John blinked slowly, feeling warmth on his right arm. The morning sun pierced through the big window on the side of the bed, and its rays were shining on John. He smiled and lightly stretched his back, feeling something on him.

Taylor had fallen asleep on his chest, her left cheek resting on the exact spot of his heart. Her long blond hair were spread on his skin and on the mattress too. She had a leg wrapped around his, and a hand resting on his collar bone. He smiled tenderly, giving the top of her head a delicate kiss, while stroking her hair.

She suddenly took a deep breath, before heaving a muffled moan. She firmly closed her eyes, rubbing one with the hand that rested on John a few moments earlier. She coughed and looked all around her, before her eyes laid on John and made her face light up.

“Good morning, lovely Taylor” John whispered with a grin. “Did you sleep well?”

She smiled and stretched her back, nodding. She leant in to press her lips against his, stroking his cheeks with the back of her hands. He grinned and pulled her into a hug, humming a melody he did not even know.

Taylor freed herself from his arms and poked his nose.

“We should get up, take a shower and have breakfast!”

“We should, we should...”

John chuckled, running his hands on his face, stretching at the same time. Taylor sat on the edge of the bed, opening her suitcase with her foot. She stopped moving and smiled shyly, slightly turning to her husband.

“This night was incredibly wonderful. Even more than what I expected” she whispered.

“It was, you're right. I had the time of my life, honestly. With the loveliest person on this Earth.”

“You're so sweet, John. And you're so good at everything” she winked.

He laughed and crawled up to her, kissing her spine and stroking her hair. She sat up and leant in to kiss him. Then, she gently patted his chest.

“Come on, go have a shower! You know you spend more time than I do!”

“Alright, alright.”

John finally managed to get himself out of bed. He knelt down beside his suitcase and opened it, picking a black long-sleeved shirt with clean bell-bottoms. He took clean underwear and locked himself in the bathroom, ready to wash himself.

Taylor watched him lock himself in the bathroom, and sighed in relief. She immediately put her hands on her kidneys, massaging them the best that she could, almost pushing on them, as she winced in pain. They had been hurting for the whole night, but she simply could not tell John.

She could deal with that; he did not need to worry for her.

Unfortunately, massaging her kidneys did not help. The pain did not vanish or did not get better. She abruptly stood up, ran to get her handbag and rummaged through it to find a book. It was the only thing she found to forget about the pain. She heard John turning on the taps, and allowed herself to cry a bit.

John put back his toothbrush in his toilet bag and rinsed his mouth. He spat in the sink and washed it right after, wiping his hands on his towel, which he hanged to the towel rail. He unlocked the door and switched off the light behind him. He found Taylor standing at the table, reading a book.

“See? I didn't take much time this morning!”

Taylor jumped and looked up from the book, giggling. She closed it and put it down behind her, before walking up to John with dangling arms. Luckily, she had managed to stop crying and drying her eyes long before he got out of the bathroom.

When she came to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck, looking at him lovingly, kissing his soft lips.

“I'm proud of you, sweetheart! Now, it's my turn! I'll try to be quick, so we can fill our stomachs!”

John smiled and tenderly pressed his lips against hers, gently massaging her cheek, his fingers tangled in her messy hair. She stood on tip toe to deepen the kiss a little, before freeing him from her arms and picking up clean clothes. She took a light pink t-shirt with burgundy velvet trousers. Then, she locked herself in the bathroom, throwing her clothes on the basket. She leant on the edge of the sink, firmly closing her eyelids and breathing loudly, but not too much, so John would not knock on the door to see what was going on.

Taylor stepped over the side of the bathtub and sat in it, feeling a bit too weak to stand up properly. She turned on the tap and pushed on a small switch, which enabled the water to flow through a shower head. She took it and checked the temperature.

“Too cold.”

She turned the red tap and made sure that the water turned hot. When she saw a thick steam floating in the air, she stopped turning it, and immediately splashed the water on her painful kidneys. She stretched out an arm and grabbed her towel, rolling it and biting it firmly. She moaned in pain, wincing at the same time. She wanted to yell and bang on the walls, but she did not want to worry John at all. She wanted to protect him. She did not want him to spend his life worrying about her all the time.

Taylor breathed louder and louder, glad that her voice got muffled by the towel. It was not the water that hurt her; actually, she barely paid attention to its temperature. She felt the muscles of her back relaxing, but the pain was still there.

Realising that she could not get rid of it, she washed herself and got out of the bathtub. Before she dressed up, she tied her hair into a high ponytail and put her clothes on. She quickly brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth, rinsing the sink as well.

Taylor unlocked the bathroom door and appeared to John, a wide smile on her cheeks. He was looking at the book she was reading earlier, frowning lightly. When he heard the bathroom door opening, he looked up and grinned, the muscles of his face relaxing instantly.

“Look at this pretty darling!”

“Don't exaggerate, love!”

John shook his head and put the book down on the table. He stretched his back and looked at her.

“Ready for breakfast?”

“Ready!”

Taylor happily jumped to her suitcase and closed it, picking her key of the room, which she put in one of her pockets. John patted his pocket and took out his. They got out of the room, and he locked the door, before taking her hand and crossing the long corridor.

Trying to forget her pain, Taylor forced herself into smiling instead of wincing. She was jumping lightly and making large steps, though every movement she made hurt her like mad. “I'll get pain killers once we get back to England. Two weeks, that'll be short.” she thought. John and her reached the elevator and smiled at other customers waiting for it. The doors opened, and they all managed to enter it. Not surprisingly, everybody's will was to go to the ground floor.

A waitress dressed in a strict suit welcomed them at the entrance of the dining room. She guided the couple to a table for two, bowing before leaving. Taylor cleared her throat and smiled at John.

“Go have a plate, I'm keeping an eye on the table.”

“No, love, please go. You let me take my shower first, now it's your turn to be the first doing something!”

“Stupid.”

“Perhaps!”

John chuckled and kissed her on the lips, before sitting on a chair, crossing his arms and looking at her with his eyebrows raised, waiting for her to go and serve herself some food while he keeps an eye on the table. She pouted, not impressed at first. But seeing him grin like a child, she almost gave up. Feeling her resisting to him, John took a deep breath and stared at her in a sexy way, licking his lips with the tip of his tongue. This time, Taylor gave up, blushing like mad.

“Okay. Stop. You win.”

“I always do, darling!”

“You must teach me how you do that, because really, this is sexy as fuck.” she sighed. “And NO, I'm not mistaking you for Roger.”

John laughed and shook his head. Taylor walked up to the buffet and grabbed a plate, which still was warm due to its cleaning. She lightly bent over the many dishes, wondering what she would take. She took bacon and eggs, and smirked as she saw cheese on toasts. She took two and walked back to the table.

Taylor put the plate full of food on the table, and John took a look at it. His eyes widened, and she immediately knew why.

“Goddammit, they have cheese on toasts?!”

“They do.”

“BE RIGHT BACK!”

She burst out laughing, as he jumped on his feet and quickly walked up to the buffet, taking a plate and noticing the cheese on toasts immediately. Taylor shook her head with a smirk, but as her eyes laid on the plate, her appetite vanished. She gulped, feeling like she was going to throw up. She quickly pressed her fingers against her lips, being in a cold sweat. She felt herself blench, and closed her eyes firmly, trying not to look at the food.

She looked away and saw John coming back, smiling from ear to ear, holding a plate full with nothing else but cheese on toasts. Taylor removed her hand from her mouth and smiled at him, breathing deeply.

“I think that the cooker would've killed me if he saw me taking all those toasts!” John laughed, sitting. “Taylor? You're pale, what's the matter?”

“Oh, nothing, I feel a bit sick, but it's okay.”

“What happens?”

“I want to throw up.”

John stared at her with round eyes. He blenched as well and his hands started to shake.

“Wait, do you mean you're pregnant?”

Taylor frowned and could not help but bursting out laughing. As her cheeks went warm, she felt relieved that her sick feeling was fading away. She caught her breath and wiped a tear.

“No, John. Of course not.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure! Okay, if it can reassure you, I'll see a doctor as soon as possible. Alright?” she said, taking his hand.

“Well, uh... It's not that I don't want children, but... I don't want you to feel sick during our honeymoon, and it looks like your kidneys hurt again.”

“What?” she exclaimed, trying to hide the truth. “What makes you think that my kidneys hurt?”

“I don't know, your posture changed since our wedding. And it's all about your back. You told me at the party that you felt something in your kidneys.”

“John, I can assure you that they don't hurt anymore. I was just nervous, and my body was so tensed that my whole back was painful. Now, perhaps it's because of the jet lag. If you look at it, we didn't sleep that much.”

John sighed and sadly lookked at her hand.

“If you were to be pregnant, or if something terribly wrong was to happen to you, such as a disease, do you promise me that you'll tell me? I don't want you to hide things from me. And if you must go through terrible things, I want to help you the best that I can.”

Taylor held her breath and stared at him, not really knowing what to say. She was already lying to him. She was not pregnant, for sure, and she did not have any kind of disease. But she did not tell him about her kidneys pain, which started to be really atrocious. She could not. If she promised, she had to tell him everything. After all, she knew she would have all the support she would need in case of bad situation. What would she lose?

“I promise, sweetheart.”

“So now, if your kidneys are a problem to you, I'd like you to tell me. I won't get mad if you tried to hide everything. I promise I won't get mad, because I know that you wanted to protect me.”

It was now or never.

“I can assure you that my kidneys are perfectly healthy” Taylor smiled, feeling guilty not to tell him the truth. “If they were to hurt, I'd tell you.”

“Alright. Let's have breakfast.”

“Would you like the two cheese on toasts I took? I really don't want to eat them, after all.”

John raised his eyebrows, and Taylor nodded. He happily took and ate them, making his wife laugh. Taylor forced herself to eat at least the bacon, as she remembered that when she was young and had anything like a gastroenteritis, the taste in her mouth that would alarm her was this of eggs.

They had breakfast quietly, and drank a cup of tea, served by one of the waitresses. Then, they got out of the dining room and went back to their bedroom.

When they opened their bedroom door, John kissed Taylor's hair, lightly squeezing her hand in his.

“I'm going to the toilet before we leave. Do you think we'll need to call Tomohisa?”

“I don't know. Let's see if there are some things around there.”

Taylor grabbed her book and looked for the address of the hotel, so she would find exactly where they were in the city. When she did, she wandered in the room, while John was in the bathroom, until she decided to sit on the windowsill.

As she found nothing interesting around their location, she sighed and looked out of the window. Her eyes got caught by huge colourful lines on a square nearby, and she frowned, trying to guess what it was. She heard John flushing the toilet and washing his hands, before he unlocked the bathroom door.

“Sweetheart?” Taylor said without taking her eyes off the spot she noticed. “Come here, you must see that!”

John quickly walked up to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and resting on the others, as he looked out of the window as well. Taylor pointed at the square.

“What's that?”

“I have no idea. Perhaps we should go and have a look.”

“Why not? That would be our morning walk.”

“Yup, and we'll try to find a good restaurant for noon, what do you think?”

“Sushis and makis would be perfect for me today!”

He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose, before going up to his bedside table. He took his wallet, which he put in his back pocket, and the key of the room. As for Taylor, she grabbed her backpack in her suitcase and filled it with her thin cardigan, her camera, guide books, her wallet, a mirror, a tiny bilingual dictionary and a conversation guide. Seeing John putting his wallet in his back pocket, she stretched out an arm in his direction.

“Give me your wallet, honey, I'm putting it in the backpack, it'll be safer.”

John nodded and gave her his wallet. Taylor quickly went to the toilet, washed her hands, and put on her shoes. They checked if they did not forget anything and left the room, locking it behind them.

In the corridor, Taylor poked John's shoulder.

“The last one who reaches the elevator is...”

Too late. John immediately began to run as fast as he could, followed by a laughing Taylor, who was shouting at him.

“YOU CHEATER!”

“Better luck next time, darling!”

John pressed the elevator button and waited for Taylor to reach him, panting like mad. Taylor playfully punched him in the arm, kissing his cheek afterwards. He chuckled, wrapping an arm around her waist. The doors of the elevator opened, and four customers got out of it. The couple stepped aside to let them out, and went in. They pressed the button for the ground floor, and waited for the elevator to take them down, one in the other's arms.

“Hey John” Taylor said, as nobody else was there, “I love you.”

“I love you too, my dear little Taylor. I've always loved you.”

She smiled and stood on tip-toe to kiss his lips. Then, the elevator stopped, and they left the hotel.

Outside the big hotel, Taylor tried to see on which side their room windows were, so they could find the way to the square they saw. John found it, and they walked straight ahead, looking all around them as they passed by old buildings. Taylor opened her backpack and took out her camera, taking pictures of the traditional ones.

Even though it was November, the temperature was extremely pleasant, and Taylor almost regretted putting on trousers instead of shorts. John rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, and she watched him doing it, biting her lip.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked, without even looking.

“You have no idea how sexy it is to roll up sleeves like that.”

“I know you can't handle my pretty face and my hot body!” John said, shrugging. “I was suspiscious about it before, but last night I could confirm it!”

Taylor laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Last night was a special event, that's why.”

“Are you telling me that I, John Richard Deacon, am ugly?”

The funny tone in his voice made Taylor crack up a bit more. Even John could not help. She wrapped an arm around his waist and kissed his shoulder.

“You sweet silly thing.”

John chuckled, and looked at where they were. They only had to walk a few metres to reach the square they saw from the hotel room. They did not really know what those colourful lines were, but now, they did.

There were long lines of wooden tables on which huge trays of colourful flowers had been put. There was a line of blue flowers, another of pink, another of yellow, another of red... A sweet scent escaped from them and tickled Taylor's nose. She immediately felt appealed to them, and she ran up to the first line, this of blue flowers, which she smelled. John was enchanted by the place and wondered if this was real life or just fantasy.

John asked Taylor her camera, and took many good pictures of this sort of flower market. At the same time, he took photographs of Taylor leaning towards the flowers, her eyes closed and her lips grinning sweetly.

For a whole hour, they wandered in this market, and Taylor noticed a bunch made of every colour. She looked at the price and saw it was only ninety yens – around half a pound. She took her wallet and counted all the money she converted, and took out one hundred yens from it.

“What are you going to do with this bunch?” John asked tenderly.

“I want to thank Tomohisa. I know that he's been hired to drive us everywhere, that he's paid for that, but I want to thank him in another way than giving him money. I want to give him those flowers, perhaps his wife will like them.”

John's face lit up with a smile, touched by her generosity and sweetness. He nodded and rested a hand on her shoulder, while she paid for the bunch. She thanked the florist in Japanese, then, they had a walk in the streets nearby. Quickly realising that there was nothing very interesting, they stopped on the pavement, trying to think about something they could do.

“How about we go back to the hotel, call Tomohisa, and ask him to drive us in a place he likes in particular?” John suggested.

“That's a great idea. I'll be able to give him the flowers, then.”

John nodded and kissed her forehead, before taking her hand and walking out of the street they were in. They slowly walked back to the hotel, chatting happily about things they could visit, and things they heard about Japan.