With mocktails in hand we sat around the fire and had a fun time chatting with each other. A soft sea breeze blowing over the beach, really hammering in the fact that I was quite the distance away from home.

“Missing the cold already?” Eva asked while eating some cocktail sausages.

“Eh, it’s nice to be able to sit outside without freezing anything off.” I shrugged as I looked over the water. The sea was calm, and the sounds of the waves soothing. “It’s gonna be a good holiday. As long as we don’t get a heatwave.”

“Please don’t Jinx it, Lauren.”

“Well, we should be safe enough. The weather broadcast is showing good temperatures for the entire time we are here.”

Luna stayed quiet and was just looking over the sea as well. Her eyes were sparkling as much as the stars in the night sky. It was fun watching her, almost making me forget the flow of time.

I only got pulled out of my time gazing at Luna when Eva mentioned that she was getting pretty tired and that she was going to head back.

As it only was the first day here and we were pretty tired from traveling as well, Luna and I decided to follow Eva’s example and followed her back to our huts, with the fire extinguishing itself when we walked away.

We took a quick shower before getting in bed, that’s when I noticed that Luna had found another feature the hut possessed that I hadn’t expected. She had managed to make a skylight be revealed in our bedroom, giving us a clear view of the night’s sky while we lay tucked in beneath our blankets.

We both lay down, hand in hand, and stared at the starry sky above.

“If only our cabin back on the ship had this feature.” Luna commented. “I never get tired looking at it.”

“I think we can probably make something happen with a holographic projector or two. Might as well put all of Ellie’s processing power to use.”

Luna rolled over so she could look at me and then stuck out her tongue. “Don’t just use Ellie like that.”

“I’m sure Ellie is more than willing to support our romantic endeavors.”

Luna rolled her eyes and then smiled. “Well… that’s probably true.”

“It’s definitely true.” I retorted. “I’m pretty sure that the Ellie has been shipping us for almost as long as we got to know each other.”

“Does that mean the ship was shipping us?”

“It does indeed.” I smiled back. “Therefore our relationship can and never will fail.”

“Mhmm.” Luna hummed happily and reached forward to give me a kiss. Obviously I met her half way. “Nini, Lauren.”

“Good night, babe.” I replied, accompanied by a second kiss. This was followed by Luna nuzzling herself against my chest, resting on my arm, and looking up at the night’s sky until she fell asleep. With so much comfort, it was hard for me not to follow her to dreamland just a couple of minutes later.

And so, our first night at our private island transpired and our stay had well and truly begun. The first day was spent unpacking our stuff and putting everything in our very roomy closets. After which we dressed into our summer outfits for the first time ever. The temperature during the day was quite a bit higher than what it was during the evening we arrived. Which meant that being dressed the way we were yesterday evening would probably end up giving me a heat stroke.

Luna convinced me to dress in the black bikini she had bought for me. It was quite classy to be honest, with a black sarong to tie around my hip. She then put a straw hat on top of my head and offered me a new pair of sunglasses too.

“There you go.” She smiled cutely. Herself being dressed in an extremely cute white bikini with a pink flower motif, also accompanied by a sarong which matched her bikini.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

When Eva saw us walk out, she whistled. “Nice going, Lauren.”

“Shut up.” I chuckled.

Eva was wearing a casual blue bikini with a blue skirt combination. “Don’t forget to apply enough sunscreen, otherwise you might get burned.

“Don’t worry, we have plenty of sunscreen with us!” Luna replied, showing the two bottles of high grade sunscreen she had in her beach bag.

“Good, wouldn’t want you to get burned.” Eva smiled and got off her chair. “So, what do the two of you want to do today?”

“Anything really, it doesn’t really matter to me.” I shrugged.

“Mhmm.” Eva hummed and looked over at Luna who had suddenly started blushing and fidgeting on the spot.

“Luna?” I asked. “Do you want to do anything specific.”

“Well…” She blushed a bit more after being called out by me. “I kind of wanted to try something that I have seen in books and movies before.”

“Which is?” Eva was intrigued now too.

“I want to build a sandcastle.” She admitted.

“Oh.” I nodded. “We can definitely do that, right?” I looked at Eva who was extremely giddy about my girlfriend’s reply.

“Definitely! The shed I looked in yesterday actually had some tools you could use for that.”

“So you are both fine with it?” Luna asked.

“Sure, why wouldn’t we be?”

“Because it’s a bit childlike...”

Eva shook her head. “Luna, Lauren practically still is a big kid...”

“Hey.” I pouted.

“Besides, building sand castles is for all ages, the difference being that, to keep our honor intact, we just need to make it bigger and more intricate.”

Luna giggled at Eva’s explanation.

“Also, there may be cocktails and snacks involved. Which makes it more fun too.”

“Well, then what are we waiting on.” I grabbed my girlfriend’s free hand in my good hand. “Let’s go build the best sandcastles this island has ever seen.”

“Huzzah!” Eva raised her fist in her battlecry. “Let’s go Luna!”

Luna laughed at our antics and followed along as we walked towards the beach where we had sat down at the firepit yesterday.

I was very happy that my bionic arm didn’t have any gaps whatsoever otherwise I’d probably need to fish all the sand out of that too. Who would have imagined that building sand castles made it quite a bit easier for sand to get pretty much everywhere. That said, the water of the sea was a very pleasant temperature to dip in and wash off the sand for a moment.

Luna was having a lot of fun and that was the most important part to me. With the three of us we had decided to build a veritable sand fort. Not unlike those you saw in the history books of the 18th century.

It appeared that my girlfriend had a knack for detailing, while Eva and I were constructing the large walls, Luna found most pleasure in etching little details in walls and buildings.

I was pretty sure that if there would be a competition of sand castle building, our team would have had a rather high chance of winning it.

While we built, Eva reminded us occasionally to reapply our sunscreen. Which was definitely necessary as the sun was only rarely interrupted by a cloud.

In the end, no one really got burned and we were all very happy about that. But this was just the first day so we needed to keep paying attention to it. Especially me with my Antarcticly acclimated skin.

With a nice evening meal mostly consisting of charcoal grilled meat we closed off this first real full day of our holiday.

“I really really really miss this kind of food on board our ship.” Eva leaned back, savoring every single bit of the juicy meat in front of her. “The synthesized stuff really doesn’t hit the same as the real deal.”

“Albeit that this is quite a bit more unhealthy?”

“Yeah…” Eva nodded. “Can’t beat the additives and stims.”

I noticed that Luna was very quiet during this meal. She had only said a couple of words since we had started eating.

“Is anything wrong, Luna?” I asked, leaving my food aside for a moment.

“I was just thinking.” Luna replied. “Time flew by so fast, it’s almost like I didn’t register what happened at all today.”

“When you are having fun, time goes by faster. That’s sadly how it goes.” I nodded.

“I’d rather the tedious times flew by and the fun times lasted as long as possible.”

“Yeah, everyone knows that feeling. You are definitely not the first one.”

“Hmm.” Eva hummed as she drank from a glass of red wine.

“Hmm?” I hummed back.

“I was just thinking that that means our brains are wired pretty much the same.” Eva commented. “I wonder if there’s species out there who have a concept of fun for whom the passage of time also feels differently.”

-That actually is an interesting question… Perhaps the answer lies in species who have a way different lifespan than hours. I can imagine that if you live thousands of years, that you don’t perceive time the same way as we do… Which also raises the question about how entities like Ellie perceive time…-