The next morning I found my hand still entwined with Sebastian’s. I didn’t want to wake him nor did I want to leave my warm burrow, but I was desperately hungry. I hadn’t eaten since…yesterday morning or was it afternoon? Sebastian rolled over jerking my arm across the bed until I was up to his back with my arm uncomfortably pulled over him. I desperately tried pulling my arm free. Geez, why was he so clingy? I slowly dug my nails into his flesh with little result. He suddenly rolled back over not giving me enough warning and laid half his torso over me. Don’t panic, he’s just sleeping.

“Sebastian,” I called, his weight pressing down hard on me. My arm suddenly went tingly with goose bumps. Why did his face have to end up near my neck? He breathed out another warm breath against my neck sending a new rippled down my arm. “Sebastian, get off me please,” I tapped his shoulder with my free hand. “Sebastian!” I yelled in his ear. I flailed around only getting him to reposition himself even further across me. “Sebastian if you don’t flipping wake up now I’m never making you those biscuits again,” that seemed to do the trick. He opened his eyes to see me under him. I raised a suspicious eye brow at him. “You done?” I asked. He lowered down but lifted his weight off me and passionately kissed me.

“I’m done…for now,” he sat up stretching a silent yawn stretching across his face. “How are you this morning, honey?” he asked only to receive a pillow to the head.

“Don’t call me honey,” I snapped back.

“Ok, would you prefer, darling, sweetie…googly bear?” he replied mockingly. I was about to hit him again but he grabbed the pillow mid swing and yanked me towards him so that I fell onto his lap. “You light weight.” He patted my head as I tried to scramble up from him. He laughed pulling me up right onto his lap nuzzling his head into my hair. “After work how would you like to head to the surface?” he asked.

“The surface?” I asked. Not that it had ever been outwardly mentioned but going to the surface seemed shunned upon. “Like straight up from here?” I asked to receive a nod. “I can’t imagine anything up there worth seeing.”

He playfully tapped my nose and smiled. “I think you will,” Sebastian grinned. Now I was curious. We went down for a breakfast of crapes; with thick thicken cream and the ocean equivalent for berries. I kept asking Sebastian what was up there and even took a few guesses. But he wouldn’t even give me a hint.

I quickly made some biscuits while he was getting ready for work in hopes of coaxing the info out of him. I always hated surprises, and I hated knowing that there was going to be a surprise. Call me impatient. I pulled them out of the oven and instantly cooled them in the water. Sliding them into a jar I kept one and slid it into my apron pocket, ready for him.

Soon enough Sebastian came with his brief case and the tie I had picked him. I scrunched up my nose and straightened it. “Hopeless,” I muttered fixing it into place. I had done this a number of times that Sebastian now found it amusing that I fused over him.

“Got to go,” he grinned seeming a little sus.

“I’ll give you a biscuit if you tell me,” I said digging into my pocket struggling to find it.

“Nah, this biscuit here is good enough,” his muffled voice replied. I jerked my head up and saw half a biscuit in his hands the other half swallowed to its doom. “Be a good girl, Red,” he kissed mu cheek and disappeared. That cheeky little carp.

Well for the rest of the day beside racking my brain as to what could be up there I cleaned the house. Yeah, sounds really exciting I know, I’m turning into a house wife. A young, underage unmarried but somehow engaged house wife.

As expected the flowers and the chocolates began arriving again as my graduation was now front page news, ‘Atlantis’s Finery Red’. I will admit I couldn’t pass up the first few boxes of chocolate. My mother would tell me I would get fat or it would go straight to my thighs. I have yet to see that happen, as I haven’t put on any weight for the past two years. Having said that, I haven’t exactly grown much either.

I hummed the familiar unnamed tune as I made my own version of Cluedo. I couldn’t stand another round of ‘Portals & Eels’. Cluedo wasn’t my favourite game but I didn’t have to make the board or counters, just twenty or so cards, unlike monopoly. I hated Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit would be unfair as I would know all the answers.

As I thought of how to change it, the brilliant idea of using the seven sisters as the ‘suspects’, was perfect. Now what horrid situation would they get up to, beside annoying someone to death? I spotted my jar of biscuits on the kitchen counter and grinned. Anyone up for a nice game of ‘Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?’ I kept the locations the same but swapped the conservatory and billiard room for the throne and portal rooms. The only problem was thinking up what the ‘weapons’ would be.

Leaving that thought I started making the cards. I was no artist, so I drew the name in fancy writing and attempted a little picture representing each topic.

The door suddenly clicked open and I glanced at the clock. Wow time flew by quick it was already quarter past three. I looked up at Sebastian coming through the door.

“Have a good day?” I asked smiling from the floor lowering my work. He nodded and gave me a curious look. He darted up stair to get changed and I continued to draw Dominique’s seahorse in the centre of the card. I felt his breath on the side of my neck sending the shivering goose bumps down my arm.

“New game?” he asked kissing my cheek before sitting down next to me and wrapping an arm around my waist as he looked over the cards. “What’s this one called?” he asked picking up the throne room card.

“Who stole the cookie’s form the cookie jar?” I sang remembering the silly old song. I finished drawing Cringle and took the card from his hand and quickly drew a substandard crown. “I’m still missing a few cards. I’ll need to think them over. So what’s this big surprise at the surface?” I asked moving onto the next card. He chuckled snuggling into me.

“Still curious? Come on then, I hope you remember your password.” Password? He took my hand and pulled me outside to where a crowd of obsessive mermen waited. Ignoring the wolf whistles and the flirtatious remarks I followed Sebastian to the roof where a sort of anchor rested on top. I looked up at the cable attached to it but couldn’t see the surface. I instantly followed it up into the light. “Just so you know this is only a temporary setup.” He explained as we got closer to the surface. Gosh how far down were we?

We finally reached the surface and I shielded my eyes from the light to see a sort of pontoon reck bobbing away. This was the big surprise? I watched as Sebastian lifted himself onto it. “You have Skype right?” he asked opening an old battered laptop. My eyes widened.

“You mean we have internet?” I asked bolting over to him. He helped me up on the unstable scrap heap. He propped up a large antenna thingy and logged on.

“Like I said it is only a temporary thing, I had to borrow this gear from the king. And this ‘boat’ is something I got one of the guys to quickly fix together, it wasn’t built to last.

We connected to the internet with surprisingly great reception and logged onto Skype. Paul wasn’t on. So while we waited in anticipation I hopped onto my emails and ran through my forty emails. All of them were just notices, that I instantly deleted. Then suddenly the long awaited popup read, ‘Paul is online’. A second later he was messaging through.

“Oh mi gosh, I haven’t seen him for almost a month” I said getting nervous.

“Then it’s about time you saw him,” he smiled gently. This was the best surprise ever I threw my arms around him and kissed his cheek which he turned in to lip lock.

“We need a quick back up story if he asks questions like where are we and why I supposably never mentioned you.” I peered over my shoulder to see nothing but ocean and horizon.

“Keep it close to the truth, that way it is not as hard to remember, now hurry up and answer him,” he motioned to the pc. I quickly typed in a hello.

‘Paul: OMG Sis, WTH happened to u? Mum & dad said u had been kidnapped.’

I rolled my eyes. Of course they would say that, I bet they didn’t even read the letter. I typed back.

Aubrey: I’m fine, didn’t they read the letter?

Paul: It said you were in the Bahamas with your fiancé. You don’t even have a boyfriend.

Aubrey: We actually went to Australia instead.

Paul: OMG, You r actually married!

Aubrey: No, I’m not married yet. Let me see if I can get the webcam working. Brb

I fiddled with the settings and managed to finally get an image working, the audio was always the tricky part. Suddenly Paul’s face appeared on the screen. I screamed when I saw my beloved pain in the butt brother.

“Look Sebastian, that’s Paul, he’s my brother,” I said not realizing how stupid I must have sounded. “Paul this is Sebastian, the guy who kidnapped me,” I giggled.

“Hi, So you’re the jerk who stole my sister away from me, leaving me with no one to make my sandwiches while I’m playing C.O.D” I almost fell over backwards into the water.

“You jerk is that all you cared about? Your sandwiches?” I yelled back already annoyed.

“Red, you got to realize you are an amazing cook. Hence he’s not getting you back, “Sebastian grinned back.

To my amazement the both of them talked back and forth, sometimes arguing, sometimes laughing over who knows what. I was asked about my hair colour to which I replied to it being natural but the doctors didn’t understand why it changed. Which was almost true.

“Hey Aubrey did you have a good night last night?” Paul asked. I looked back at the screen with a questioning look. He tapped his neck indicating to my mark. It was still there?

“No, it’s not what you think,” I stumbled as Sebastian kissed my cheek making me go even redder.

“Come on, that’s my sister your kissing there. By the way are you guys on a boat?” he asked. We both nodded at the screen. “Yo Sebastian, I’ll let you have my chef, but if you hurt my sis, I’ll feed you to the sharks,” Paul threatened.

“I have no doubt,” Sebastian replied confidently as I stifled a giggle.

“So when is the wedding?” Paul asked. My giggle turned to a coughing fit.

“We haven’t decided, but it will probably be just a quite ceremony on an island. You can’t beat a fancy elopement” I glanced up at Sebastian speechless. He had pulled me up onto his lap, luckily Paul could only see us from just below the shoulders.

“That’s probably best, I wouldn’t invite mum or dad to my wedding either, maybe you. Anyway I’m meeting up with the boys in twenty, when will I see you two next?” he asked. I looked to Sebastian.

“On the rare chance we get signal,” he replied. I snuggled into Sebastian as we said goodbye to Paul. A second later a message popped up.

Paul: I think you and Sebastian make a great couple…that’s saying a lot coming from me. I’ll tell mum and dad your fine, they’re going to freak.

“Was that a good surprise?” Sebastian whispered in my ear. I nodded and leaned further into him to watch the sunset behind the never ending horizon.

__

I'm not entirely sure what Paul's personality is. Does he make a convincing brother...

You wouldn't believe how long it took for me to figure out another game she and Seb could play. Also what do you think the 'weapon' category should be for 'Who stole the cookie from the cookie Jar?" (it needs a better name)I thought maybe it could be like beverage.

ie. Sonya stole the cookies and ate them in the ballroom with a cup of milk

So comment and give me your ideas, I don't bite...much