STEADY SILENCE || KLAUS MIKAELSON ¹

4 • to be with you.

For four months that joy lasted, the joy that began on a beautiful day lasted right through the honeymoon.

It began the day after the wedding when the couple got into a car that took them straight towards a private jet, something that Eleanor never thought that she would experience but was glad to be experiencing it with the person she loved most.

That jet took them straight to Paris, a place where the Eiffel tower could be seen from the window of their hotel room. A place where days were spent wrapped up in silk sheets, drinking the most expensive wine the hotel had to offer. Nights spent dining in some of the most exquisite restaurants the city held. Laughter pooling through the air as they ran through the rain in the darkness of the night to make it from a beautiful little café to the Louvre where the two saw some of the most gorgeous art the world had to offer.

Next came Barcelona where their days were filled with swimming in the crystal oceans and sunbathing next to a pool with a glass of sangria in hand. Nights spent in laughter and joy as they listened to beautiful music before they returned back to their hotel and once more found themselves wrapped up in each other.

Then came India, a place so bright and colourful that Nell couldn't keep her eyes on any one thing. The smells of the market places, the spices and foods being sold, the colourful materials draped across the bodies of women, the powders thrown in the air by children laughing in joy, the elephants that wondered among the people, the music that drifted through the air. It was perfect and beautiful and all of it wondrous. They saw the Taj Mahal and trekked through a rainforest where the monkeys would hold onto you. They swam underneath a waterfall and kissed in a river as Nell washed an elephant with a coconut shell. They drank chai and ate foods so rich with spices that Nell thought no Indian food was as delicious as the authentic stuff.

After India came Barbados. A place where the beaches were so white it was almost blinding and the seas so clear that you could almost see right through them. There they went scuba diving, drank at beach bars that looked as though they had just come straight out of the movie cocktail so much so that Nell almost expected to find Tom Cruise mixing her cocktails. At night they would listen to musicians play reggae music and Nell gauged on her new found favourite cake, chocolate rum. They ventured to a beach nicknamed turtle beach and watched as thousands of baby turtles emerged from the sand and made their way into the ocean. In their hotel room the couple would stumble toward their bed, wrapped up in one another as the wind would gently blow the thin curtains about and the moon would cast a glow throughout the room.

In Jamaica Nell learnt to surf as Nik watched on from the beach laughing every time she would fall from the board before he could call out to ensure she was okay. They drank bottles of rum at beach bars and Nell would sing her off key renditions of Madonna songs. They hiked to waterfalls where they made love to the gentle lull of the water and they went rafting on a bamboo lagoon tour. Nell convinced Nik to go zip lining in the backcountry and she gasped in awe as she looked down to the gorgeous greenery beneath her. They went kayaking, white water rafting and jet skiing before ending days relaxing, some spent at restaurants, some spent on chartered yachts and others just the two of them in their room once more.

From Jamaica they went on to Japan where they visited the bamboo grove and took a bullet train through the mountains. They visited Kyoto's Kitchen where they gauged on delicious food and sweets. They watched as thousands of lanterns were released into the sky one night as they held one another as the sky lit up in beauty. They visited Sapporo and drank incredible beer and visited Mount Fuji. Together they strolled through Kitakyushu's flower tunnels where Nik gently placed a brilliant pink flower behind Nell's ear. The last thing they did in Japan was visit a Shinto shrine where they each made a wish.

In Madagascar they visited the avenue of the baobabs and the tsingy. They hiked through the Isalo national park, Nik having to steady Nell constantly as she stumbled and tripped constantly. For a more relaxing day they visited Nosy Be where they drank cocktails and went snorkelling during the day and laughed and danced around a bonfire as night came. They drove the N5 where Nell was fascinated by the gorgeous views and they went whale watching, Eleanor clapped and laughed every time one was spotted while Nik watched her with complete love and devotion. Their last three days in the country were spent on a long safari where all sorts of beautiful wildlife could be seen in the day and there was nothing but relaxing silence during the night.

The last place their honeymoon took them was to Italy arguably one of Nik's favourite countries in the world. There they experienced great art, beautiful culture and most importantly delicious food and wine. Nights spent wrapped up in one another, days spent walking through museums, visiting the colosseum's and stunning cathedrals. It truly was a beautiful ending to a beautiful few months. Though she had known it had to come to an end at some point Nell found that she did not want to return to the real world because something deep inside of her told her that their happiness together would not last very long, not long at all.

An: was this inspired by Christian and Anna's honeymoon in fifty shades? Yes, yes it was.