me a king?”
“Absolutely not, you’re merely a lowly peasant that I’m paying to follow me around.”
“I’m hurt.
Wounded
. Dismissed so easily by my own wife.” Mark dramatically put a hand on his forehead. “I think I’m going to faint.”
“I’m not catching you,” Celine said dryly. “I’ll leave you to rot on the sand.”
“No you wouldn’t,” Mark dismissed easily. “You love me.”
“I do,” Celine said softly, reaching out and taking Mark’s hand. “I love you.” Mark smiled at her, tugging her close for a kiss before starting to pull her towards the ocean, warm brown eyes holding a warmth they hadn’t in far too long.
“C’mon. Let’s go enjoy ourselves.”
As the day went on they rotated from grass to sand to surf and back again, laughing and being in love and, for the first time in years , enjoying themselves. Enjoying spending time with each other. Eventually, tired from the long day spent in the sun, they collapsed together on their blanket under the tree, Mark’s head resting in Celine’s lap.
“I love you,” Mark murmured, closing his eyes as Celine gently stroked his hair. “‘M so glad that we did this.”
“I love you too, mon amour,” Celine said, bending down and pressing a kiss to her husband’s forehead. “I love you too.”