Guilio and Paola's Valiant Adventure

*Ahem*

"You're awfully quiet, you know."

"Hmm?" Paola turned to look at me, her eyes glistening with excitement. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just trying to imagine what it would be like to go somewhere where I could really fight." She grinned and turned back towards the window before continuing. "It'd be so cool to feel the rush of adrenaline when my fist connects with a man's face. I wonder how hard it would be to learn."

I couldn't help but smile at her eagerness. "Don't worry about that now. Let's just focus on getting there safely."

She nodded and pursed her lips as she stared out of the window again. Her dirty blonde hair was tied in a loose ponytail, and her face was clean of makeup. She looked more like a teenager than my wife. Six years ago, when we first met, she had been a gangly teenager who didn't have enough confidence to walk up to a stranger and start a conversation. Now she was full of energy and eagerness, and she always seemed ready to take on any challenge that came our way. But more than anything else, it was her loyalty which made me love her so much. Our relationship had been tumultuous at times -- we'd gone through love, hate, heartbreak, joy, anger... almost every emotion imaginable -- but through all that she had always been there for me. And I for her. Of course, she wasn't perfect; she could be stubborn and short-tempered at times, especially if things didn't go her way or if someone said something she didn't agree with. But even those flaws only endeared her to me more -- because they made it seem more like we were real people rather than just two characters in a storybook romance. She wasn't the protagonist of some sappy romance novel; she was real, flawed and human just like me. And that was why I loved her so much.

"Are you sure this plan will work? We don't have anything that can track Juan's phone signal --"

"Relax," I replied reassuringly as I stroked her cheek softly with my palm. "Juan is always thinking ahead of us; he'll have put some sort of fail-safe into place if something like this ever happened." She smiled at me gratefully before pulling me into an embrace. "We'll find him soon enough."

"I hope so," she muttered softly as she nuzzled into my shoulder. "Right now I feel like there's nothing left in the world for me to live for." Her voice cracked slightly from the emotion she was trying to keep in check as she added, "I want Juan back... but not even that's enough anymore."

My heart clenched tightly within my chest as I held onto her even tighter and buried my face in her hair, breathing deeply to calm myself down enough so that I wouldn't cry right then and there in front of her. That's how it always went; one of us would need the other one close by emotionally, and we'd end up spending the rest of the day locked in each other's embrace until one or both of us cried ourselves dry from all the pent up emotions we were forced to keep bottled up inside us day after day after day...

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* A week earlier...

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I leaned against the wooden railing on our balcony, looking out across the sprawling cityscape below us as I sipped from my cup of coffee before placing it down on a small table next to me. As soon as my wife woke up from cooking breakfast downstairs in our kitchenette, we'd be off on another wild adventure across Italy -- hopefully ending up somewhere where we could finally defeat Silvio once and for all before he could destroy all our hopes and dreams forever... This time around we knew what mistake we'd made last time: splitting up had cost us dearly last time around when Juan had gotten captured while he was alone searching for supplies -- so this time around we were going together wherever we went until we found him again -- no matter how long it took or whatever sacrifices needed to be made along the way... And this time around no one would fall behind either; Juan had taught us well over these past three months about how important it was for everyone in our group to stick together through thick and thin -- because being apart from each other meant risking being hurt or killed by Silvio's forces or simply losing track of each other in an unfamiliar environment if you weren't careful... So today if Paola wanted another hour break from our travels somewhere safe nearby where she could catch up on some reading or practice martial arts forms without fear of being attacked by some random gangster or psychotic villain... then that's what we'd do today because tomorrow morning we were heading back out into the field again whether Paola liked it or not!