I Fell For My Nemesis

The playlist they had prepared consisted mostly of English songs with some Spanish ones mixed in because Avery did love her fiesta music. When those ones came on she danced around like crazy with the Cruzes and Christian did his best to follow along. 

She caught Vanessa and Angelo dancing together more than once but was so caught up in everything else that she couldn't give it much thought. She was giddy with happiness now that much of her stress was over. 

She had done it. She was Christian's wife. Why wouldn't she be giddy about that? 

She danced around with the people she loved and had a wonderful time, not leaving the dancefloor at all until it was time to cut the cake. He very carefully fed her a bite of their shared piece and she did the same before grinning mischievously at him. She got some frosting on her finger and swiped it onto his nose. He was momentarily surprised but laughed when she kissed it off. 

Once the cake was eaten aside from the top tier (which they were saving to take home) they migrated back to the dancefloor for a while longer before they needed to go home, get changed, and head to the airport. A slow song came on and Angelo tapped Christian on the shoulder. 

"Do you mind? I need to do my job as a proper stand-in for her dad and dance with her once."

"Not at all," he said as he let go and went to go talk to one of his uncles. 

Angelo was admittedly a better dancer than Christian so they moved around the floor more as the song progressed. He didn't say anything for the first minute or so but then he cleared his throat. 

"You looked really happy today. The timing sucks but if you're happy I'm happy. And I'm sure that Tío Levi is happy for you too," he said gruffly. 

Avery smiled fondly at him. She was glad he put aside his reservations on the matter and supported her even if it was done reluctantly. It meant a lot to her. It wouldn't have been right to have anyone else walk her down the aisle since her dad was gone. 

"Thanks, Angelo. It means a lot to me that you were here as a stand-in today."

"Duh. I could never do anything less," Angelo sniffed. 

"I love you."

"I love you too. So don't lose this. Okay, Avery? Just…stay happy." 

He meant serious business when he used her real name. He truly wanted her to live a good life with Christian after their revenge was complete. Watching out for her as always. 

Avery hugged him. After today she was pretty sure she would be hugged out for a while but she couldn't help it. She was so grateful for all of the people here celebrating her happiness with her. 

"I will. You can count on it." 

The song ended and Christian was waiting to take her back. Angelo clapped a hand on her shoulder and nodded his acknowledgement at Christian before leaving. 

They danced a few more songs together before it was time to go. Everyone sent them off cheering and they headed back to the apartment to change into more comfortable clothes for the plane, drop off the cake, and grab their luggage. 

Avery took all of the pins out of her hair and it tumbled around her shoulders in a wavy mess she was too tired to care about. They double checked to make sure they had everything and headed to the airport, eating dinner there once they made it through security. 

She was exhausted. All of that dancing must have gotten to her. 

"You okay?" Christian asked with a smile. 

"I think I danced myself out. And hugged myself out. And socialized myself out. Basically I'm just out," she sighed before leaning her head against his shoulder. 

He reached up to pet her hair. "I've got you. You can sleep on me on the plane."

Avery hated sleeping on planes. She had done far too much of that lately. The flight was about five hours long without any stops and Costa Rica was two hours behind New York so they would be getting there late. She could sleep when she arrived but she would probably want to at least nap on the plane with how tired she was. 

Which was exactly what she did. She slept for most of the flight, woke up long enough to disembark and check into the hotel, then was too tired to do anything else. 

"Christian, will you be mad if I just want to go to bed?"

He let out a small laugh. "You look like you're about to keel over. We have the whole week here. Take a shower and go to sleep."

"I love you," Avery said fervently before doing as he said. 

She was asleep before he finished his shower and didn't notice him gathering her up in his arms and kissing the back of her neck with a contented sigh. She did wake up more tangled up with him than usual though and smiled. He was so cute when he was asleep. How did she get this lucky?

In her wildest dreams she never would have imagined herself staring at Mercury in bed on their honeymoon back when she had a hopeless crush she thought would never go anywhere. Now here she was. 

Avery stared at him until he opened his eyes and blinked at her sleepily. "Whatcha doing?"

"Staring at my handsome husband."

Christian smiled serenely at her before pulling her closer and kissing her in response. All of the love she had in her heart poured out as they made up for what they had missed last night by going to bed when they arrived. 

He helped her put on an obscene amount of sunscreen everywhere that wasn't covered by her yellow maxi dress covered in white flowers so they could have breakfast outside where there was an ocean view. She also wore sunglasses and a sunhat and he smiled and said she looked gorgeous. 

Ah, Avery still wasn't used to this sort of flattery. All her life she had been teased for being albino but the way Christian looked at her made her feel like the most beautiful, normal woman in the world. 

The same applied later in the day after they had eaten and walked hand-in-hand on the beach for a while and decided to go swimming. He thought she looked amazing in her turquoise and pink wetsuit with patterns on the arms and knees too. 

Everyone ALWAYS gave her a hard time about the wetsuit. It was the only one she had been able to find that wasn't black but it still stood out too much.

Christian didn't care. He was too happy to be swimming out in the ocean with her even if she did look like a dork between her wetsuit and polarized shade goggles to protect her sensitive eyes. 

Avery had regular sunglasses to wear over her contacts and prescription ones for when she knew she would be out in the sun all day and didn't want to bother with contacts. Primarily she wore her glasses at home rather than in public because they made it difficult to do things.

He was the other way around, frequently forgetting to put his glasses on at home. She noticed that after moving in with him and suspected the glasses were nothing but a cover to help him with his secret identity. 

Wasn't that a huge hassle? Glasses were so annoying! 

Her husband was certainly committed to keeping his secret identity safe. She would give him that. 

Avery wasn't allowed to think about things like that right now though. She was on her honeymoon and needed to give all of her attention to her husband in the moment rather than anything that could be worried about at home. 

So that was what she did. They went to the beach every day and enjoyed being outside and exploring San Jose together. 

She had never gone on a proper vacation before (her escapades as Nox did NOT count) and was having the time of her life seeing and experiencing so many new things. She had so much fun that she didn't want to go back at all. 

Could they stay here forever? Where they didn't have responsibilities or secret identities or anything but their love for each other. Where she could almost believe she was normal. 

Avery didn't want to leave. She didn't want to go back to New York and have only a week more of uninterrupted newlywed bliss before Angelo needed her head in the game again. She needed more time to be a woman in love without worrying about it all being ripped away from her. Was that so much to ask?

"What are you thinking about?" Christian asked. 

They were lying on the beach at night on a blanket looking up at the stars. His fingers were interlocked with hers and reminded her of how much she loved being near him. 

"How much I don't want to go home," she admitted. 

Christian laughed, not realizing the weight behind her words. "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to getting back to work either. We should go somewhere else in the spring once a bit of vacation time has built up. What do you think?"

Making long-term plans didn't exactly work with her situation but it was nice to dream. "We'll have to see. Lots of people get married in the spring. I might be in demand."

"Ah, I didn't think about that. We have plenty of time to go on vacations though. Tell me where you want to go and I'll make it happen."

Avery wished it was that simple. But she couldn't explain herself so she simply said she would have to think about it and did her best to focus on her husband and the stars.. Anything else could wait until later.