On the day that we were supposed to be heading out to Greece, it was the early morning and I sat on the sofa, playing with Rufus’ ball. I jolted a little when a text message alert went off on my phone, and when I checked it, I saw that it was Nocte telling me that he was downstairs. Immediately getting off the sofa, I put the ball back where I found it.

“Rufus? I will be gone for two weeks, so be good, won’t you?”

With a smile, I picked up my phone, pocketed it, grabbed the suitcase and made my way downstairs. I wasn’t going to admit to myself that I was excited to see him again, nor the fact that the only sleepwear I packed was those sexy ones. As I stepped outside in the morning air, I saw him. But he was leaning against a different car to his usual red Corvette. Instead, it was a black 4x4.

“New car?” I asked him as I walked over to him.

“Ah, no. It’s just an airport rental.”

“They do that?”

“If you ask nicely….” He gave me one of his award winning smiles, and I just smiled and nodded. 

As he took my suitcase from me, I got into the passenger side of the 4x4. I didn’t fail to notice that the inside was huge compared to the compact, but stylish, Corvette. Eventually, he slid into the driver's side and we set off. We didn’t speak at all in the first part of the journey, as I was watching the scenery of London, but then I noticed we were driving past planes, so I had to ask him.”

“Are we not going into the airport?”

“Nope.”

“Then, how are we travelling if not by plane?”

“With that.”

Feeling confused, I looked at what he might be on about and there, as clear as day, was a red plane that we were getting closer and closer to.

“You have got to be kidding me, you have a plane?”

“I do now.” He said casually.

“.... Next thing you’re going to say is that you can fly it.”

“Technically? Yes.”

“... What are you?”

Nocte gave me a laugh as he parked near the plane and excited the 4x4. I got out and admired this plane. I noticed that it wasn’t as big as normal airliners, and that it was about the size of usual luxury planes. I also noticed that it was sporting the same red that I came to know him for. I did, in fact, notice the cute little dragon detail that was on it though. But the dragon looked a little familiar to me, for some reason.

“So, are you ready?” He appeared by my side, with my suitcase.

“Don’t you have luggage?” I asked him as I eyed him up and down and noticed that he had nothing, apart from my own case.

“It’s already on the plane.”

“Of course…..”

With a smile, he led me onto the plane, and I was immediately greeted by a cheerful older gentleman. Nocte then mentioned to me that this was the pilot, and he led me into the plane. As I went through a door, my jaw nearly hit the floor. The seating area of this plane was ridiculously luxurious. Instead of the normal plane chairs, there were just sofas. Are sofas safe? As I looked down further, I could see that there was more to this plane. But there was something else special about this plane, it still supported the red and black colour palette. Which now gave off the impression that this plane was custom made.

“This is your personal plane, right? I mean going by its colouring….”

“Yep.” He walked past me and slid my suitcase into a gap behind the sofa, and took a seat on said sofa. “Ah, yes. That reminds me. We are also carrying a tiger.”

I blinked at him several times. “You are what?”

“One of the zoos in Greece wants new blood, so we have a female on board.”

“That will be something going through customs, which reminds me… Where is my passport?” I started fumbling through my personal bag.

“You won’t need it.”

“Excuse me?” I stopped looking to stare right at me as he smiled.

“You’re flying under my jurisdiction, so you won’t need one.”

“What are you? The Queen? She doesn’t need a passport either.”

“Hah!”

“... You baffle me sometimes.”

“I’m just that charismatic….” He gives me a wink and crosses his legs. “That, and I’ve done so much animal welfare stuff that it’s just easier not to go through the hassle of passports. Since I tend to travel and transport animals a lot.”

“I mean is that safe?” I asked him as I sat down on the opposite sofa.

“All animals are checked before leaving their base country and they are checked again before heading to their new home. We are quite thorough, so don’t worry. But the flight will be something like three hours, so try and get comfy.”

“Well, I will admit that I am hungry.”

With a smile, Nocte proceeds to press a button on a remote that he pulls out from the sofa and, shortly after, a woman appears.

“Yes?” She asks him.

“The food menu for my lady companion over there.” He pointed in my direction, and she looked my way for a second before bowing towards both me and Nocte.

“Of course.”

With that, she walked away and, in a matter of seconds, she returned and handed me a menu.

“You really have a kitchen here?”

“Yep. But don’t go for any of the meat, it’s reserved for Kitten.”

“Kitten? I assume it is the tiger?”

“You are correct.”

“Ok, no meat. Gotcha.” 

As I was checking over the menu, I saw that it had fish. Hmmm… I have not had fish in a while. 

“Is fish ok?”

“Fish is available.” The hostess said with a smile.

“Oh great, then I will take this.” I pointed to the fish dish, and she smiled as she took the menu and walked off. “Are you not having anything?” I asked Nocte.

“Nah, I’m good.” He gave me a smile, then he looked to the side and his smile faded away and he made a disgruntled face. “However, I will be right back….” He got off the sofa and walked off to the back end of the plane. 

I was left alone, fiddling with my thumbs and the hostess arrived with my food but, with Nocte not being back yet, I asked her something as she put my plate down.

“What is down that way?” I pointed in the direction that Nocte went in earlier.

“Down there?” She looked up. “Oh, that is where the private chambers are.”

So a bedroom, right? I see….

“Ah, I got you, thank you.”

As she gives me a smile, she turns and heads back to where she came from. As Nocte was still not here, and as I was so hungry, I ate my fish dinner.

When I finished my food, I noticed that Nocte still had not come back, and now I was getting a little curious. So, as I hopped off the sofa, I headed towards these private chambers. As I got closer, I saw that the door was ajar, and I poked my head round. It was a little hard to miss him, but there he was, as clear as day, lying on the bed, on his back, with both of his arms covering his face. Was he asleep or? As I crept into the quarters a little more, I saw one of his arms move and he looked right at me.

“Oh. Hi….” I nervously said. “Sorry if I’m disturbing you, it’s just that you vanished for a bit and I was wondering if you were ok….”

“Ah….” He proceeded to sit up. “Sorry about that.”

For some reason, he looked rather tired and the way he spoke seemed off?

“Are you ok?” I had to ask.

“I’m quite fine….” The tiredness from his face completely vanished, and the way he spoke was back to ‘normal’ and he stood up. “Come, I want to show you something.” 

With a smile, he started ushering me out the room, and led me back to the main room. As we approached a bare wall he pulled something down, which revealed a flat screen TV and he kicked open a cupboard that was nearby.

“You don’t really get normal TV this far up in the sky, but DVDs are a thing so… Yep. Ladies choice.”

As I stepped forward and crouched down to have a look at the selection of films, I instantly noticed Beautiful Woman, there was no way I wouldn’t notice it first. As I went to get it out and look at its cover, Nocte bent down to my level.

“You want that one?”

I ran my hand over the box. “I mean, I don’t want to watch it now. But is it possible if I could take it for personal viewing during these two weeks?”

“By all means take it.”

“Great!” I gave him a smile, and turned my attention to the rest of the collection. One certain classic animated movie caught my eyes, and I took it out and showed him it. “How about this?”

“Hmmm….” He looked kinda confused at it, as he raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side.

“No?”

“I’m just wondering why there is a monkey and what looks like a flying… Rug?”

“It’s a carpet ‘technically’ but wait… You’ve not seen it?”

“I don’t think so….” He stood back up again.

“Oh my… You’ve not lived!” I stood up, still pretty much gobsmacked.

“Apparently so.”

“It will be finished before we land, so come on.”

With a cheeky grin, I led him to the sofa that was in front of the TV, made him sit, chucked Beautiful Woman in my personal bag and headed back to the TV. As I found where I put the DVD in, I got it all set up, grabbed the remote that was near the machine and I naturally sat next to him.

“You’re in for a treat.” I giggled.

“Am I now?”

I pressed play and immediately I felt a little gooey. As we got quite far in, I always remember loving this film as a kid. Watching it now, in this type of mood? It brought back memories of going to see it with Grandpa! I was young, maybe about nine? I remember Grandpa taking me to see this film a week before his accident. A car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. We couldn’t do our usual outings, and I reverted to visiting him at home instead. I visited him all the way up to….. My mind trailed off and the film started to show the credits, and something wet ran down my face.

“You ok?”

Nocte’s voice brought me back to reality, and I realised that I was crying.

“Oh, it’s alright, my mind happened to wander during the film and it brought back both happy and sad memories….” I wiped the tears with my sleeve.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Ah….” I started to speak, but I ended up just staring straight ahead, watching the credits roll. “I just had the sudden reminder that the last proper outing I had with my grandpa before his accident was seeing this film on the big screen….”

“I’m sorry to hear that….”

“Ah, it’s alright, I still love this film to bits. But I have more fond memories of him than not, so it’s all good.” I felt more wetness running down my face.

“These….” A finger brushed my face, and I looked at him as he touched a tear with his finger. “Say otherwise.”

“Oh, but I’m still alright. Grandpa never had any luck but, when he did have luck? He always took it in strides, kinda like me, I suppose.”

“Your grandpa is proud of you.”

“You reckon?” I tilted my head at him.

“Positive.” He nodded his head.

Giving him a smile, I wiped the rest of the tears away. “So what did you think of the film?”

“Apart from the waterworks at the end, it was pretty good.” He gave me a wink.

“Waterworks?.... Oh… Oh, how rude.”

I lightly pushed him, it was then when I had the sudden realisation I was sitting pretty close to him. My leg, shoulder and arm must’ve been touching him throughout the entire film! Feeling extremely embarrassed, I stood up instantly, robotically walked over to the TV, removed the film and placed it back in its case.

“You didn’t have to get up so quick on my account.” I heard his voice say to me from behind me.

“It’s best to do it now before I forget, of course.” I replied back as I put the film back with the others.

“Of course.”

When I finished up, I stood back up and, when I made my way back to sit down, I made sure I sat on the other sofa. Nocte was watching me with amusement on his face, and I purposely avoided his gaze. 

For the rest of the journey, I plaited my hair and, from the corner of my eye, I saw that Nocte was reading. After a while, I heard the captain's voice overhead, letting us know that we would be landing soon, so we should take precautions.

“Precautions?” I questioned out loud.

“He means that we should fasten our seat belts.” Nocte answered back.

“Really?” As I looked around on the sofa, I tried to find something that looked like a seat belt, but I came out empty. As I was searching, that lovely smell of strawberries whipped up my nose and, before I knew it, Nocte was standing right in front of me. As he leant down, I couldn’t help squeaking, but I saw him pull back and there, in his hand, was a seat belt. “Oh…” I sounded a little disappointed, but what was I even expecting? He gave me a half smile, as he leant over me towards the other side and strapped me in with the seat belt. “Errr…. Thank you.” 

“We’d be here all day if I told you where they were.” 

“Excuse me?”

All he did was give me a grin and headed back to his own sofa and did the same with his own seat belt.

The plane landed without a hitch and I unclipped myself. I had noticed that Nocte was already standing, and he removed my case from the place where he stored it in.

“There is a car waiting outside, so go wait by that.” He told me as he handed me my case.

“What will you be doing?” I asked as I took the case from him.

“Making sure Kitten knows where she is going.”

With that, he ushers me outside and I immediately get blasted by sun rays. As I made my way down, I noticed that it sure was a clear sunny day and, as I checked the area surrounding the plane, there was a car parked nearby, just like he mentioned. But, as I started to approach it, I got the feeling of deja vu. When I was close enough, I sighed. This car? Looked like an exact copy of the one he had back in London. But the registration and where the wheel was told me that it wasn’t the same one. Just as he told me to do, I stood by the car with my case. I waited for about five minutes and I saw movement from the back of the plane. A large crate was being pushed, and several people started to emerge along with it. I could instantly tell which one was Nocte, because he stood out against the other people. I saw him talking to the people, pointing at the crate several times and handing them documents. Eventually, a large vehicle approached and the people loaded the crate onto it. When the crate was on the vehicle, he waved them off and, when they were a little bit out of sight, he turned on his heel and walked over to where the Captain was standing. Nocte spoke to him for a few moments, before bowing towards the captain and started to walk towards me.

“All done, I take it?” I asked him when he was within ear shot.

“Yep. Kitten is on her way to where she needs to be, and the captain there will park the plane for later use.”

“Lemme guess, you have a private hanger here.” I said as a joke.

“I do now.”

Nocte grinned at me as he took my case and put it in the boot.

“Of course you do….” I whispered to myself, as I got into the passenger side. Luckily, I remembered that it would be the opposite side to what I’m used to. Nocte joined me shortly after by getting into the driver's side. “At this rate, nothing's going to surprise me.”

“You’ll never know.” 

With another award winning smile, we started to drive off and I decided to watch the scenery go by. I couldn’t speak or read the language, so I couldn’t decipher where we might be. It was a complete mystery to me, but it’s not like I would know anyway, Greece was a mystery to me.