It was a warm night several days later when Aizawa decided to join Elly for a walk on the beach. His chores were done and hers almost, as soon as she cooked dinner.
He grunted and sat on one end of the pile of driftwood, a larger log that had washed up earlier and was now dry. The breeze whipped his long hair around as he watched her meticulously pick her way through the surf, hands darting down to dig into the wet sand now and then and bring up a clay. By the time she reached him her bucket was full and she was rosy-cheeked and smiling happily.
Aizawa held out his hand and she impishly handed him the bucket. He raised an eyebrow at her but looked inside. "Nice haul."
"It's enough for dinner," she agreed. "I'll make a stew with the leftover fish and potatoes."
"Hmm." He set the pail aside and took her wet, cold little hand in his. "I suppose you want to get started right away."
"I could sit for awhile." He scooted over and she sat close beside him. "Aizawa?"
"Hmmn?"
"Do you like the sea?"
"The sea?" His gray eyes blinked slowly back at her. "I live here, don't I?"
Elly sighed and dug her toes in the sand. She was barefoot as she often was, a strange quirk he'd grown rather fond of. Her ankles were slender and he liked to think that, some day, he might manage to buy her a piece of jewelry for one of them.
He shook himself, realizing she'd been speaking while he was daydreaming. "Uh. Oh, I was -"
"Not entirely here, I saw that." She chuckled. "All I said was the beach and the sea beyond are my favorite places. I grew up on the water and it's where I'm the happiest."
He squeezed her hand. "<i>Are</i> you happy? You were washed up by accident and stranded here. It's been a month and a half, but I've rarely seen you leave. It's no wonder the villagers thought I was keeping you."
Elly shrugged. "This is where I want to be. I'm warm, well fed and have work and company to spend the rest of my time with. There's not much more to ask for, is there?"
He grunted. "Not for me, but you're a beautiful woman with an ugly man who lives outcast from society."
"Beauty won't boil the pot now, will it?" She sniffed and took her hand out of his to brush his hair back. "Some people may have told you that you're ugly, but that doesn't mean <i>everyone</i> thinks that way."
"Do you?"
"I wouldn't have shared a bed so long with a man that was ugly inside," Elly told him seriously. "As for the outside..." She kissed him gently on the corner of his mouth.
Aizawa was far too stunned to act, and he sat there with slowly widening eyes as she bounced to her feet and lifted the pail up again.
"Dinner's not going to make itself," she called back merrily as she dashed away towards the cottage.
He caught up with her as she tossed the pail in a hole dug outside the house that was used as a cooler.
"Dinner can wait another hour," he groaned into her ear as he slipped his arms about her waist. "But I've waited thirty long years to feel the touch of a woman, and <i>my heart is in you</i>."
"Do you mean that?" She clutched his rough shirt in both hands, staring earnestly into his eyes. "Do you really love me?"
"How can I prove it to you?"
She swallowed, gulping hard in her throat. "Can we... maybe wait before laying together? We have no one else, so consent will be marriage for us. I have a few things I'd like to settle before then."
He sighed shakily but nodded. "I'd do far more than wait for you."
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