"Do you feel better, baby?" I asked Ava who was lazily lounging across my lap.

We had been doing really well with not getting her sore, until she decided we should step it up a notch and she woke up really sore this morning. After I got her some good breakfast, she just ended up sitting in my lap and chilling.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked her.

She nodded her head, resting against me. Well, we're about to arrive in Morocco in about an hour for our honeymoon and Ava didn't seem phased by anything.

"Well, we need to get up in about an hour. We've almost arrived." I said to her.

"I know." She nodded. "Can Lily come hang out with us?"

I chuckled and nodded, picking my lazy wife up and taking her to our daughter who was sitting with Eleanor and the twins. Kiara was watching them and she had Aurora in her arms.

"Trade babies?" I asked Kiara with a laugh.

Kiara giggled and nodded, letting me set Ava down beside her and handing her baby girl over to me. Aurora was absolutely adorable. The calmest baby ever. Her bright red hair was just so captivating.

My girl talked to Kiara for a while and Lily cuddled up in her mother's lap, getting all the comfort she could wish for and probably getting all warm and cozy.

Ava and I eventually went to go change and then we said our goodbyes. Lily seemed to be a little reluctant to let us go now, but she knew we'd be back and she was a big, strong girl about it.

Then off we were to the inn we were staying at on the Mediterranean coast. We did lots of bedroom activities, but that wasn't all we did. We also visited the beautiful markets, went out to eat some of the best food ever. Which of course required lots and lots of that crazy tonic that Rico sent off with us. My digestive system had better days, but I really enjoyed the honeymoon.

My favourite thing to do was go on the rooftop lounge of the inn and lay there at night with Ava. The moon was captivating. Ava fell in love with these amazing Chebakia cookies that they had. Communication was on the harder side. Sure, I knew Arabic, but the dialects were so different that I didn't even bother trying. I looked like a white boy, so I just spoke to them in french like they expected me to.

"Hey, baby, I want those!" Ava said, tugging on my sleeve and pointing to a stand where the man was selling some spicy chicken brochettes.

"Alright, let's go get you some." I smiled, following her over there.

"Bonjour, peut-on avoir des brochettes, s'il vous plait?" I said, asking the man if we could have some.

He smiled and nodded, waving over a friend and telling him we spoke french. I was able to use my somewhat broken french and some Arabic here and there to get us the food that my beautiful wife had requested, and in the process, I made a new friend.

The man asked me how I learned Arabic and I explained to him how my grandmother is Palestinian and she married an Italian. The second he heard I was Palestinian, he got quite excited about it. We spoke for a while, both of us struggling a little bit to communicate, but then he said anytime I visited Tangier, I should ask around about Hamza Chraibi and find him. He said it was mandatory for me to visit him actually. The hospitality was out of this world there, and I loved it.

When we walked away from the little spicy chicken stand, Ava was munching on her chicken and giving me a strange look.

"What?" I asked her.

"That was hot." She laughed.

"Was it?" I asked her, putting an arm over her shoulder.

"Mhm... you're so good at languages." She giggled.

I chuckled, turning a little red.

"Well, we had to get you that chicken, right?" I asked her.

"Yup." She laughed, lacing her fingers with mine as we walked through the street market and bought her some clothes.

I may have looked like a foreigner, but I wasn't an idiot when it came to those prices. They tried to get extra money out of me, but I bargained like my life depended on it. Some of those prices they were giving me were ridiculous. Ava seemed to be in a daze every time she heard me use my Arabic-French mix that I'd suddenly adapted to.

"How do you do that?" She asked me.

"What?" I asked, smiling down at her.

"You never used to do that at the beginning, but now you switch mid sentence between French and Arabic." She laughed.

"You adapt, I guess." I shrugged.

She laughed, and made us stop to get some mangoes because apparently this whole trip wouldn't have even been worth it if we didn't get mangoes. We bought Lily some stuff here and there and then we made our way back to the inn.

We went straight to our bed and let out all the growing tension within my poor wife. Apparently, I was so hot when I spoke different languages, that she just couldn't hold back when we finally returned to the privacy of that room.

Ava and I both gained loads of confidence in bed. She didn't mind initiating it or taking control whenever she felt like she needed some time in the bedroom with me. She'd tease me with that lingerie that was packed for us. And I learned how to make the experience incredible for Ava. I knew we couldn't survive without privacy for three hours every day to do whatever we wanted, but I feared we wouldn't have that after this honeymoon.

But things wouldn't go back to how hectic they were before the wedding, I knew that with Lily fully accustomed to the family now, we'd have a lot more privacy than before. She was excited to spend time with all of the other family members and she'd have lots of time to go do that and give her parents the privacy they were desperate for.

After several hours of passionate love making in the bedroom, Ava just wanted to cuddle for a while. I held her close, running my fingertips along her spine as I drifted off into a peaceful sleep. I woke up to Ava's hand flying at my face as she turned in her sleep. I got up and went to the bathroom, getting myself cleaned up and then going to the tiny makeshift kitchen to boil some water. Before long, my baby was awake and calling out to me.

"Gabe, where's you go? Come back, baby." She said to me.

"I'm coming, Love... you want some mint tea?" I asked her.

"Yes, please!" She giggled, sitting up with her hair all messy and the blanket pulled up against her chest.

I smiled and put some sugar in the mint tea that I'd made for us, bringing the tray to bed where Ava was sitting up, ready for some tea.

"Can we go up to the roof if I get dressed? Have those honey cookies we got a few days ago and watch the stars and the moon?" She asked me.

"Sure, if you want to." I chuckled.

"Yeah, otherwise how would it be a honey moon? Without honey and looking up at the moon." She laughed, getting up and almost falling over on her way to the bathroom.

She showered and got dressed, and we both made our way to the rooftop where there were little cushions to sit on. I sat down and Ava sat between my legs, resting against me. I ordered her those honey sesame cookies, they were called Chebakia and they were shaped like little flowers. They were really good. We ate them for dinner with their harira, which was a delicious soup that Sophie actually made quite often. Rico loved that soup so much that Sophie ended up perfecting it and making it repeatedly.

"Do they actually dip them in honey?" Ava asked, examining the cookie in her hand.

"I don't think it's honey... my grandmother used to make sweets all the time and showed Sophie how to make this syrup thing... it's basically like liquid sugar, it's sugar, water, rose water and a tiny bit of lemon, but I think sometimes they'll substitute some of the sugar with honey, I'm not entirely sure though." I said.

"It's so good, Gabe!" Ava said, melting into me.

"Are you happy you didn't cancel the honeymoon?" I asked her.

"Yeah... but I worry about Lily so much." Ava said to me.

"I know... you wanna call her?" I asked.

"Yes, please. With who and where is she?" Ava asked me, pulling out her phone.

"Good question. I'm thinking that maybe she's with Rosalie today." I said.

"Gabe, it's scary to me that I don't know where on the planet my child is." Ava said, looking genuinely scared all of a sudden

"Relax, Baby." I said softly, rubbing Ava's back as she called Rosie.

"Hello!" Rosie said, picking up the phone.

"Is it Mommy!" I heard Lily's voice ask.

"It is." Rosie chuckled, kneeling down and handing her phone to Lily.

"Mommy! I'm in Mau-Mauri-... uhm, Aunt Rosie where are we again?" Lily asked.

"We're in Mauritius." Rosie chuckled, picking Lily up.

"Hand the princess over to me, what did you and Uncle Ev see, Lily?" Evan asked her.

"We saw a flying fox, Mommy!" Lily said happily. "It's like a bat but it looks like a fox!"

"Wow, that's so cool, baby. When did you get there?" I asked her.

"Uhm... this morning me and Uncle Killian came to see Aunt Rosie and Uncle Evie!" Lily said.

"That's awesome, baby. Did you guys eat, what did you eat?" Ava asked our baby.

"Uhm... what did we eat?" She asked her uncle Evan.

"Your kid had this delicious version of boba basically and she also ate some flatbread... honestly, I'm not entirely sure what else she ate, she had some of my fruits though... and waffles from Rosie's plate." Evan said.

"Can we go back to the beach!" Lily squealed, getting distracted and jumping out of Evan's arms.

"Goodness, who gave her sugar?" Rosie said, running off to follow Lily.

"That was Dad." Ev said with a laugh.

"She's ok though? No panic attacks?" I asked, trying to show Ava that she was worrying for no reason.

"No panic, just lots of screaming, fun and falling asleep on people's shoulders." Evan laughed.

"Why are you guys in Mauritius?" Ava asked.

"Rosie found out she has an aunt here, so we flew down here so she could meet her and then we're heading off to find out where exactly her mother's family is from." Evan smiled.

"She seems happy." Ava smiled.

"Yeah. This has been a great trip for her." Ev smiled.

"So, are you guys going to finally join in and get married like the rest of us?" I chuckled.

"Very soon. Once we get back home, I'm planning on proposing." Evan laughed.

"That's amazing! Did you find her a ring yet?" Ava asked him.

"No... I'm stuck... I don't know if she'd like a big one or if she'd want something smaller.... There are so many small options that I feel fit her perfectly, but other big ones that I feel she might love... so I'm not really sure which to get for her yet." He said to me.

"Send me pictures, I'll help you." Ava laughed.

"Cool. Thanks, Ava." Evan chuckled.

"Alright, take care of my princess, Evan. I'll see you guys soon." I said with a laugh.

"See ya! Don't forget to get your favourite nephew a souvenir." He said with a laugh before we hung up.

Ava and I had an amazing time on that rooftop, looking at the moon and the countless stars in the sky, eating those honey cookies and laughing. Eventually, we retired to our room and enjoyed each other for a little longer before bed.

The honeymoon was absolutely amazing and relaxing. But eventually, it had to end and the only thing I was looking forward to was seeing the family, other than that, I'd rather have stayed in Morocco with my wife for the rest of eternity.