Upendi
Outfit | @olivia

Date: January 2009
Location: The Maldives

Beck was a spur of the moment kind of guy. He could be a planner, when he had to, but most of the time, he made a decision and then he just went with it. Deciding to come to the Maldives was something that he’d come up with earlier that week, and so he had immediately put the plan into action. He had contacted Liv’s offices in the Ministry, to tell the right people that she would be gone a few days. He had taken a portkey to the islands, and found a resort and booked a… hell, he didn’t even know what to call it. It was hardly a hut, but it wasn’t exactly a cabin either. They had called it… something, but he had honestly not been paying all that much attention. It had been perfect. It was private enough, though it was peak travel season for the Maldives, so it had been completely booked until he had sent enough money their way. But having their own… villa, he thought maybe they had called it a villa, was private enough to do the trick. Then all he’d really had to do was pack for them, which wasn’t all that difficult, and figure out what he was going to tell her. He didn’t even want her to know that they were going on a trip at all. He’d sent the kids off to her parents, and he was sure that they’d have plenty of fun there, and then it had all been a matter of getting her out of the house without letting her know what they were doing.

The explanation that he had gone with had been going out to get pizza. He thought that was amusing, because neither of them was exactly dressed to end up on an island, but that was half the fun. She would get there, and be surprised, and he thought that would make his day more than anything else. Then he was sure that plenty more would… but for now, he was looking forward to her reaction. She thought that they were getting pizza, and they were going to end up somewhere different altogether. If it wouldn’t have given it away that they weren’t going out to lunch, then he would have blindfolded her or told her to close her eyes, but he knew that wasn’t exactly an option without making it obvious. He knew that he would just have to settle for getting her immediate reaction, which would be fine, because it wouldn’t be more than a split second after arriving that he would be able to look her way. Their suitcase was shrunken down and in his pocket, and everything had been set and it was time for them to be on their way. “Ready to go?” He asked her, but he didn’t wait for an answer before his arm was moving around her waist.

Apparating from country to country was no easy feat, but he had arranged a rather convenient portkey to take them right into their villa. It was all a matter of her not noticing he had it, and since they were standing right by a table in their entryway, he picked up the mug, and then with a flash, they were gone. The moment he took in the view once more, he grinned. It was as beautiful as he remembered it—more so, probably, since he had gone in evening time last, and this time it was still the early afternoon and the sun was still up. He didn’t let his attention linger on the sights for more than half a second before his gaze moved to Olivia, the grin never leaving his face. “Surprise…” He said then, figuring that the word was a bit of an understatement given the situation, but hell, he had really wanted this to be a secret, and he thought he had managed that quite well. It wasn’t exactly easy getting anything past Olivia, after all, even if he thought that this right now had proven that he had gotten pretty damn good at it.

Upendi
Outfit

Coming home from work to find that Beckett had beaten her home, and that he had sent the kids to her mum and dad, and that they were going out for dinner so that she didn’t have to cook… It was a nice surprise. Cooking was the one domestic activity that Olivia was actually good at… She would have been a wreck if they didn’t have someone to come in and make sure that the Hall was livable, because she could keep them alive, but if they hadn’t had someone that actually knew how to do the laundry and not shrink everything Beckett’s suits would have never fit, and the kids’ clothes would have been shrunk all to hell… She just wasn’t good at it, she never had been, and she had never claimed to have been. Olivia hadn’t ever been the domestic type, and Beckett had known that. He had known going in that she didn’t know what it meant to be a part of that life where the woman did nothing but raise the children, and throw parties… She knew what silverware to use at someone else’s dinner party, but if she had to plan one of her own Olivia thought that it would literally have taken her months. There was a reason that she had never bothered to sit down and actually plan a wedding… Because she just wasn’t good at it, she wasn’t cut out for it. Cooking though, cooking she could do It was the one thing that her mum had managed to make stick because Olivia thought that food was pretty important. She hadn’t wanted to starve, and so she had learned to feed herself, and then it had been the two of them, and she had been responsible for making sure that Beckett didn’t starve either… and then Callahan and Lyla had come along, and Olivia had become a pretty good cook, though she knew that her family wasn’t particularly picky when it came down to it.

Still, a night with no kids, and getting to come home and put on jeans, and let her hair loose and hear that he planned on taking her out for something as greasy and terrible for them as pizza, and that actually sounded pretty good right now. Olivia didn’t remember the last time that they had actually gone on a date where they didn’t have to worry about getting the kids back from a sitter, or making sure that they didn’t stay out too late if there was someone watching them at the house. Leaving them with her parents didn’t happen all that often, and so Olivia thought that just knowing that they weren’t going to have to go home to kids, knowing that they were going to have the house to themselves… That was a turn on, and she couldn’t even deny it. They had been together for fifteen years, and it was still nice to have nights to themselves. Olivia knew that once the kids were in school in a couple of years they would have the house to themselves the majority of the time, but right now that was something that she would revel in when she got the opportunity. Smiling up at him and ran a hand through her hair she stepped up next to him, and Olivia had barely gotten her mouth open to answer him before he had pulled her to him and they were moving. It wasn’t the pull of apparation that moved them though, it was the hook feeling of a portkey that jerked her away from their home.

When her feet touched down she opened her mouth to gripe at him for not telling her that they were going to be using a portkey, and then she realized where she was standing. That view certainly wasn’t anywhere in England… Surprise was right… She felt her eyes wide, and staring, and she thought that her mouth might have been caught a little open where she had been about to say something. Surprise… He could say that again. Olivia shook her head and looked up at him… “Where are we?” That was the first thing that she could think to ask, it was beautiful, it was beyond beautiful actually, but she didn’t think that this looked like, “Beckett Graves! I see no pizza!” There was laughter in her voice, and her eyes, even as she pretended to be upset by the fact that she had been promised pizza, and instead had been whisked away to this, whatever this place was, in wherever in the world they were. She knew that they weren’t going after the kids tonight, that much had been a given when it was just pizza… Now she knew that it was probably going to be more than just tonight, and at that thought her mind immediately skipped to all of the things that she had to do for work. She couldn’t just up and run away like this with no warning… But her next thought relaxed her about that, if there was one thing that she knew about Beckett it was that no matter how spontaneous the idea, when he did something he did it right, and that meant that the Ministry was handled…

The moment that he had come up with this idea, he had been all about putting it into action. He didn’t really want to wait, or think it through, because that simply just wasn’t what he did. When it came to Liv, and when it came to doing something fun and spontaneous, he wasn’t going to plan too much into it. He was just going to come up with ideas, and then act of them. They could do that now. There was a time when everything that they’d done had either been with a hell of a lot of planning, or it had just been a broom closet whenever they’d both happened to be near one. It had been one extreme, or the other, because that was simply the only options that they’d had at the time. All the planning that it had taken if he just wanted to take her out to dinner or something, had been extraordinarily annoying—worth it, of course, but he had wished it wasn’t necessary. Back then, he had wondered time and time again why he had married Eliza, why he had just given in like that. He hadn’t thought that he would ever find anyone like Liv, so he had just married the first woman that seemed like she’d be a decent witch to have on his arm. It was important to have someone like that, when he was trying to move through the ranks in the Ministry.

It was important to have someone like that when he was a Death Eater, and he needed to strive to look normal. So he had met Eliza, they had dated, and he had decided that she would work out just fine for what he had in mind. He hadn’t even disliked her at that point either. He had liked her. He wouldn’t go so far as to say that he was in love with her, or anything even close to that. But she had been good to be around, at one point. That was funny to him now, in an irritating kind of way, because now he couldn’t really fathom being around her for more than a couple of moments at a time. They still found themselves at the same events, same parties, and it was always a little bit uncomfortable to say the least. Nothing was worse than when Liv wanted to go shopping, and on a rare occasion when he let himself get dragged around, they always ended up in her shop. Even if she wasn’t there, all of the staff still knew him and recognized him, and it was awkward. More often than not, if his luck was particularly bad, Eliza ended up being there as well. It was something that he had gotten used to over the years, but something that he would much rather avoid. It had been plenty of years of him and Liv having to be careful, and that was what Eliza reminded him of. Now, they didn’t have to do any of that.

Now, he didn’t have to wonder what he had been thinking when he had married Eliza. He was just with Liv, and everything was going the way that it should be. He thought that it was about time they went on a bit of a vacation, and so when the idea came to him, he could only act on it and not think too much about it. They didn’t have to do that anymore, and so he wasn’t going to. He would just plan what needed to be planned, and that was it. Beck thought that he would be able to pull off surprising her, which wasn’t an easy feat. But he was decently sure that she didn’t see this coming—her outfit would proof of that, since she was dressed for the occasion of going out to pizza… not a spur of the moment trip. He thought that her expression alone would make this worthwhile, and he wasn’t disappointed. The moment that her gaze moved to him, he was smirking. “The Maldives…” He answered, amusement never leaving his voice. He couldn’t help but laugh at her mention of pizza, but that hadn’t surprised him. “No pizza yet, at least.” Beck added. In fact, he was so unsurprised, that he found himself shaking his head and wandering into the kitchen to see if the staff here had provided him with what he asked for. As he suspected, there was a frozen pizza in the freezer, and he put it out on the counter while he let the oven preheat. He was still smirking when he went back into the living room.

They didn’t go on dates, or they hadn’t, not for a long time. The beginning of their relationship had been in the shadows, it had been completely hidden, and that was something that Olivia had never actually planned on happening. Her entire life with Beckett had happened by a chance of fate, and she truly believed that it had been the right place at the wrong time, and they had had to figure out how to make it work. It hadn’t taken them all that long really, they had figured it out faster than anyone really would have expected. It had just meant that they had hidden what it was. There was an affair, she was the other woman, and so that had meant that they snuck around, it meant that moments were stolen wherever they could get them… No matter where it was Olivia had thought that that was what it was going to be, at least until he got tired of her and went back to his wife. There hadn’t been any strings, not in the beginning anyway, and then she had fallen in love with him. That had been the kicker, Olivia had fallen in love with him, and she didn’t mean to. It had been an accident, and she had pushed him away. She had thrown him out, he was married to someone else, and she couldn’t be in love with him when eh was still married to Eliza. When there hadn’t been strings, when there had been no emotional attachment it had been okay, but then there had been strings, things there had most certainly been feelings, and Olivia had never planned on feelings. And so she had done everything that she could to stop them.

What she had never expected was for the feelings to be reciprocated, but after all of these years she had realized something. Olivia hadn’t been the first one to realize that there was an attachment there. She thought that Beckett may have loved her before she realized that she was in love with him, and she didn’t quite know what to make of that, but it had worked itself out. She had thrown him out, and he had gotten divorced, and he had come back. He had come back and he had asked for her to give him a chance, a real chance, and now here they were. It was nearly fifteen years after they had met the first time, and they were together. There was a ring, and there was a house, and two kids, and two jobs, and a life… They had built a life, the life that Beckett should have had as a Graves, the life that he had thought that he was going to have gotten with Eliza… It had been her, Olivia thought that fate had a funny way of making things happen, because she had taken her place. Olivia had very literally taken Eliza’s place the night that she and Beckett had met, and in the end, she had ended up taking everything that she should have had. There was a reason that the former Mrs. Graves didn’t care for her. Olivia thought that it was almost amusing to think that she was the dirty mistress, and she had ended up with the picture perfect life. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t still like to taunt Beckett about it when she could… His ex-wife’s lingerie line had a way of making it into their bedroom, because Olivia thought that it was amusing to do so.

She hadn’t packed for this trip though, showing up, here, wherever here was, was not something that she had been prepared for, and so the red head had a feeling that everything in her suitcase had been selected by her fiancé. That meant that there were sure to be some of the things that he rather liked from her closet at home, and maybe a few new things if he hadn’t thought that anything in her closet looked like it would fit the bill for whatever he had in mind for this mini vacation. Surprises were not always of such a grand sort, but every once in awhile something like this was special. “The Maldives?” She paused for a moment to try and place them on the globe, and then she looked at him, “The Indian Ocean?” That was a long way from England in one leap, whomever had made him that portkey had done an excellent job. She never would have thought that they had gone that far in one go. It was impressive really. Olivia watched him wander away from her and part of her was tempted to follow him, but she didn’t. Instead she turned in the other direction and headed to the bedroom, and adjoining bathroom… It all opened up to the ocean, and the views were amazing… Heading back into the living room after looking around she moved to the edge of the room that was completely open and leaned against the wall looking out, “This is beautiful…” She wasn’t sure what had made him decide to do this now of all times, but she was glad that he had. She could already tell that she was going to love it here.

Liv had done a lot for him over the years. A hell of a lot. More than anyone would ever really be able to know, really. He had the mark on his arm that should have him in that work camp with the rest of them. But he wasn’t. Beckett had his freedom, and that was because Liv had done… whatever it was that she did, in order to make sure that no evidence came to light that he had been involved in the slightest. He hadn’t asked about the particulars. They didn’t ask about that sort of thing. Sometimes she sorting problems out, sometimes he did, and they didn’t ask the details about just what they’d had to do. That wasn’t how it worked. So she had kept him out of trouble after the war, and he didn’t ask how because it was better that he didn’t know. But that was only one way that she had helped him over the years, out of many, and he thought that she deserved something spontaneous and nice every so often. Usually that meant presents—he was rather fond of buying her presents, but this time around, it had meant a trip. He thought that the Maldives would do just fine, and he had honestly not been disappointed in the slightest when he’d popped over to check it out. It had been even more beautiful than he’d heard it had been, so he hadn’t hesitated in booking a villa.

The fact that they were all booked up was nothing that money couldn’t deal with. Really, he had been tempted to throw enough around to get the presidential suite, but since that was probably an amount so excessive that it would give even Liv pause, he had decided to just settle for one of the villas. He wasn’t disappointed. From the moment that they had arrived here, though he had been more focused on Liv’s reaction, he could tell that this place would be worth every bit of money that he’d spent. Even though the Graves fortune was vast, he knew that bigger wasn’t always better—the presidential suite would have been nice but this place… he thought that it would do just fine. The lie he had spun had involved pizza, though, so he had known that there would have to be pizza. He would have to make sure that there was at least a frozen pizza there, because he knew better than to not have the kind of food that he promised. If she wanted pizza, then that was what she was going to get or he was never going to hear the end of it. He had first wanted her reaction though, and he thought that it made every bit of planning worthwhile. He had pulled it off. He’d planned a surprise that she hadn’t seen coming, and he’d even had to get other people involved. That was always more of a risk, since they usually couldn’t keep a secret as well as he could.

He had planned all of this out perfectly, if he did say so himself, down to the portkey that he’d been hiding in order to get them here. “The Indian Ocean.” He said in confirmation, not at all surprised that she knew that. He knew where it was, but he always knew the obscure sort of things that most people didn’t find important. He just had a good memory for facts, and history, and apparently that also included geography. Most people couldn’t pick the Maldives out on a map, though. While she looked around, he headed into the kitchen to preheat the oven. He thought that frozen pizza might not be quite as good as the pizza they would have gotten at the usual place that they went to, but it would do just fine given the circumstances. Somehow, he didn’t think that she was going to complain about the type of pizza that she was given if they were eating it out on the patio in the Maldives. He thought that this would do just fine. Once the pizza was preheated, he headed back out into the living room in time to see her leaning against the wall and looking out into the ocean. “I thought you’d like it.” He said, with a smirk, as he headed over to her and brushed his lips to the top of her head.

There was something that you couldn’t quite put your finger on that made Olivia think that their relationship was just that much different from everyone else’s. Maybe it was the way that it had started out, maybe it was the way that it had ended up now… She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure that there was any good way to work it all out, but she was sure that she wouldn’t trade any of it. She wanted this, she wanted this life that they had together. The two of them and Callahan and Lyla… They were happy, and maybe they weren’t traditional, but it worked. It worked for them, and it made her stop and think that all of the nights that she had thought that it was a terrible idea. And all of the time in the beginning that he had been married to Eliza, and everything that was wrong with them when they had started out, it didn’t mean anything now, because every day that they spent here, every day that they got to live this life Olivia thought was special. A surprise like this wasn’t something that she thought that she would ever get used to, because she hadn’t grown up poor by any means, but Olivia hadn’t grown up in the type of family where her father had whisked her mother off to some romantic place for the weekend either. She supposed that having a father that was an assassin and a mother that was an artist, and everything else that didn’t make sense about their family dynamic growing up didn’t really allow for that kind of life, but it was something that she wouldn’t let herself come accustomed to when it came to Beckett surprising her either.

She liked to think that they were giving their children appropriate expectations of the future. They loved one another, but they weren’t married. It wasn’t a piece of paper that made her belong to him. It wasn’t a piece of paper that made him stay. They didn’t hide their relationship from their children. She didn’t think there was anything wrong with Beckett touching her hip as he passed behind her, or her kissing his cheek, or the remains of whatever food he had stolen while she was cooking off of his lips. They were affectionate, and they were real. They had their fights, and they had nights where one of them were annoyed with the other. They were normal. That was what she wanted her children to realize. That they were normal. Because Beckett was home every night when they went to bed, and Olivia went on day care field trips, and they made the time to be a normal, functioning family, because as far as Olivia was concerned it was their family that was going to come first. She may have continued working when the kids were born, but only because no one was hurting over it. If she would have thought for a minute that they would have been better off having her at home all of the time, then she would have stayed home. If Beckett had asked her to, she would have stayed home. But that hadn’t been the case.

There was nothing that Olivia wouldn’t do for him, or for their kids. She wanted things to end up the best way possible for the three of them, because they were her world. He had surprised her here though. This was the best thing that she could have asked for. Because pizza had sounded good, and he had pizza here waiting for them too, but even if she had been fake put out about it for a moment, she would have gotten over it. Because she knew how much went in to making sure that she didn’t know secrets before they happened and there was no way that he had pulled this off on his own. She thought that it was almost amazing that he had gotten her staff to realize that this was a secret and to be able to pull all of it off without her knowing what was going on. If anything she thought that they would have been the ones to slip, but they weren’t, and they were here, and she had had no idea. Smiling when he came back over to her she closed her eyes as his lips brushed the top of her head. “This is special…” She looked up at him with a small smile, “I don’t know why, or even really how, you went about pulling this off, but it’s amazing… So thank you.” She didn’t do overly gushy a lot of the time. A soft I love you, when she thought a moment called for it, but really she didn’t overly gush at him unless she was upset or over emotional… and right now she was neither, but she thought that it was time for an exception. Because he deserved a thank you for this.

Beckett thought that Olivia deserved this sort of thing. She deserved him doing his absolute best to make her happy, and occasionally that meant trying to successfully pull off surprising her with a trip like this one. The surprise was half of the fun, because really, Olivia Drake was a next to impossible person to surprise. It wasn’t easy in the slightest, to pull one over on her, which was why he thought it was so amusing to try. He had decided they’d needed to go on a trip, and that was all there was to it. This wasn’t a plan that had been in the works for months or anything like that. Beckett decided things more spontaneously than that, and so it was as simple as deciding it was time for a trip, and then he was ready to have it planned within the week. Really, it wasn’t all that difficult to pull off. Getting her schedule cleared, and expressing to her colleagues what a bloody secret was… talking to her parents because they were the best babysitters, and figuring out where they were going to stay. Beck was glad that he’d thought to come down here and check it out first, because that was how he had known that she would really love it.

He knew that she didn’t need the biggest villa, or the most expensive room. She didn’t think of things in the scope of how much it had cost and if it was impressive enough, the way that Eliza did. He couldn’t do anything for his ex-wife without her wondering how much it had cost, because if it wasn’t enough, then she couldn’t even brag about it to the socialites she spent her time with. Liv wasn’t like that. He thought that she would appreciate the villa, because the view was beautiful, and so was it. It wasn’t huge, but they were only two people. They didn’t need the presidential villa, and not just because it was booked out for years. He thought that they would have changed their minds, if enough money was offered, but he just hadn’t thought that it was really necessary. He knew Liv. He knew that she didn’t need the biggest and most expensive, and he had thought that this place was perfect, even just from one look at it. Now that they were here, and he had successfully surprised her, Beckett was just glad that she had seemed to like it as much as he did.

Admittedly, though, he was also incredibly glad that he’d thought to get pizza too. He knew that it would be a good way to get her out of the house—saying they were getting pizza was a good idea, but taking her to the Maldives and not getting her pizza was an absolutely horrible idea. The woman liked her pizza, and he wasn’t about to lie about its existence, particularly when they would need to eat at some point too. He thought he might as well make sure that they were stocked with the food that they needed beforehand, enough for a couple of days, and definitely including pizza. And wine. A lot of wine—because if he knew Olivia, and he did, when she got one look at that bathtub, she would want to be in it for the sunset, with a glass of wine. Beckett thought that could certainly be arranged. But not yet. They had a few days to be here, and today wasn’t for baths and wine. He thought there were much better ways to spend their time today. “You’re welcome…” He said, still smirking, before tilting her chin up with his fingers, and kissing her.

When she had first kissed him it had been a reaction. When she had danced with him it had been a choice. Falling in love with him... Falling in love with him had never been a part of the plan, and now Olivia didn't know what it was that she would have done, or been, without him. He was a Death Eater, and she had known that from nearly the start. But it didn't bother her. She didn't mind. There was something about being with him that made it not matter, because in the beginning, she hadn't really seen one side over the other. She hadn't had a care, or a preference. Now though, now she cared. She cared very much about what they had done to the Death Eaters after the war. She was glad that she had been able to protect him from that. Whatever work programs Kingsley, and now Durant, were cooking up, Olivia thought that they weren't worth it. That there should have been more to it than that. There should have been more thought put into what they were doing, because all they were succeeding in doing, was pissing them off. And she thought that it was a very good thing that she had to keep her head down, and not make a fuss. Because she was Olivia Drake, and if she wanted to keep her position. If they wanted to continue to rise, then they were going to have to do it with their heads down, and that meant that she couldn't lose her temper.

She had no reason to lose her temper right now though. He had managed to surprise her, and bring her here, to this place, and all she could do was think that there was something special about the way that he treated her. Olivia thought that little presents, that trips like this, all of it, were ways for Beckett to show that he cared. And she knew that some men used words, or flowers, or candy, but she liked bracelets. And she liked trips. And he was rather good at picking out both. When it came to trips though, Olivia thought that most of the time on one like this someone would have slipped up. Because there was no way that this was a one night trip. She could tell that already, and she thought that if she was going to be away from work for an extended period of time, then there had to be someone there that knew that. There had to be someone that had known that she wasn't going to be in all of the meetings that they had been talking about for a week. That was sweet, that they had managed to keep that a secret from her. Olivia though that it must of taken team work on Beckett's part, and so that he had to have planned this more than a day or two in advance. If he had gotten them both off at work, and he had gotten her parents to agree to keep the kids.

This was simply perfect, and she didn't think that there was even any occasion. Which made it that much better. When he didn't have any reason in the world to plan a trip other than the fact that it had been too long, and she was getting restless, she thought that was amazing. That he knew her well enough to know that she had been trapped in England too long. There was a reason that their passports had as many stamps on it as they did. Because Beckett knew that Olivia might have settled down, an had kids, and lived a normal life, working a normal job, and all of it. She really did have a wanderer's spirit, and she was glad that he was willing to travel to the ends of the earth with her. Not that the Maldives were the end of the earth, but they were a far cry from London, and they had made that leap in one hop. Something that she thought was really just a bit of well placed magic. His fingers under her chin were enough to have her tipping her head up to look at him, and her smiled faded into their kiss as she kissed him back. Biting his lip gently she pulled back and smiled again. "Does the bedroom open out to the water too?"

He knew that Liv would never get tired of traveling, and he would never get tired of going just about anywhere with her. There were plenty of places that neither of them had been, and he had wanted to see the Maldives. It was beautiful here, and it had suited his mood at least—and her mood too, if he were to take a while guess. It was January, after all. In the middle of an English winter, he thought that the water and the beach were just what they needed. If it had been summer, maybe they would have gone somewhere snowy; but it was the time of year to get away somewhere warm, and he thought that the Maldives fit the bill perfectly. This place had everything that he’d had in mind. He couldn’t have picked a better spot, particularly for how short notice it had been. Everything had been sold out, obviously, so it had just been a matter of giving them the right price to make sure that they had gotten what he needed for this trip. They hadn’t needed anything too fancy. Just a villa, big enough for the two of them. Having a kitchen was a must, and he knew that Liv would be fond of the bathtub especially, and so it suited their purposes. Perfectly, really. He knew that he would likely come back here for another trip in the future, because he was sold on the place already.

It was just beautiful here. For such a last minute trip, he had to say that he thought this part had worked out perfectly. Getting this villa for them hadn’t been too difficult, and he thought that it was as impressive as the first time he’d been here. The look on Liv’s face had been enough as well, and certainly enough to know that she had been surprised. Any time he successfully pulled one over on her, he thought that it was a job well done. She hadn’t seen this trip coming, hadn’t been tipped off by anyone she worked with, hadn’t noticed anything missing in her closet. Granted, he hadn’t really been concerned about that last bit. The clothes that she’d needed for this trip were hardly something that she would pull out in January. She wouldn’t notice a couple of swimsuits and dresses missing, because that was really all she was going to need. It had worked out exactly the way he had planned, and now they had all weekend to enjoy this little getaway. Then, of course, he’d have to figure out how to surprise her on the next trip, because she was going to be more and more aware of his methods. But that wasn’t a problem that he had to worry about right now.

The pizza had been a good touch. He thought he could be a little cocky about that one, because he had lied to her to get her out of the house—but then he’d still actually had pizza for her. He knew her well enough to know that he couldn’t just offer her pizza and not give it to her. She wouldn’t have complained if he hadn’t had it, really, but he thought that he wanted to just go one step further and be prepared for that particular comment as well. Now they had a pizza in the oven, and time to explore a little bit until he was ready. “Of course… take a look.” He thought that she would be rather fond of the bedroom, but he was still waiting for her to get a good look at the bathroom. That was when she would be really sold, in his opinion. He knew her well enough to know that she’d want in that bathtub at some point in the trip—probably in the morning when the sun came up, or in the evening when it set. More likely the latter, since drinking wine before the sun came up wasn’t the greatest of ideas. Still, he thought that was probably going to be one of her favorite parts of the house. His was outside, obviously. He liked the patio over the water, and the pool. But he thought the patio would probably be a better place to eat their pizza, for obvious reasons.

When it came to the reason that she needed to move, that she needed to leave it was never that she was running. It was just that she was restless. Olivia had never been all that good at staying still. She had even been the reckless one that had used her prefect duties during her years in Hogwarts to simply wander around when everyone else was supposed to be in bed, because she didn't want to be cooped up anymore. She hated being tied down, and told where to go, and forced to do things that she didn't want to do. She was Olivia Drake. She didn't just roll over and do things because someone else told her to. Even Beckett didn't have that kind of control over here. Would she do things that she didn't really want to do if they were for him? Yes. Would she at least grumble about them to show her protest? Most definitely. But she thought that was a two-way street. He would do things for her that he didn't want to do too. This wasn't a marriage, but it was a partnership. He was her other half, and there had been no for better or for worses, there had been no vows or anything like that, but she didn't think that they really needed them. They had made their vows to one another in their own ways, and she was pleased with that. They meant just as much to one another as they would have if they were married.

They had been together a long time, and they had two wonderful kids. At eight and nine, she thought that they had everything that they could have needed in the two of them. Right now, was not the time to focus on their kids though, they had plenty of time for that when they weren't on a tropical island that he had managed to whisk her away to in the middle of everything else. They had worked their way through the ranks of both of their departments and him being able to surprise her like this was still completely special. It wouldn't have even needed to be something this elaborate to have made her night. They could have gone to Paris, or even Naples. Somewhere just an apparation point away from home. But this, the Indian Ocean, it was wonderful, and she thought that it was the perfect surprise. Her anxiousness to get out of England was simply innate, and she knew that she was lucky to have found someone that she could spend the rest of her life with, that she knew didn't think that she was trying to run when she said that she wanted out. She wasn't running from him, Olivia would run with him. To every corner of the earth, because she wanted that. She wanted to see the world with him. To share the world with him.

When he whisked her away like this, Olivia could admit that she felt a little spoiled. There weren't a lot of relationships in her life that she thought that she could look at and say that they were like them. Her parents, who were still very much together, and in love, after all of these years, were a far cry different than she thought that the two of them were. Her father didn't surprise her mother with things. There were no whirlwind trips halfway across the world, or midnight escapes to foreign places because someone was feeling cooped up. It didn't work like this for the rest of the world, but Olivia didn't want to be the rest of the world. She wanted to be them, and they were amazing just the way that they were. He was amazing, and if she really thought about it, that she knew that he always had been. Beckett had been amazing from the start, even if it was harder to tell through all of the cheating, and the hiding, and the not being anything more than the mistress. Since she had fallen for him, really fallen for him, she thought that he had been wonderful. And even when she had told him to choose, when she had thought that she was never going to see him again outside of work, he had still been wonderful. At his words she slipped away from him and towards the bedroom that he had pointed out. When she made it to the doorway she smiled again, "You're right, it's just as beautiful from in here."