New tears emerged on Lena's face and on Finn's, too. But both looked at each other with a smile. The sky had adapted a deep lilac purple, the air was still mild, and the noise of the forest slowly faded to the night.

With a quenched whimper, Lena attempted to tackle her thoughts once more by saying, "Finn," and through the pain, she fought to finally vocalize her emotional response.

He loved the way she said his name, and yet it hurt to hear her cracked voice speaking quietly.

"I thought you loved her, I thought——" Lena's eyes were caught by her hands as tears streamed down her cheeks. "I ran away because you had finally found her, and I assumed that you'd be happier with her. I wanted you to be happy. I wouldn't have begrudged you picking her." Lena's eyes hidden behind her knees, she cried, "I thought you were going to leave me. I couldn't have taken the goodbye. Not again! Not for good."

"I have no wish to leave you, none at all. I was frozen when I entered the cabin. I should have never gone without you. But it's all over now. I'm here now and I won't be leaving you again. I want to be with you. Never have I wanted anything more than to make you happy."

"How can you say that?"

"What?"

"That you won't be leaving me again. What about the ship, your father, my crimes? We can't be together. The universe is clearly against it."

"The ship doesn't matter anymore; the people are safe and must stay undiscovered. My father is recovering on Boreas and will soon return to Kepler. And our crimes—well—we'll figure it out. What matters to me right now is you. I'll fight for you."

"If Nitha knows that we're here, your crew probably knows it, too. They'll be here soon to arrest me."

"I wouldn't worry about that. Nitha told me everything. The government seems to be in desperate need of keeping this whole thing a secret. If anyone tries to take you away from me, I'll leak the truth. They will stay away from us. And I have a plan that allows you to live on Kepler."

"Slow down," Lena worried, "Haven't you tried to convince the people before? You said no one believed you."

"Yeah, but this time I have proof." Finn held up the blue bracelet that he had skillfully removed from Nitha's wrist when holding her hand earlier. "My dad found my bracelet on Pluviam. It was enough proof to him that I was still alive, no matter how many people claimed the opposite. This right here will be enough for Nitha's family to believe it too."

"Oh Finn," she cried, hiding her tears, "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say."

He wrapped his hands softly around those of Lena to bring them up to his chest. He glanced at her and did not wipe his tears. "I'm so very irrevocably in love with you; if a thousand dying stars exploded at once, my love to you would burn with an intensity exceeding that of the resulting supernovas. You are the center of my universe."

With the back of her hand, Lena cleaned her lips of that salty taste. It was an impossible task to hide her cosmic smile, but Finn took it not as a matter of course.

"I'm sorry for hurting you," he said. "I really am. I know I should have said something sooner. I was scared of losing you, which is not an excuse but the truthful reason nevertheless."

Her voice carried the sounds of happiness, returning to Finn's ears like a long lost song. "When I met you, I felt my life shifting. As if I knew that everything was going to be different. It sounds crazy but it's not. An extremely rare feeling, which I believe will stick with me forever. But even if I read every book that exists I would still fail to describe how it is possible to feel as if I've known you an entire lifetime. Since the beginning, I have trusted you fully and felt convinced that wherever you were, I needed to be there too. "

"I can feel what you are saying quite accurately. It's the same for me."

"And maybe that's exactly why it feels the way it does." Lena added, "Why I feel the way I do."

"Are you saying—Does this mean that—"

Finn stopped. He needed it spoken by her sweet voice, and with a smile, she said, "Kepler or Pluviam, we belong together. You've given me a reason to be alive. You taught me to never give up."

"Funny," Finn sniveled happily, "I'm pretty sure I got that from you. I would have capitulated at least a dozen times if it weren't for you. You give me so much strength. When my father said that I can control how to react to the unfortunate events happening in my life, I wanted to live by his wisdom, but I never thought I could. Until I met you. Every day, you prove to me how possible it is. The universe is so dark, so you just decide to be your own sunshine. You see the world with so much faith and don't ever forget to appreciate the beauty of nature. Even after everything bad that has happened to you, you don't try to compress your memories, no, with a smile you continue to defeat whatever pushes you down. It is so respectable and inspiring. You keep your head up and your hopes even higher. There is just so much I love about you, I—I—" Dispiriting silence welcomed him when Lena turned her head away. "I—Lena, I'm sorry if this is not what you want. I just want you to—"

"No," Lena interrupted and turned to him, displaying the high-colored face she tried to hide. She passed him her smile and kissed his cheek. "I like you, too."

"Lena," he breathed, holding his cheek in surprise. "You do?"

"You're kidding. Didn't you notice it?"

"No. I mean—I don't know. Since when? I mean when were you sure?"

"Ever since I met you, I just felt connected to you. I've read so many romance novels, and still, I don't believe in love at first sight, but I remember the feeling I had the moment I saw you step out of that rocket. I was as if drawn to you and ever since that first day on Pluviam I have deeply cared about you."

"What? All this time? I thought you were just a very curious and importunate girl, wondering about my white hair."

"That too," she giggled. "But I just sensed that you needed some—uh—assistance."

"Your senses weren't wrong. But why didn't you say something sooner?" Finn said, eager to know.

"I didn't understand why I had such strong feelings toward you and when you told me about your plans for finding Nitha, I knew I could never be with you the way I would like. But those feelings of caring and needing you have only grown stronger over the past months. I started to really like you. And of course I tried to give you the space you wanted, but I still cared so much about your happiness. I knew you would never give up on her, therefore I gave up on my own dream and made it my new wish to help you reach yours. All I wanted was for you to get what you wanted."

    "I did." Finn smiled at her. "And then I lost you."

"You haven't lost me."

"So you—you aren't leaving then? You want to be with me?"

"I do. More and more each day." Lena's freckles bathed in the colors of flaming vermilion. "I'm in love with you, Finn."

For the first time, Lena witnessed his eyes gleam like two suns before they eclipsed to taste the purity of love. She felt his impulsive kiss upon her lips, and with it, the intensity of which his love was burning. Driven by every emotion decking the pair, Finn tied Lena's bracelet around her wrist and restored the bound as stars embraced the moon at zenith.

The end.