·you could be my someone you could be my scene·

[❀ Melíssa]

      “You always seem to get lucky with having the place all to yourself. The place in Malibu, your mom’s friend’s place in Paris, Chelsea’s place in Milan, now we’re here…” Tony commented, checking off the locations on his fingers as he stepped into the kitchen from one of the bedrooms, having just taken an afternoon nap. He stretched and gazed around the empty room. “Seems so quiet now.”
      “It’s just a matter of good timing,” Natalia said, rounding the island counter and throwing her arms around his neck. “And having a mom who understands the need for downtime so she doesn’t ask questions when you plan a weird tour schedule.”
      Natalia had worked with Oliver and Gavin to ensure that the last stop on Hellfire & Damnation’s summer tour was Athens, just in time to meet up with their parents at the vacation home in Neápolis, as Sénia was famous within her Síren Call Records label for scheduling breaks in cities where they owned houses, as spending those breaks in a house was far more beneficial than a hotel. The entire Angels of Hellfire crew was always invited to stay, although few members often accepted. Usually it was just the members of the band.
      The house in Greece was full for the first two days of the break. In addition to Natalia, Chelsea, Tyler, Sénia, Richard, Taryn, and Blake, several crew members like Gavin stayed at the house, Natalia flew Tony out, and Chelsea invited her new boyfriend Axel. The tension in the house between the younger set grew next to unbearable as Gavin and Chelsea had never really ended their on-going fling before she made things official with Axel. Gavin believed it was just good manners and human decency to let him know she was moving on, she stood firm that by definition, their involvement as friends with benefits meant that she had to do no such thing. At Axel’s plea, Chelsea was the first of the group to leave, instead choosing to recoup from the tour at her own small apartment in Milan. Tyler headed home to New York soon after, followed by Gavin. The members of Angels of Hellfire remained for the rest of the week, leaving Natalia and her boyfriend behind only after a warning glare from Richard.
      “They’re adults,” Taryn had told him, pushing him towards the door. “Let them be.”
      Her mother agreed. “Come on, sweetheart,” she as she slid her arm around her husband. “I realized a long time ago that all of our kids are going to do whatever they damn well please. We’ve already raised them right; all we can do is trust them to not let us down.”
      “Look here, just because she wants to be a grandparent doesn’t mean I’m in any hurry,” Richard grumbled as he jabbed a thumb at Taryn. It was no secret that Taryn wanted Gavin to settle down with someone and have kids. “In fact, I think the girls should join a convent first, just to make sure that isn’t their true calling.
      “Oh, shut up,” Sénia laughed, blowing a kiss to her daughter. She knew that neither one of her daughters would be able to join a convent anymore, but she was never telling her husband that. Waving good-bye one last time, she was the last one to climb into the limo that was waiting to take the band to Heraklion International Airport.
      Alone in the cottage respite on the southern part of the Neápolis countryside, the couple spent the first day laying around the house, eating and dozing, and that night making love on the third-story terrace, falling asleep in each other’s arms. The following morning they were greeted by a beautiful sunrise over the Aegean Sea, each subsequent night and day following the same routine.
      They filled their days alternately lounging in or around the pool and sightseeing. They started with the small, obscure and out of the way places, first taking a ferry to Santorini, and rode donkeys through the cities of Oia and Fira. They spent an entire day on the island of Mykonos, as well as another day trip, this time to Delphi, and drunkenly passed some time in Ithaca, for the wine festival. They saved Athens for last, so Natalia could finally get to see all of the places that she’d seen so many times from the air, but never up close. They posed in front of the Temple of Poseidon, wandered through a bunch of street vendors, but it was the Temple of Athena, the Parthenon, that would hold a special place in Natalia’s heart.
      “Did you know that Athena is the goddess of wisdom?” Tony asked conversationally, slipping his hand into hers.
      “Yep,” she replied. “In fact, if I recall, the story of her birth is that Zeus ate her mother, and it gave him such a headache that he beat his head against a rock, and his head split open, and she burst out of his forehead.”
      “That’s one of the stories, anyway.”
      Natalia ran her fingers along the marble columns. “She’s also the goddess of courage, inspiration, and strength.”
      “Among many other things,” a tour guide who was passing by smiled at them, idly trailing her group as they wandered about the temple, taking photos.
      “Hmm,” Tony mused. “I don’t think that’s right.”
      “Of course it is. Go get that guide back, she’ll tell you.”
      “Sorry, but that’s not right. Because my goddess of strength and inspiration is Natalia Olivia Urban,” he tugged on her arm, causing her to stumble and fall into him, where he slipped his arms around her.
      “Do you want me to tell you how cheesy that was?”
      “I know exactly how cheesy it was,” he brushed her lips against her forehead. “But it’s true. When my dad and mom split up…” he looked at the limestone floor as his words trailed off with the wind. His father had been married to her aunt for close to thirteen years, since he was just seven years old. His own mother having split from the family when he was very small, Tatum was the only mother he really knew, and their recent divorce affected him probably more so than it did his parents. “When they split up, you were the one person that I could turn to. I couldn’t talk to my own sister; it was too weird to talk to Rain or Stormy or River, they weren’t my siblings any more. You were always there for me, even when you were on tour.”
      Running her fingers through his hair, Natalia gazed at him, smiling. “What is it with you and spilling your feelings at famous landmarks?” She was referring to the first time he officially asked her to be his girlfriend, while they stood in Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park; the first time he told her he loved her, in front of the Eiffel Tower; and in Rio, staring up at the Christ the Redeemer statue as he told her that he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life. “Is this the secret to knowing what you’re thinking, take you on vacation?”
      Tony returned her smile. “It just might be. I’d say it has something to do with the majestic vibe of being near something so revered, but I feel like that whenever I’m near you. Okay, now that was cheesy,” he laughed at himself. “Seriously. I just want you to know that I didn’t plan this, it just feels like the perfect time to ask, so I don’t have a r–“ he cut himself off. “Nevermind that part.” His hands on her waist, he pushed her away from him and took her hand, leading her to the entrance of the temple. Ignoring her inquiries as to what he was doing, he stopped her at the stop of the steps, but continued two steps down, so that he had to look up at her.
      “Nati,” he said softly. “I love you. I love you for everything you are, and everything you are to me. I told you before that I wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together, so...” he placed her right hand against his chest, over his heart. “Will you marry me?”