Never Is A Long Time

Chapter 18

(ALERT: This might be the steamiest scene this far, so if you against it, you can skip that. But if you like it, you're safe to go.)

WHITE CHERRY BLOSSOMS

With holding hands, they go to a local market to buy some supplies there. "Hey, do you remember that day?" Deenah tries to reach a pack of bread while Josh is choosing some jams. "Which day?"
"That day you asked me if I will go with you to Japan. You remember that?" There's a silence for seconds before he giggles and answers her question. "Yeah.... I remember that. How can I forget that?"
"Well, now we're here... I know it's a different circumstance because we're here not with your band, but my parents instead. But... What do you feel about that?"
"You wanna know?"
"Of course."

Josh put those jams on their basket and then hug her from behind. "I feel..... Both of those circumstances are good. I mean... I know we're not here and party like crazy with Flea, Anthony, or Chad. But your parents, that's okay. I like them." He kisses her head and then she turns back. "You're right. We can't party. Or... Maybe we can. Just like what we did on tour." She smirks and kisses him. "Ah, don't you dare to...." Josh starts to laugh, thinking about what you possibly happen. "Come on! It was just walking around...joking..."
"And break in a stadium." Josh cut her and lose it. He laughs. She knows it would sounded ridiculous for him so she continues her words. "Or... Maybe we can skip that part. Just walking around and have fun. How about it?" She takes the basket from him and pay everything. Josh looks at it and tries to stop her, "Hey.. I'll pay."
"No. Of course not. You pay a lot for my...books. This time is my turn." She smiles, reminds him of that day when they were on a book fair. "Still... I want to..."
"No. Too late." She laughs at him, using the same phrase that he used that day on the book fair.

It just entered winter and as they step out from the market, they can see some thin layer of snow on the road. She walks and get down to take some of it with her hand. "Look at this. This is fresh."
"Yeah, they just fall while we were on that store." Josh follows her and put his hand on hers. Creating a hand sandwich with snow between them. "Aww, so cute." She smiles and definitely can feel the warmth from his hand.

"You know we're just like this snow." He gets up followed by her. "Why?"
"Because we've been through some... Bad stuff. But now we're here."
"So you said.... We're just like the Snow. I mean....the song?" She giggles to remember one of the peppers' song. "Exactly. I guess Anthony was right about it. Whatever happened in the past.. there will be another fresh start right after. Just like snow." For Deenah, that's probably the most sweet sentence that she ever heard from hin, and it makes her likes him even more. "Yes. Just like a snow." She looks down to hide her wide smile. But nothing can hide it enough from Josh's eyes. "See that? Your face. I like that."
"Stop it. You know I can't show you my red face." She's so embarrassed she can't take away her hands from her face. "Yeah, keep trying to be a cool girl Dee. But I got you!"

He keeps mocking her while she looks at him, whining. Then to shut him down, she catch his arm and land a kiss on him. "That's not fair..." He giggles. "I know... But it works." Their faces are just an inch apart when suddenly Josh smiles and cut the vibe. "You said we will walking around?" Hearing that, she smirks and let out a sigh. "Really? You ruin the mood you know." Then she pinch his cheek, looking at his cute expression. Josh, knowing that he wins, then mocking her again. "We can keep that for the last." He says, tries to teased her. "But now, let's just rent a car." Josh grabs her hand, and drag her excitedly, leading the road this time. "Let me tell my parents first."

So they go to a nearby rental and it's not really near since they took the trip on mountain. That's why her parents won't go any further from their hotel, her dad was scared. "Well, this place is not really crowded. How the hell your mom can find this place?" Josh just take the key and start the engine. They're start to move and Deenah just smiles to hear that, "She was born here. That's why."
"Really? This place is beautiful, I must admit. I just didn't expect that will be this quiet." Josh love the calmness of this place that he can't even find anywhere. "Can we just get marry here?"
"What?" She almost jumps from her seat. "I mean, this is perfect. There will be just us, your parents, mine, my band, Zach's... All our closest one." From all the sweet words that Josh made today, this one really marks something on her mind. "Yeah... It's perfect."

As they drive slowly, seeing a belt of snow along the street, Josh steals some glimpses from his eyes. "Hey... Are those tears?" He wakes her up from her mind. "What? Umm of course no."
"You don't need to play cool with me. You know that. Tell me, what's it? Is there something on your mind?" Josh stop the car on the side road and turns to her. "Noo, it's.. nothing. I'm just sad for no reason.. I mean, I love this place so much and I can't help my shitty emotions."
"Dee.. honey... That's not shitty. I understand, okay? If I can guess.... I think you feel sad because we are just here temporarily. Am I right?"
"I... don't know... Maybe. But I understand that we can't live here forever...."
"We can... someday... When there's nothing to do again. When we live together. Just two of us. When that day coming, I will leave everything and live my life with you. Right here." She looks to him, can't believe what he just said. There's so much of love she can feel on his eyes and nothing makes her more emotional than that. She nearly lose her words. "You think we will get there? To that phase?"
"Yeah. I think we will. I swear I will never leave you. No matter what happened... You have to know, just hold my hand and we will be alright."
"And if one of us fucked up?"
"If that happens, promise me you will not giving up. Because I will do the same." He lands a kiss on her forehead and back to the wheel again.

After some times driving, they see a gate made of stone. "You can read them?" Josh point out some words on it. "No. If it's alphabet, I can understand some, but it's hiragana and kanji. I can't read them."
"I really curious. I had a feeling that we can see a beautiful scenery inside. You wanna go in there?" She looks over there for minutes and then nods. "Alright, let's check it out." She open the door and step out from the car, followed by Josh. She leads the way as they walk passed the gate. "Excuse me..." Josh see a middle aged man, sitting on a bid stone. "Are you sure he can speak English?" Deenah whispered to Josh, thinking that this man is probably speak Japanese. Surprisingly, he can. "Yes I can. What can I do for you two?" Josh is smiling to hear that . "Umm, can you tell me what's inside this site?"
"Ah, this? If you walk 5 minutes from here, you will find a natural hot spring. And it's free. You can go there whenever you want." He gives them the direction with a paper. "Just follow this. You will find it." After he handed it to Josh, he asked to leave. "Ah, thank you Mr....."
"Yamazaki. I owned a motel, just 10 minutes from here. You can go there if you mind."
"Okay then Mr. Yamazaki. Thanks for your information. Have a nice day." Right after Mr. Yamazaki left the scene, Josh turns back to Deenah and take her hand. "Come here. We will put our feet on hot water. I'm starting to freezing here."

Just like the instruction, they got there in 5 minutes. On their left side, they can see some white fur monkeys, chilling on a rock beside the water. They can feel the warmth filling the air around them and Josh starts to take off his coat, put it on Deenah's shoulder. "What's this?"
"I'm melting." He laughs, showing her the hot water on his side. "But it's still cold out here. You said you were freezing." She looks at him, whining. "Come on. You don't get it, do you?"
"What?"
"I'm just trying to impress you. You know.... A guy put his coat on his girl. Like a true gentleman." Hearing that, Deenah can't help but burst out a laugh. She put the coat back on him. "Stupid. You don't have to do that to impress me. Put it back, I got one on me." She's mocking him, makes him looked pissed. "Come on! You think I'm a soap opera girl? You know me."
"Alright, alright. But don't complain to me if I stop flirting with you." Josh pretend to be mad but she knows he was just joking around. "That's a good idea."
"Really?"
"Of course not! Just kidding. Lil boy." She messed up his hair and take his beanie with her. "Hey, hey, not my beanie please!"

IN LOVE DYING

The warmth from the water is crawling from their feet, giving them a relax sensation that take away all their doubts. The day is so long but they won't it to be done yet."What do you think?" Josh close his eyes and just inhale the warm air. "About what?"
"About this day. There's a lot of deep thoughts came out from you today.Why?" He hold her hand as she start to think. "I don't know, honestly. For me, it might be the best day of my life this far. But for some reason, it's too good and it scared me like...."
"Like there will be no other best day like this?"
"Exactly. Because it's too sweet, I can't face another day. I wish this day will never end. We never know what will waiting for us ahead." Besides the fact that she might be over thinking, Josh understand her point. He's so happy today and he knows how scary it was to face another day and all of sudden everything has change. "Deenah... It's not only you, I feel the same too. But, because we don't know what's waiting ahead, we should live this day right? Forget about guessing things, let it just bring us wherever it wants." As Josh staring at the scenery, Deenah takes a look on his face. Nail her eyes to Josh's smile above anything. She loves the way he says those words, like it came out from his mouth genuinely. And the way his face bring some peace on her heart.

From that point, she can forget everything for now. She wants to live this day as it is. "You're right. We should live it." She smiles to him, let all her happiness coming out. "Of course, and that's a good reason to get some food. We need to live." He crack the vibe and makes her giggles. "That's not even funny but I laughed anyway."
"You're so mean. Haha. Am I cringed you that bad?"
"Yeah... So bad." She smirks, mocking him and his bad joke. "Nevermind. Let's just...eat. I'm starving." He pull her up and help her to wear her shoes again. "Wait..." Josh stop right after see a red skin on the back of her feet. "Did your shoes hurt you?"
"Umm, kinda. Why?"
"Gave it to me. You can't wear them anymore." He take the shoes and toss them to a trash. "Hey, why did you do that? I can't walk on these freezing snow."
"You don't have to walk."
"What?"
"I'll carry you on my back." He quickly grab her hand and ask her to get on his back but she refused. "No, you'll get tired and...."
"Just until we reach our car, and then we buy a new pair for you." Josh tilt his head, making a sweet expression on his face. "Okay then. But just if you let me to pay this time."
"Hahaha, you already read my mind. Okay, I'll let you."
"Deal." She get on his back carefully while Josh's trying to get his balance.

A way back to their car is not as easy as the way they got in. Now they have to walk some stairs up before reach their car. "You're giving up?" She giggles, seeing that he's covered in sweat even though it's cold outside. "Of course not. I'm not giving up on you. I told you." He says, proudly, referring to his statement earlier. "I know. You said that. Now twice." She hug him and put her chin on his shoulder. "But we really need to reach our car as soon as possible. You looked tired."

As soon as they headed to their car, Deenah ask him to let her down. "Slowly. I won't see you tripped." Josh help her by going down his knees. "Thank you so much." She stepped on a thin layer of snow while Josh open the door with his key. "You go first." He let her go inside so she can warm her feet. Now he holds the wheel and search for something inside the car. "You lost something?"
"Umm, yes. Our map." He looked kinda panic and it's kinda funny for her. "Don't worry, we will not lost. Now, let's just find a pair of shoes. My feet freezing."
"Alright alright. I think I saw a store on our way here. We can go back there."

It's a warm and nice store with some crafts. They had totebag and many more, made of canvas. "This one is cute. We can draw something on it." Deenah smiles from ear to ear, planning to buy two pairs for them. "I'll take two. You have to try one, so I know your number."
"Wait, what? I think it's just for you." Josh is kinda surprised. "I know... But changed my mind. I want it for both of us. You can draw anything on yours." She points out a table full of pigment to draw. She force Josh to try the shoes and then bring them with her. She start to apply some pigment, making some drawings on it. "What do you want to draw?" Josh stop by, looking at her playing with those pigments. "I don't know... Just making something that reflects my feelings right now." He looks closer, see something like abstract painting on it. "What do you feel?"
"Our time, our future. And our wishes." She smiles, genuinely that can make his heart melted. "You know what? It warmed my heart. Thank you."

Just as she pay those shoes, Josh see some news on TV, saying that there's a closing on some roads. "Dee?"
"Yes?" She take their shoes and wear hers immediately. "What's wrong Josh?"
"Look at that news. Is that the road...." Deenah quickly cut his words, "Our only way to the hotel. What the hell?" She's getting panic as she realized they can't go back to their hotel tonight. "It's going dark, we need to get a place. We can't sleep at car. Too cold." Josh take her hand and go back to their car. "Great! We don't have a map. How can we find a place to stay tonight?" He just remembered and now he's getting pissed. "Hey, hey, calm down. We will find a..... Wait..." She remembers something as she talk to him. "What? What you just think about?"
"Mr. Yamazaki. He told us about his motel. Just 10 minutes away. We can go there."
"Yes, but we don't know the direction..."
"Yup, but I can ask some locals there. Wait here...." She step out from car but Josh stop her, "What if they can't speak English?" She smiles, almost smirks. "I might not able to read hiragana, but I know some of their vocabularies. Just for a standard conversation." She left Josh inside his car while she go to a group of women and ask them a couple questions. Not long after that, she walks back to their car, open the door and jumps in. "I got a direction. I'll show you."

After some times looking around this one particular road, Josh spotted one building that looked like a motel or inn. There's smoke coming out from its roof. "I think this is the place." He says to Deenah who is already tired. "Let me park here and we will get in." Deenah just look at him with her sleepy eyes. Right after he park the car, both of them get out from the car and enter the nice building ahead. They can feel the warmth coming from the door and Deenah can't be more happier than this. "Finally I come back to life." She says to him, joking. "Now where's he?" Deenah let her eyes explore the room and finally find Mr. Yamazaki at the corner, picking up some bottles with a rack. "Mr. Yamazaki!" She calls him from across the room which kinda surprised him. "Yes?" He turns his back and recognize her instantly. "Ah, it's you again. What can I do for you?" He put his rack on the floor and get back to receptionist table. "We need a room for tonight. Is there any left?" Josh smiles to him and put down his bag. "Wait, I'll check my list." He pull up a book with some handwritings on it. "There's one. You're lucky. We usually run out of room on this season. Let me accompany you." He take out a key and tries to help Deenah with her stuff. "Ah, thanks Mr. Yamazaki. But you don't have to. I see you're busy and we can go there by ourselves."
"Okay. Your room is upstairs, right after the window on left side." He gives her the key and tell them where the stairs.

"He's really nice. Is it my feelings or all Japanese are so polite like your mom?" Josh ask her while walking on the stairs, which makes Deenah loses it and laugh. "Hahaha, honestly? I don't know. But....maybe. You're not he only one who's wondering."
"Yeah, right. Also, why you're not as polite as them?" Josh looks at her, smirks. "You were so mean to me. Remember?"
"Oh come on!" She laughs so hard. "Well, maybe that's my dad's blood."
"Really? Please remind me to ask him about it tomorrow."
"Don't you dare."

Josh see the number on the key and matches it with one on the door. "This is the room." He open it and then let Deenah to enter first. First thing that they noticed from the room is about how comfortable it is. There's some good taste of interior design. They love how the room composed with such a good way. "Well, if someone bought this concept out to a bigger hotel, I'm sure it will sold like crazy." Deenah smiles, knowing that Josh is also feels the same. "You're right. I'm sure we will have a good sleep tonight."
"And a good dream." She smirks and put her stuff on the table. She explore the room for a while when Josh sitting down on the bed and stretches his back. He's quite tired from driving all day and he needs some rest.

She go to the bathroom and clean up herself. She's clearly needs warm water to get relax and prevent her from getting cold. She notices the cut on the back of her feet. "God, Josh's right. If I keep walking with that shoes, it might be getting worse." She tries to wash it and regrets it almost instantly. It feels hurt  and she just feel it now. She felt nothing earlier but now it's sting like a knife cut her skin. "Ah, damn." She open a kit at a dresser and find a plaster. After she's sure her wound is clean and dry, she put that plaster on her skin. "Now everything is good." She put her clothes back and coming out. "Hey Josh do you want to clean up your...." She's about to ask him when she see that Josh already asleep. "Nevermind." She walks to the bed, get a blanket and get on the bed. She covers Josh with the blanket and then lay down besides him. She put his hand on her face while she put her hand on his face. It's like she can't fall asleep, enjoying every second to staring at his face.

She's staring at him long enough, she doesn't even think about anything else. So when suddenly Josh moves closer to her, she's kinda shocked. Now she's just an inch from his face and she can feel his breath on her skin. He also move his hand and hug the back of her head. She can't move, and her heart is beating fast. She really doesn't want to wake him with her sudden moves, so she's paralyzed there and can't take away her eyes from him. It's like the best scenery right in front of her face. Rather than fall asleep, it makes her adoring him more. She touch his face gently and trace every detail of his face and his hair. It falls perfectly on his face. "What are you doing?" It surprised her a lot that he suddenly wakes up and smile to her. She quickly pull her hand from his face. "Umm... nothing. I think you're asleep and..."
"I was.. But then I feel something on my face." He get closer to her, close enough to feel his heavy breathing. "I'm sorry to wake you it's just....." Suddenly Josh cut her words, landing a kiss on her lips. "That's fine. I can stay awake for some more nights just to stare at you." He says, right after pull out his kiss. "You know I'd been dreaming for this moment to happened. Since long time ago."
"And now we're here." She smiles back to him, can't get enough from Josh's sweet words. "Yeah. We're here, together. I can't be more happier than this."

"There's nothing can stop us. Anymore." He kisses her again and this time they get intense. They actually can feel their warmth between the cold air. The touch on her body, just gives her a chill. Those finger tips are caressing her skin gently. Josh now let go of his clothes, giving her a beautiful scenery of his collar bone and the line of his torso is just perfect. She knows how timid and calm Josh is, but yet she can feel a wild desire comes out of him. While Deenah stares long enough on him, Josh take a next move to take off her clothes but then she stop him. He's surprised and thinking that she doesn't like his action. "Umm... I'm sorry if I got too excited and...."
"No. You did nothing wrong, but let me do that with my own. Can you lay down?" Josh looks at her like he can't believe what he just heard. So he did, and she let him watching her taking ofd her clothes. But her next move really put him in a high phase. She get on the top of him and let his hand travels on her body. "Why you're so perfect?" He can feel his body wants her more. Then she lay down, facing him. "I know what's behind those eyes Josh. What you're imagining right now. And whatever it is, I'll love to see you doing that." Her words somehow turn him on even more that he knows exactly what he's about to do to her. So he grab her arm and look at her eyes. "So I can do whatever I want to do?"
"Show me." Right after she says that, she go from the top of him to down on bed. On her back. Waiting for whatever Josh wants to do to her. This time, she doesn't only see love on his eyes, but also lust. He get on top and start kissing her passionately. They know something's hard between them and he can't wait any longer. When he's entering her, she gets a massive amount of pleasure down on her body, giving her a little slip of sound out from her mouth. And it's deeper, gently and warm. They're getting wild and harder as he repeating it. He can't even stop tracing her body from chest to waist to back. As they reach the moment where they're close to let all out, she hold his body tightly and finally come together. What happened tonight on their bed makes them feel some stronger connection more than ever.

While they're catching their own breath, Josh smiles to her and touch her cheeks. She replies his smiles but ask, "Will you still love me tomorrow?"
"I will. Nothing can change what we are now."