On Friday of the week, Aria left with Noah, Rian, Roxy, Isaac, and Eva to a beautiful village called Ziro.

It was suggested by Isaac and he had found that place during one of his movie shootings.

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Ziro was hidden in the hills and was home to all exotic travel creatures and was one of the most beautiful villages due to the untouched beauty of nature.

They could wind through its expansive rice fields, it was a spot for watching hornbill. Ziro had its own tribal group with their own culture to watch and enjoy.

First, they went by air and a three-hour road trip to reach the destination.

All settled in their room of a villa which they rented for the weekend by the head of the village. It was the same villa where Isaac stayed during the shoot so he had communicated.

Since it was night, all went to bed as Alan was coming the next day.

Deep into the night, Aria heard the footsteps around her room. Without Alan being around or excluding Cooper mansion or Morgan mansion, she naturally becomes a light sleeper in defense.

So hearing the footsteps she wanted to think maybe someone wasn't getting sleep due to a new place but steps got nearer and nearer to her room door.

The villa they were staying in wasn't a newly built modern house. It was a village villa built like half a century back. So the footsteps clearly heard.

Her hands instinctively grabbed the metal while her heartbeat raised. She could hide her tracks but she couldn't do that for her friends or others so even if she gets into danger she knows she has to handle it.

Relaxing or enjoying the trip without worry was only a dream to her which she realized right after alighting the jet. But she knew she shouldn't stop living her life in worry.

She waited for the knock on the door if it was her people but footsteps stopped and it went back to peaceful silence as if it didn't happen at all.

Aria was perplexed. 'Am I being paranoid? Aria, what's wrong with you?'

She left the metal back and leaned back to drink water but she heard somebody jumping to the balcony. Even though the sound was very low, since she was awake she heard it and saw the silhouette.

She left the water glass back on the side table and pulled the metal weapon and aimed at the man without an ounce of mercy in her actions.

It just took a few seconds. Aria who everyone knew was nowhere present. Her eyes sharpened like an eagle ready to kill its prey once insight.

The balcony had a sliding door that opened and Aria warned, "Freeze." Her voice was deathly cold and heavy with a warning.

Aria moved to reach the wall end to reach for switches to turn on lights but her eyes didn't distract even a little from the man or his actions.

In the darkroom, she couldn't identify who entered but the man knew who she was and what she was holding but he didn't expect to scare her.

"Aria..."

That deep voice carried a hint of heartache looking at her state under the very faint light from afar through the bay window.

Aria's hand hung low instantly and cried, "You scared me..."

The man took long strides and pulled her to embrace taking her handgun. "I didn't want to wake you up. I'm sorry, I will never do it again."

Aria sniffled in his arms for sometime before letting go of him. What she knew was Alan would reach in the morning but not at midnight.

Alan knew well Aria hated to use weapons. It was on continuous pester of Vince that she had to keep one for her safety.

Alan never asked her to keep because she never feels at ease carrying such things around. She wanted a simple and normal life but not killing somebody to be safe or struggling.

Alan kept rubbing her back to calm her, "I'm..."

Aria cut in knowing he was going to apologize again, "It's alright. You should have told me that you will reach soon."

Alan turned on lights after searching them on the wall. "Aren't you angry?"

Aria pouted and punched him, "If you don't coax me to sleep now, I will kick you off the bed."

'Dummy'

Alan continuously spoke in a low soft voice to let her relax first before she dozed off in his embrace when it was nearly dawn time.

Since she slept late, Alan didn't wake her up to watch the sunrise with others and sent them. She only woke up when the sun hit the heights.

And another couple were in the cold war. Isaac didn't want to speak about what was going on in his head. Eva was getting back to normal but seeing him give the cold shoulder, she didn't want to argue with him and ruin their trip thinking to talk after returning home.

Aria and Alan quickly got fresh and had brunch before going out to explore with all. Since the village wasn't big, they were roaming on their feet.

Eva, Aria, and Roxy hit the small waterfalls leaving men at loss. Rian and Noah wanted to join but they were sure, those girls would get cold and they couldn't afford to fall sick.

Noah still wanted to join but Rian pulled him back. Soon a few kids of the village joined the girls adding more fun giving a reason for them to stay in the water longer.

Right after going out of the water, three started sneezing.

'Achoo'

'Achoo'

'Achoo'

Isaac spoke, "They are reliving their lost five years together."

Alan removed his jacket and wrapped Aria, "Why..."

'Achoo'

Alan gave up reprimanding her and rubbed her cold palms as they walked towards the villa.

Rian knocked on Roxy's head and wrapped his jacket and her leather jacket rubbing her arms to warm her.

Aria noticed Isaac just dropping his jacket on Eva's shoulder and walked without a word. They were the energy-boosting couple bickering all the time so it wasn't difficult for Aria to identify the problem.

Even though Alan doesn't like her poking in others' lives, Aria instinctively wants to help them out. So she had two problems to resolve sooner, Noah and Eva.

She turned to Noah who avoided her eyes purposefully.