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Mayu stifled a giggle at the sight of her newlywed husband. He was sitting in a beach chair under an umbrella, his Hawaiian shirt, board shorts, and flip flops at odds with his stern nature. She couldn’t help but grin at how ridiculously adorable he looked.
She tried valiantly to wipe the smirk from her face before approaching him – after all, he’d been nothing but kind about her appearance in a swimsuit, even though she was sure she looked like a surfboard in a bikini – but Mayu was never particularly skilled at hiding her feelings, especially when it came to Hatori.
“Is something funny?” Hatori’s speech was curt as ever.
“Sorry! It’s just... it’s you, in that shirt, making that face! It’s like- like you’re silently scolding everyone on the beach!”
“Says the Great Teacher Mayuko. I wonder what your students would say if they saw you here in a bikini.”
Mayu hid her horrified expression behind her hand. “You've somehow discovered my worst nightmare.”
Hatori cracked a wry smile. “I’ll remind you this isn’t the first time you’ve seen me in this shirt. Or on this beach.”
“But it’s still just as funny as it was last year!” Mayu teased.
Hatori grinned fondly at his new wife. “Go have fun.”
“Aren’t you going to come in the water with me?”
“In a bit. For now, I want to finish my book. Whoever picked this out has excellent taste in literature.”
Mayu blushed. He was reading the book she had given him as a wedding gift.
“I’ll hold you to that!” she cried as she tossed her sarong at him and ran into the water.
This was their second trip to Okinawa. Hatori was finally starting to travel, now that he was free to leave the estate more often. After their vacation last summer, they’d gone to Hawaii over the new year, then Seoul for Golden Week. They were planning trips to Thailand and even Paris one day.
But for their honeymoon, it made sense to come back to the very beach they visited on their first vacation together, in the Okinawan archipelago.
So much about this beach reminded them of the day they had their first date. The sky was blue, the water was sparkling. And now, they were married. Hatori had a wife , a real wife, and not some girlfriend fabricated by that awful Shigure just to get under Mayu’s skin.
Hatori looked up from his reading, affectionately watching Mayu frolic in the water. She could be so uninhibited sometimes. It was one of the many things he loved about her.
Like how she was currently laughing so loudly, the other beach goers were staring.
He smiled to himself and returned to his reading, looking up every few pages to admire his wife.
A few chapters later, Hatori heard a loud yawp from Mayu, and looked up from his book in concern. Her arms flailed as she lost her balance and splashed into the water. He narrowed his eyes, his good eye focusing on what looked like a translucent plastic bag floating away from her, when he was suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of dread.
Acting on impulse, Hatori bolted into the water. He was in up to his knees when he finally processed what had happened. Mayu had been stung by a jellyfish.
In the blink of an eye, he was at her side, lifting her in a bridal carry. He carried her across the beach to their rental car, sitting her on the back seat as he grabbed his medical supply bag from the trunk.
“You’ve been stung by a box jellyfish,” he said, pouring a sour-smelling liquid onto the long welts on her thigh and forearm for several seconds.
“How long will it burn like this?” she moaned as he began removing the tiny tentacles with a pair of tweezers.
His chest ached at the pain in her voice. “It should lessen within a few hours.”
“Hours?!”
Hatori sighed. “Thankfully, it’s only a minor sting-”
“MINOR?!” Mayu protested.
“-so I will be able to manage your care from our hotel suite.”
Mayu scowled. Not that she wasn’t glad to avoid the hospital, but she was not happy at the prospect of waiting hours for any relief.
When they arrived back at their honeymoon suite, Hatori set Mayu on the bed while he ran a hot bath.
“The heat will deactivate the venom,” he explained, helping her into the tub.
And it did. By the end of her soak, the pain had receded to almost nothing.
“You said hours! That wasn’t hours,” she said as she emerged from the bath wearing a plush robe.
“I take it you’re feeling better?” Hatori asked, immediately wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Mhm,” Mayu replied, relaxing into his embrace.
“I was so scared, Mayu,” he admitted, tugging her over to the bed.
“Worried? You were cool as a sea cucumber!” she exclaimed.
“You’re not making any sense,” Hatori said, shaking his head with a fond smile. His face became serious again as he steered her over to the bed. “Of course I was worried, Mayu. I love you.”
It still made her heart flutter every time she heard him say those words. “And I love you, Hatori.”
He began rubbing a cream of some sort onto her leg as she settled against some pillows at the head of the bed. “This will help with any pain or itching.”
She whined when he moved to the mark on her arm. “Is it not helping?”
She burst out laughing.
“So it is helping?”
“You’re just so sincere!”
“I don’t understand.”
“I feel fine, Hatori. Much better. But ...did you have to stop?”
She smirked as she saw his wheels turning and howled with laughter when his eyes finally widened in understanding.
“Really? You feel up for-”
“You going all Doctor McDreamy today was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen! And I see you in a suit every day!”
Mayu flushed at her own admission, but Hatori fixed her with a wolfish grin, returning his hands to her thighs as he pressed a heated kiss to her lips.
Later that evening, as they enjoyed room service, Mayu slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Mayu!” Hatori exclaimed. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
She nodded, though her expression was still horrified. “I just realized!”
“What? What did you realize?”
“Shigure!”
Hatori frowned. “Did he do something?”
She started shaking with laughter. “You said he was like a jellyfish!”
Hatori pinched the bridge of his nose. “I meant that metaphorically!”
“I know!”
“Then what’s so funny?”
Mayu cackled. “We’ll have to see if vinegar works on him when we get back!”