1. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGIN. STORY OF A NEVER UNTOLD ENDING (ENG VERSION)

23. Awakenings that are good for the heart

It was one of the sweetest awakenings for the newlyweds. The faint morning light streamed in through the porthole, illuminating their bodies still entwined with each other. Can and Sanem stood in the middle of the bed, their foreheads resting against each other. With one arm on his wife's side, Can still held her in his grip, tight against him.

Sanem, on the other hand, had her hands resting on her husband's chest, while their legs were entwined in a single tangle. They always slept like that, attached to each other. They could not bear the idea of being apart. They needed to feel the physical contact, their breath mingling with each other, their minds connected and their souls intertwined so much that they could not tell where one began and the other ended.

The first to wake up that morning was Can. Usually it was a race to see who was the earlier riser between the two, but since they had returned, they had not yet resumed the rhythm to which the boat, however beautiful, had forced them. Life on the open sea was beautiful, but it also had its rules and many factors to take into account: weather, climate and sea conditions. It was not they who dictated the rules, but the sea for them.

And now that they were back on dry land, it was as if they had relaxed and let go of that 'tiredness' that, for various reasons, they had always retained in the middle of the sea.

They were as if suspended in an unreal time and space.

Can changed position. He stretched out on his back with his eyes still closed and then, slowly, he gently opened them. Sanem moved accordingly, resting her head on his chest. Can lowered his head and stood watching her with his face only a few centimetres from hers. She was so innocent when she slept, he thought. Gently he began to run his fingers along her exposed cheek. In slow movements. Up and down. Then he came closer and gently kissed her there over and over again, then moved down to her bare shoulder.

She hinted a smile with her eyes still closed. Slowly Sanem stretched and opened her eyes. When she focused on her husband who was looking at her just as a child looks at his present under the Christmas tree, her smile widened, giving Can the cold shoulder.

"Good morning, my life." said Can.

Sanem smiled still half asleep and stood looking at him. Can's hats were dishevelled, his chest bare and he had a smile to turn heads.

"Good morning, my big love." Sanem replied back, looking at him softly.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked.

"Mh, mh." replied Sanem in assent, snuggling up against him again. "The boat is so calm."

"You?" she asked then.

"I couldn't have slept better." he replied. Then he looked her straight in the eye, and with his free hand resting on Sanem's hip, he pulled her close to him and kissed her gently, rekindling that flame in their eyes.

"It was one of the most beautiful nights of my life." Can whispered in his ear.

Sanem brightened up and lowered his head shyly. He smiled too. Then looked into his eyes, passed a hand over his cheek, stroked it gently and brought his own nose closer to rub his. She looked at him adoringly for a moment, then she kissed him.

"Me too." Sanem whispered in reply to him. They had already spent magical evenings like that on the boat, with even more breathtaking backdrops perhaps, but the evening they had just spent was truly different. It was as if they had both been driven by something stronger and more uncontrollable than anything they had experienced before. As if fate had guided them in their actions, in the right place at the right time. They both felt it. It was something much bigger than them, to which they could not exactly give a logical explanation. It was inside them, in their veins, guiding their impulses....