When Maris told friends that she and Rory were going back to Italy for their anniversary, they didn't seem to understand why they were going someplace they had already been.

Nostalgia certainly played a factor and Italy was much closer (and thus, more affordable) the second time around, but they really hadn't seen much of anything outside of their honeymoon suite.

Rory & Maris were actually leaving their room before noon this trip, even if they sometimes hurried back, just as eager now as they had been then. Something Maris hoped really wouldn't change this time next year if everything went according to plan.

Maris had a lot of worries about getting pregnant. Still being attractive to her wife and not losing that spark if her body changed or parenthood made them busy and tired was pretty high on that list.

Maris knew Rory wasn't shallow.

But she could be. She took pride in her appearance. She wanted to be wanted.

But she wasn't nearly conceited enough to let a potentially changing body stop her from getting pregnant.

The beach was full, but not crowded.

Topless women sunning themselves in the distance left Maris feeling comfortable enough to join them, but she decided against it while she was wearing a one piece suit. Trying to keep the rest of her suit up would be more trouble than it was worth, especially when she was trying to read.

Once she got tired of reading about women lead slave revolts (hardly summer beach reading but it had been on Maris' pile and she was going to read it while she actually had free time) she squinted at her wife from behind her sunglasses. The sun was really laser focused on them that morning.

"Is it just me or are all these half naked people way less offensive than the american flag tanks and thong bikini bottoms I see on american beaches? Have I crossed over into European territory?" She wrinkled her nose as a very hairy and very chubby old man walked by. "Still not behind speedos though," she mumbled, nodding toward him.

From the very first time she'd stepped foot in Italy when she was a kid visiting her grandmother for the first time, there had been something magical about the country itself to Rory. She loved the language and the lush landscapes, the food and the people who were warm and helpful and always seemed to want to give you a bit more food because even a heavier person would be deemed not well nourished enough.

Going back to Italy with her wife felt special now, even more so. They had been married for a year now, what most people said was the hardest part of marriage. Rory couldn't believe that, because the year of being married to Maris had been perfect. Even their bumps and arguments and struggles had been well worth it because they worked through them together.

This trip felt all the more special because of what they were planning on doing next. The family they were hoping to build. This could be one of the last trips they took before that was even more of a reality.

Rory was pretty proud of them for getting up and going to the beach this early in the morning. Well, early meaning before afternoon. She'd picked out her own favorite swim suit for the day, but for her part, she really couldn't keep her gaze from wandering over to her wife behind her big sunglasses.

"Oh it's definitely not just you babe." Rory smiled, closing her own book around a bookmark and setting it down. "I think our disdain predated our move to Europe but ... this is full embracing." She laughed, leaning over to press a kiss to Maris' shoulder. She murmured a soft sound as the heat of it thanks to the sun warmed her lips. "Yeah, the only person I want to appreciate showing that much ass is you." Rory smirked, kissing her neck noisily before sitting back. "Do you feel like swimming?"

Being married wasn't much of a change from being fiancees or even girlfriends. It wasn't this huge life changing step, nor did Maris think it made her any different or even better than someone who hadn't taken those more official steps with their partner, but it sometimes felt different. She would remember that she was Rory's wife and that Rory was hers out of nowhere and it was like the world stopped for a moment. It felt like all the air was knocked out of her lungs, a sort of gratitude and awe washing over her. When that happened, all she could see was Rory.

And in moments like those, she never looked more beautiful.

In one the second Rory put down her book and kissed her shoulder, Maris grinned, a rare show of full teeth before cupping Rory's cheek and giving her a few soft kisses.

"Not yet," she murmured. "I'm not done baking on this side." She lightly butted heads with her. "What are you reading, hmm?"

Once you actually found the person who complimented you in every way possible, Rory really thought that things began to fall into place. That was certainly the case for her and Maris, with a few bumps along the way that they were able to get through. Together. A year of marriage felt like it had gone through in a breeze, and it just made Rory that much more excited for everything that would come in the next five, ten, fifty years.

And good god, that smile of her wife's so beautiful and rare in its fullness could have knocked her over with a feather. She eagerly leaned into her kisses, kissing her back just as much with each one.

"You're gonna be lucky if you get out of here without my hand prints as part of your tan lines." Rory winked, before handing over the big book she'd brought with her. "I'm trying this Priory of the Orange Tree I kept meaning to read. Waiting for it to get gay though, which I was promised it would... it's just long."

"Oh, I'll make it gay," Maris teased, wiggling her eyebrows playfully before lightly tossing Rory's book aside and pulling her in for more kisses. While still playful, these were a bit deeper than the ones that came before, Maris' palm slowly sliding down to rest on the small of her wife's back to keep her exactly where she was.

Public displays like this one were as rare as that full smile, but Maris had been in a good mood for most of the trip, determined to enjoy this time together even more because she knew their future plans meant doctor's visits and all the worry that came along with them.

Even if there was nothing wrong and it would all be worth it in the end.

"Ti voglio bene," she murmured against her wife's lips. Maris' Italian still wasn't very good, but she had picked up some from Rory and felt like surprising her by saying I love you in a way she never had before. She rested their foreheads together, breaking the kiss a bit with a smug smile that said she was very proud of herself. Even if her accent was a little off.

"With you at the helm, it'll be gayest." Rory laughed, leaning over into her wife's kisses and completely forgetting about the book at all. Rory didn't even think twice about sliding in even closer to Maris, her thigh pressing against her wife's and only barely holding herself back from rolling over on top of her.

Rory wasn't one to shy away from PDA much at all, she loved to hold Maris' hand, loved to kiss her or rest her chin on her shoulder while Maris talked about something she was particularly passionate about, or even while they just sat in silence. Even still, a full on make out in public was rarer for them. Rory didn't think much about that, either.

They were here to celebrate their marriage, and what came next for them that they were finally feeling ready for. Besides, they were in Italy. They would hardly be the only amorous pair on the beach.

"Babe." Rory gasped a little as she reared her head back to look at Maris' face. The words spoken in Italian were beautiful, more beautiful because they came from her wife. "That was beautiful. Bellissima." She beamed, kissing the bridge of her nose in between the huge smile on her face. "Ti amo tanto." Her words were broken up between two kisses, the last one lingering longer as her lips parted and her tongue swept over her wife's lips to deepen it.

"You liked that, huh? Just wait until we get to Berlin and you hear me hacking up a lung in German," she teased, but Maris' cockiness over impressing Rory didn't last long.

She let herself be pulled deeper into the kiss, enjoying the sort of long, relaxed make out session usually reserved for lazy mornings.

Maris' naturally full lips were a little puffier than usual when she finally pulled away, teeth sinking into the bottom one before she started to sit up. "Come on, I think we both need to cool off."

She lifted herself off the blanket and held out a hand to help Rory up before slipping back into her flip flops and leading her up a pretty steep hill to a little stand that sold gelato and snacks.

Once she got her cone of raspberry, she quickly hurried to grab the last empty bench up against the stand available. She didn't trust her gelato to stay on the cone if they headed back down hill.

There were plenty of families on the beach and she and Rory were more or less the only couple outside of the snack stand, but Maris didn't feel the usual pang in her chest she usually did as she watched kids begging their parents for more ice cream or chasing around their siblings.

She knew she'd have one of her own now.

The closer Maris got to motherhood, the calmer and more certain she was becoming. She nodded toward a teenage girl and her slightly younger sibling sharing a cup full of french fries as they leaned against the counter.

"Do you know how lucky our kids are gonna be? Whenever we went on vacation it was just wherever was closest or the same place over and over."

Maris' dad was a creature of habit. She was pretty sure part of the reason they took the same three day beach vacation year after year was his discomfort with flying and things that weren't familiar, but...distance had a way of factoring into things. Exotic, faraway trips cost time. And money.

"We can just...take our kids to Italy or Paris if we want. And its not going to be this huge, stressful expensive thing, you know? I would have killed for that kind of culture."

"Oh I definitely did. And I'm not gonna keep my hands off of you, fräulein." Rory countered with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows, though she wasn't really able to keep a straight face for long.

If they had stayed in their spot any longer, Rory knew they would definitely be approaching dangerous territory, so it was good that Maris recognized the same and managed to pull back. "Desperately." Rory agreed with a grin, rubbing her own kiss-swollen lips with her fingertips.

Keeping hold of her wife's hand, she fell in stride with her as they made their way up to the snack booth. Gelato was one of Rory's favorite desserts, and nobody made it as good as the actual Italians. She made sure to order in Italian (because of course she did), ordering the Gianduia, which was fancy for chocolate with hazelnuts.

As they sat down in the spot together, thighs touching, Rory focused on her cone but she too found that when looking around, she noticed families more. It was something that had been happening gradually over the past year really, and more so since her talk with Maris about her fears, and then even more when they decided they were going to go for it. She noticed little kids, their behaviors and how their parents interacted with them. Before, she might not notice the way a little boy reached up to hold a fistful of his mother's dress, or how a little girl would giggle as she chased after a wave under the watchful eye of her parents. It felt special, it felt like she was pinpointing certain things that they'd get to have.

"That's a really good point." Rory grinned, feeling that familiar heart-flutter when Maris talked about their kids with such inevitability. "We had a few staples in California. Sutter's Fort, the California state missions ... Disneyland if we were really lucky." Even if it wasn't quite culture, Disneyland was high on the list of places she wanted to take their kids.

"Our kids are going to be so worldly, and smart." She beamed, pausing in her ice cream eating to lean over and kiss her wife's cheek. "Okay, first family trip. Name it, we'll put it on the figurative list in my head ... cause you know it's gonna be a physical one eventually."

"Oh no, I've started a list," she teased, knocking shoulders with Rory. She knew how fond her wife was of them. Maris let out a laugh. "I don't know, I...barely know all the places I wanna take you, let alone our children."

Soon those places would be one and the same. There was something slightly bittersweet about the idea of her and Rory never really being alone again. Even if they took couple trips (and she fully intended on being the sort of parents who did) she also knew their children would never be far from their hearts and minds.

Maris thought about Keats & Jane all the time and they weren't even born yet.

She wasn't indecisive, nor was she the sort of person to leave someone's question unanswered, so she took a moment, licking her gelato so it wouldn't drip down her cone and onto her hand before answering.

"Here, maybe?" She let out a little snort considering she'd just complained about visiting the same vacation spots over and over, but she had a good reason.

One that was a little more sentimental than she usually gave herself credit for.

"So we can tell them this is where mom and mommy went after they got married. You know, show them the start." She took another bite of her ice cream, shrugging. "And back to see our parents and friends, obviously."

"Baby, there's always a list going." Rory said, tapping her fingers to her own forehead. It probably was the most type-A part of Rory, her love of lists and organizing her thoughts in something easily checked-off. Her wife knew that yes, at times she had even made a list and put something as silly as make breakfast on there just so she could get the crossing-off started.

"I think it'll be an ever growing plan, babe." She smiled fondly, dropping her hand to squeeze her wife's thigh. Rory had always loved traveling, but it felt different with Maris. Even their first trips together, it was exciting to share new cities and new experiences with each other. Exploring cities that they loved and finding new ones with their kids felt ... special to even think about.

Their children. It felt more and more like a reality, the longer they were together and the more they allowed themselves to talk openly about the kids they wanted to have. Hilarious to think that they could actually plan to have one boy and one girl, but it also felt like they'd be able to plan whatever future they wanted and have it.

The way that Maris phrased her answer legitimately took Rory's breath away. For a moment she just sat there, a little stunned by the phrasing as a smile graced her features. "I think that's a great idea." She said softly before she leaned over and kissed her wife squarely on the lips, tasting her gelato through the passionate, albeit quick kiss. She ran her fingers along her wife's hair at the base of her neck and only diverted her attention when she felt a single drop of her ice cream on her thumb. "Maybe we can make this an annual summer trip. A week in Italy. See Nonna while we're here." While they could, though that wasn't a thought she was entertaining right now. She had plenty of Italian cousins to contend with, too.

"I want to show them the California coast. You too, for that matter. And I'm sorry, I know the mouse is an evil corporation but you know I'm going to need to take them to Disneyland."

"I almost forgot about your grandma," Maris said somewhat sheepishly. Silly, really when she'd gone through such pains to include Isabella in Rory's birthday celebration the year before.

But for all her insistence that they go back to visit their friends and family, when Maris thought about family, she mainly pictured them and their children.

She'd meant what she said the afternoon the doctor gave her the all clear to start trying.

Their loved ones would be in their lives as much as they could manage it, but their children would be theirs.

"I'll go, but you know I'm gonna complain the whole time," she muttered between kisses, lips twitching a bit before admitting. "I've never been. We weren't really a Disney family."

In fact, if she really thought about it, Maris' father was probably the reason she'd been clued into how awful Walt was in the first place.

"She's just off glamming it up somewhere. Oh god, she's gonna insist on being called Glamma or something?" Rory made herself laugh with that, knowing that no, as fancy and stylish as her grandmother was, Isabella would never actually go for something so gauche.

As much as Rory loved her grandmother, and her mom and sister, she didn't call them as much as she used to. Of course they still texted all the time, and there were obviously calls and facetimes at least once a week, but it wasn't like when she was younger and would call almost every day, just to check in and ask how theirs had gone. Her life was growing and with that, her focus had naturally shifted to her wife and the life they were building together. It felt natural, in a way she hadn't actually anticipated before.

"Oh I can't wait to burn the look on your face when you see the singing quartet of Dapper Dans for the first time." She laughed, bumping her shoulder into her wife's. "Maybe you and I should go before we have our kids with us, just so you can get the full, fun experience." Disneyland really had been a magical place for her as a kid, and she loved it as a teenager too, taking the drive down with her sister, or her friends. She'd never actually gone with someone to hold hands with and kiss in front of the castle though, and that just suddenly felt incredibly appealing. "There's always Disneyland Paris too, which I've never been to."

Rory let out a little snort of a laugh, before taking another bite of her ice cream. "You're so lucky I'm not one of those Disney obsessed people though. You probably wouldn't have even dated me in the first place."