I smile, tilting my head back until I can look up at his face. “It’s perfect.”
“You like it? I had it made especially for you.” Lucas smiles. He almost looks shy. “It’s a present.”
“Is it?” I laugh. “Then I’m going to keep it forever.”
He smiles. “Okay. Hold on to it. Keep it where you won’t lose it.”
“I will,” I say.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispers.
“Shut up,” I whisper back, teasing. “It’s beautiful.”
It’s true. This sunset—Lucas’s sunset, and now mine—is incandescently, infectiously beautiful. And it means we have made it to another night.
We are alive.
For now, it should be enough.
The sun slowly moves behind the horizon. Lucas nods, whispering into my ear. “See? That’s how it works. The sun goes down now, but it always comes up again.”
“Really.” I smile, arching an eyebrow.
“Really.” He smiles back. “Believe it.” He kisses my cheek, softly, avoiding the bruises. “And even when you can’t see it, it’s out there somewhere on the other side of the world, getting ready to come back again.”
Now he kisses my other cheek, so softly I shiver.
And my neck. “It’s going to get better.”
My ear. “Everything is.”
The warm pull that is Lucas overtakes me, and I don’t fight it. I have my gifts, and he has his. This is what he brings the world, this feeling. Sharing it and spreading it, to everyone he meets.
I give in.
Love.
Offering it to me soothes him as much as it does me, and I let myself feel it, take it.
I push out of my mind the competing thoughts. That we are lost, with no support in sight. Hunted in the desert. No plan in place to take down another Icon.
I wish that for once Doc was right, that it was somehow possible to forget what lies ahead of us.
But somehow, at this moment, Lucas accomplishes the impossible. I feel him relax, letting the sun warm him, even as it fades away.
Enjoy it while we have it, what little we have.
Coming from Lucas, this sunset means everything.
I tilt my face toward the last bits of shared warmth, toward Lucas and the sun. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am.” He touches my cheek again, his voice growing low, urgent. “Dol—”
I need you. He doesn’t dare say the words, but I feel them. They are as real to me as the cold evening breeze on my face.
He needs me like food and water. Like sunshine and rain. Like—
Like Ro and I used to need each other.
I push that thought out of my mind and lean toward Lucas. He takes my face in both hands, holding on tight, as if I were as solid as the red desert rocks that surround us. A sure, steady thing. An incontrovertible fact, or a long-held truth.
With a look, I ask permission to be closer to him. Closer than physically possible.
He nods, and I go in, looking for one moment in particular. I find it burning bright in his mind, and when I reach for it, in a flash I am back in the cave when we first met.
But this time, I am Lucas. This time, I see us—the story of us—through his eyes.
I don’t see the details clearly, but the feelings are so powerful they almost drop me to my knees. I see the moment he first looks at me and feel the shock—then a flood of warmth.
The explosion of intense curiosity, wonder, and attraction.
The shared ocean of us.
I don’t know what else to call it.
I have wanted to go there for a long time, but only now had the courage to ask.
And this is now my favorite memory, his love at first sight.
It’s not just a gift he has. It’s a miracle.
He is more certain of me than I am of myself. Which makes me only more certain of just one thing.
Lucas needs me.
Lucas needs me now, and I need him.
He kisses me so hard it feels like I might break open. And as I kiss him back, I wonder if that might not be such a bad thing. If sometimes, some kinds of breaking can fix things.
Everything.
His kiss pushes me back against the rock and my body dissolves into his. In his arms, it feels like the sun is rising and setting all at once—and then a wave of warmth comes over me and I can no longer think of anything at all.
Only Lucas.
Because I really am the luckiest girl in the world. And even when I fall out of the sky he catches me.
GENERAL EMBASSY DISPATCH:
EASTASIA SUBSTATION
MARKED URGENT
MARKED EYES ONLY
Internal Investigative Subcommittee IIS211B
RE: The Incident at SEA Colonies
Note: First recorded response from Perses, establishing first contact. Perses says “hello.”
Note: Contact Jasmine3k, Virt. Hybrid Human 39261.SEA, Laboratory Assistant to Dr. E. Yang, for future commentary, as necessary.
HAL2040 ==> FORTIS
Transcript - ComLog 05.16.2042
HAL::PERSES
//lognote: {PERSES communication attempt #251,091};
sendline: salve mundus;
return: . . . . . . 01110011 01100001 01101100 01110110 01100101 . . . . . . .;
//translation note:
message received: salve (binary);
sendline: γειά σου κóσμο;
return: . . . . . . γειά σου. . . . . . salve . . . . . hello;
return: . . . . . . 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 . . . . . hello;
com protocol handshake exchanged;
uplink established;
comlink access granted;
sendline: Hello;
return: hello;
sendline: Who are you?;
return: who . . . . . you . . . . .;
return: you . . . . . me . . . . . i;
return: i am . . . . . . . nothing;
return: i am . . . . . . . beginning and end;
return: A and Ω;
sendline: . . . . . . . . . . . . alpha and omega?;
sendline: query: Beginning