Oh Rikku. [Artemis puts his fingers on the lip Rikku's biting, only realizing he's doing it after it's been done. He's surprised for a moment, then goes with it.] You don't need to make yourself miserable for my sake, I would hate to be the reason you were so sad.
If I'm enough to keep you happy, fine. But if you need to leave I'll make myself understand somehow. I'm not going to be happy if I see you feeling trapped here.
Ooh, Maybe. I'd like to see more of Europe than the tiny Spanish village Pop grew up in where I'm related to all the people. Even if my aunts make awesome paella.
I'll take you everywhere in Europe, anywhere you want to go. I'll fly us there myself. [He smiles, genuinely enjoying the idea of flying off on a European vacation.] Why wait until we graduate? We could go during the summer, during spring break, this weekend.
My family has houses and hotels all over Europe, we'll go and just live in every city for a few days. We'll get lost and eat at fancy restaurants and small ones and sit on benches together and have crepes. And go everywhere together.
[He seems a little breathless from this, or maybe he's just really excited.] I can't wait to see you in Paris.
There's more to it than that! Think of the cathedrals and the art museums. And Paris is the city for young lovers, it's perfect.
Tokyo... hm. [He frowns slightly.] I have an apartment there, but it's too long of a flight to make myself. We'd have to... fly on a commercial airline. [Which, from his tone, is tantamount to walking into a Denny's--they've been there, done that.]
Los Angeles to Narita is between nine and eleven hours. I might be able to make it... if I slept well between the flight from Boston to Los Angeles and the flight from Los Angeles to Narita.
I doubt you want your pilot falling asleep at the controls. [He smiles.]
Did that make it somehow more 'awesome'? [Artemis is amused, but it's the sort of forced-amused that he's had since Rikku talking about his boyfriends and crushes started making Artemis inexplicably squirmy.]
I'm sure that I have upwards of eight hot tubs in various parts of the world. [Yes, his is bigger.] And I can assure you that none of them have been 'christened' either, so to speak.
[Artemis rolls his little suitcase into the smaller hacienda his family owns in Spain. It's been a while since he's been there, but he does remember how beautiful it was. All the more reason to bring Rikku there and impress him. It wasn't about the money with Rikku, it was all about the experience--which meant Spain was necessary.]
[He stops in the entryway and pauses, waiting for his boyfriend to catch up.] What do you think?
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