While Seokjin's treatment the following afternoon was standard, the coming days were not. Since we'd be leaving town again, starting on the road for our first bout of adventures, we worked our way through the perishable food in the house. This resulted in days of scavenging through the refrigerator for whatever we had leftover and needed to be eaten, concoctions of random ingredients for meals that varied from delicious hits to hard misses.

I had no idea how much to or what to pack for road tripping across multiple states, so many planned activities that I was overthinking outfit choices.

My bag of toiletries was already tucked away by the entrance to the garage, next to the bags Seokjin finished packing in the hour that he woke before me. He left me to sift through my side of the closet, the sound effects of Super Mario and his elated reactions drifting through the house from where he played.

I was zipping my largest suitcase when the game paused, listening to him get closer as he hummed the theme song, stopping to use the bathroom on his way through our bedroom to the closet.

"Can I ask why you're packing so much?" His tone was cautious, though I caught the way his cheeks raised as if he wanted to smile.

Still, he lifted the suitcase to sit upright, ready to place it with our other luggage. "You do realize we'll be gone for two months. We've got like a million things planned and who knows if we'll end up being more spontaneous along the way." I glanced over my shoulder to the untouched shelves lined with my shoes. I'd need another bag.

"And you'll probably do a lot of shopping too." He nodded. "Pack light. We'll buy whatever else you need." I barely felt his lips press into the top of my head through the coiled locks piled on top.

"You could have told me that earlier." I huffed, words stretched a pinch to match my pout. "I wouldn't have wasted the whole morning."

He leaned into the open doorway, casually admiring the view of me on all fours as I started to unstuff the nearest suitcase. "Leave it for now. Just find something pretty to wear. I want to go out." He posed.

Over the next hour and a half we brushed back and forth past one another, shifting between the bedroom and bathroom to get ready. He jumped in the shower while I selected something casual. It was still light out, and based on the outfit set out for him on the bed, it'd be a relaxing afternoon.

I was completely clueless, naive to his antics while I showered, my favorite playlist covering any conversations or noise that could have tracked through the house. By the time I finished washing, the house was eerily silent. Seokjin bit into his bottom lip from where he sat on the bedroom sofa, eyeing me more than usual while I dressed.

He chuckled at the silly way I shook my hips at him as I pulled my panties on, but his patience thinned during my short makeup routine. Too many times of tapping his foot left me chastising him, ignorant to the true excitement behind the rushing that I negged him for.

It wasn't until we stepped into the space that I gleaned two vehicles parked just outside the house. I peered around Seokjin's car to the Mercedes Benz's lined parallel, the latest E-Class, a newer model of the one I'd admired with Yoongi.

The other was a larger SUV, a G-Class in midnight blue. I approached it first, eyes wide at the way they shined.

"Do you like them?" Seokjin came nearer, his expression close to matching mine despite carrying different emotions. "We can get another color if you want, customize them however you like." I gaped at his reference to me in second person.

"They're both for me?" I wondered, wanting to reach out to feel the smooth exterior but afraid of leaving a single fingerprint as a blemish to the surface.

He held up my keyring, a little heavier with the two new keys that hung next to those for the house. "Everything is yours, Seline. Now which one do you want to drive first?"

I chose the car, since we'd spend the bulk of the coming months in the SUV. Seokjin wished it was possible to take the old Volkswagen bus he kept covered in the garage on our roadtrip. It wasn't safe enough for long distance travel, but the enamored gleam in his eye told me that this was a gratifying alternative.

He waited until he was by the driver's side door to unlock the door, pulling it open for me to step inside. I kissed him as I passed by, wrapping my fingers around the keys he dropped into my palm.

We spent an extra few minutes parked, sifting through buttons and settings. His phone was connected to the radio, picking up where he'd left off on his current morning playlist. He turned the volume up so loud that I could feel the vibration of bass through my body as I drove. I turned it down halfway through just to hear his soft, silvery vocal tone singing along.

I quickly realized he was directing me toward the farmer's market we browsed nearly every week since its opening, the filled parking lot leading us into a short walk to reach the vendors. A few nodded to us as we passed, recognizable customers from the weeks of patroning. Seokjin held onto the tote bag we carried, filling it with everything that caught our eyes: a jar of honey from the middle-aged man who loved to talk all things beekeeping, a body butter that had my skin feeling the smoothest it ever had, and a knitted sarong to wear over my swimsuit once we found ourselves some place within the tropics.  Seokjin insisted on a fresh bunch of flowers regardless of our approaching departure, leaving them cradled in an arm until we returned home from an early dinner.

We slouched next to each other on the couch for a while, the full bellies that would have lulled us to sleep overpowered by the jitters of the coming morning. We'd hit the road early to reach the first of three quaint towns mapped into our fifteen thousand mile route to Sedona.

Each of them held their own charm that allowed us opportunities to stroll along sidewalks in search of small businesses to support. He took me to every art gallery and museum along the way, and we captured every picturesque view we found atop the trails we hiked.

More than any others, my photo reel was filled with pictures of him from the passenger's seat I usually occupied. We did our best to keep each other company while driving, taking short naps and blasting the radio to stay awake until one of us called it quits.

We found places to rest as we drove, an old-timey bed and breakfast run by an elderly couple who greeted us with a gift basket of handmade goods, a shoddy motel in Iowa that had us swearing off driving through isolated towns at night, and finally The Phenocian.

It was the relief we both needed, finding rejuvenation in a weekend of hot stone massages, pedicures, and room service. We barely left the resort, the rest spent in the tangle of our crisp white sheets and playing juvenile drinking games with airplane bottles of liquor until entangling again.

We were only a day into our trip to Sedona when I claimed it as my favorite place, insisting that we make a small adjustment to end our time before the trial in the Red Rock Country.

Even with three weeks devoted to creating experiences on the land, I couldn't get enough. We'd gotten our hands covered with clay during a pottery class, spent way too much money on art pieces to be delivered home, and greeted the sun from a hot air balloon. Seokjin hated the horseback riding we tried, my endless giggling ringing behind his bouncing frame as his horse trotted too quickly for comfort.

I mocked his short, continuous exclamations of distress that night. The sky was dark above where we lay on a Ganado print blanket, gazing out at the luminescent hues and constellations that shined through.

He got retribution for my teasing when he pulled me away from the scene, abandoning our blanket to press me into the red dirt and touch me through my leggings until they were doused with desire. I sat up, gritting my elbows into the ground with a whine as he left me wanting, over and over until I begged for him to take me.

And when he did, I was so sure that the earth would remember us. The imprint of my body against soil, the depth of him inside me carrying through the roots stretching from the tree that shielded us, and sounds of pleasure that became our offering to the wind.

Something about Sedona pushed every part of my spirit toward tranquility and awakening. Even more so when we sought out one of the vortexes that harnessed energies from the earth to amplify connectedness to everything.

I could feel it the most with Seokjin, every invisible string that tugged our hearts and souls toward one another perpetually plucked to reverberate not a song, but that raw love that linked us.

We'd taken a scenic route to our destination, absorbing the build up of energy as we got closer. It was quiet, a few others walking through the vicinity, a woman perfectly aligned into a cobra pose with her neck craned toward the sky, and individuals scattered about who all appeared either deep in thought or entranced.

In truth, it was introspection, the Cathedral Rock Vortex presenting us with feminine energies that fueled emotional healing and balance. It became more intense when Seokjin and I found our place, focusing in so that no one else's presence mattered. We held hands at first, but it didn't take long for our bodies to embrace, meshed together so that each breath moved in tandem. Our joining became a meditation of sorts. We never diverted our sight, set on each other as our mirrored smiles became laughter. Laughter transformed to tears, and finally to serenity, the range of emotions we felt a release that culminated our spiritual bond.

Where it should have been emotionally exhaustive, I never felt more alive than at every strum of those strings, increasing with each profession of love spoken in the hairsbreadth of space between.

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Author's Note: Bear with me ya'll. There's a lot of descriptive scenes in this one as opposed to dialogue, but know that it won't be a consistent thing. I'm just looking for the right balance of description versus dialogue for these coming chapters of Seokjin and Seline devoting this time to doing all the things they dream of together.

But anywhooo, thanks for reading as always! I appreciate you all getting this story to the #1 ranking in the OT7 tag last week. I never really know how to talk about or feel about things like that, but I was shocked and in awe to say the least. I just always want you to know how special it makes me feel that you take the time to read my work. Okay, let me go because I'm about to cry about it. Mwah! How've you been my dear reader?