The Queen

Chapter 12:

Maxon woke me up with kisses. He was facing me with his fingers laced through mine, looking like the happiest man in the world.

"Good morning, beautiful." Maxon said, giving me a long kiss.

"Good morning." I said, breaking the kiss. "What have you planned for us to do today?" I asked. 

There was so much to do and see in so little time.

"It's a surprise!" Maxon said, smiling slyly.

"Maxon, you know I hate not knowing things!" I complained.

"Yes, I do." he said, raising his eyebrows. "And I very much enjoy seeing you mad. You're the cutest when you're mad." he said, playing with my hair. 

We laid in bed; snuggling for a while until we had to get up and get ready. We went into the kitchen to make brunch, and Maxon insisted that he make it.

"Do you even know how to cook?" I asked him with a quizzical look.

"I haven't the slightest idea." Maxon replied. "But, I'm very good at following instructions, so if I read the cookbook, it'll be a piece of cake." he said. He must have had this all planned out.

 Turns out, Maxon was either poor at following instructions, or didn't know how to cook. I thought it was the latter. He put too much flour in the pancake batter, and it was super thick. When I tried to help him, he just refused.

"No, you are not going to help me!" Maxon said sternly. "I have everything under control." 

 I looked over his shoulder into the kitchen, and he definitely did not have everything under control.

"If you say so." I said, smiling at Maxon's attempts at cooking. "But you might want to check on your hashbrowns. I think they're burning."

 There was smoke coming out of the kitchen door from the potatoes; Maxon poked his head out of the kitchen after 10 minutes of no progress.

"Um, I think you're going to have to help me." he said, biting his lip. 

I went in and got rid of the smoke, and taught Maxon how to make pancakes. We made new batter, and had a very good breakfast. It didn't compare to the breakfast at the palace, but it was still good.

"You need to give me at least a hint!" I wanted to know where we were going, and Maxon was not telling me.

"Fine." Maxon said. "We're going to a place with lots of history." Maxon said.

"History? Every place in Italy has lots of history!" I said. Maxon smiled at my frustration. 

We cleaned up breakfast and got ready. We got into a helicopter to take us to our destination, and I couldn't wait. Suddenly, I saw a huge mountain in the distance.

"Which mountain is that?" I asked Maxon.

"Mount Vesuvius." Maxon said. Mount Vesuvius? I think I'd heard that before. Oh yeah! I remember my dad telling me about it when I was little. A really long time ago, there was a town at the base of the volcano. The people didn't know it was active, and it erupted, killing a whole bunch of people.

"What was the town called?" I asked Maxon. I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Pompeii." he said, glad I knew the story behind the place.

"Do we get to see the remains?" I asked. I had always wanted to see the city.

"I'm afraid not." Maxon said. "This is not our destination."

"Please tell me!" I said. "The suspense is killing me!" Maxon just smiled at me. He wasn't going to tell me.

"You'll see when we get there." Maxon said.