“Tell me, why are you here at my apartment again?” Lev asked as he cooked his uninvited guest something to eat. The food’s aroma quickly spreads through the small apartment his father had left him behind. It was a well-kept room – a narrow bed, a small table at the center, and some games piled up neatly in drawers. Leading outside is a small balcony with a mediocre view befitting the second floor of a 2 story building.

“I told you, I missed the last train.” said Aira, who, although annoyed by Lev’s interrogation, can’t risk aggravating him until he brings over the food.

He puts the plates on the table. “Couldn’t you have taken a taxi instead?”

“Umm…it’s … already too dark outside for a young, innocent girl like me to be walking around…” she stuttered while picking on her food.

“You could have gone to Trisha’s place. She’s your cousin and her place is a lot closer to the train station compared to mine.”

“I can’t just shamelessly ask Trisha to let me sleep there!” She blushed. “And I heard she has her boyfriend living with her there.” She flailed her arms, “I don’t want to sleep in the same house with a stranger… especially a guy.”

Lev raised an eyebrow. “So you’re okay sleeping here with me? I’m a guy too if you haven’t noticed.” Lev points at his face. “Two people of the opposite gender usually try to avoid sleeping in the same room together, you know?”

Aira flustered furiously. “We’re already eighteen and your head is still filled with that kind of stuff? If you get as close as a foot from me and I’ll kick you—“ Aira says as she covers her mouth with her hands, immediately regretting the threat when she realizes Lev hasn’t served the food yet.

“I don’t think you should tell that to someone who’s letting you freeload here for a night... by the way, I’ll be sleeping on the bed, so go find yourself some place comfortable.”

“But you only have one bed and the apartment is so small! Where else would I sleep?”

“Then I’ll let you pick ---”

“I’ll choose the bed of course, you could sleep on the floor - ”

“Between the outside OR someplace inside” Lev grinned at Aira’s irritation as Lev served her the some leftovers he cooked for her. “Just so you know, really cold drafts pass here at night.”

 “Rude!” She pouted. “I can’t believe you were the same guy who used to carry my stuff for me back when we were thirteen.”

“I was worried you might lose your things. You can’t keep track of your stuff and you keep borrowing my all my things instead.” Lev stops for a second. “Now that I think about it, you probably lost your wallet and can’t ride the train OR take a taxi home.”

Aira freezes for a second and weakly laughs. “Ah ha ha of course not, I just wanted to check if you were still alive that’s all ha ha.” She puts on her best poker face and avoids Lev’s doubtful glares.

She then puts on warm smile. “Well, I did want to see you. You haven’t been seeing us much since graduation. It’s been 2 months.”

Lev looks away for a second in embarrassment, then he pinched and pulled on her cheek. “You’re kind of cute when you’re not berating somebody. Too bad you do it all of the time”

“Shtop iit I’m eething --- ow ow ow“

Lev lets go. Aira looks at him threateningly as she continues to shove food in her mouth. It made her angrier that Lev could cook up something so delicious. Not to mention it was beef steak, her favorite.

Lev lies down on his bed and stares at the ceiling. “Short black fine hair, just touching the shoulders. Smooth skin, a well maintained figure. It’s kind of annoying how tall she is, but I’m still half a head taller. Rosy cheeks – oh right, that was because I pinched them…” Lev glances at Aira to see her glaring daggers at him. “You would think she’s real cute but…”

“Lev,” Aira smiles at him, then stabs her fork into a beef cutlet. Her face was a little red, whether from the pinching or not Lev couldn’t determine. “I never knew you wished to die at such a young age.” she threatens.

“she’s a little too feisty it balances out.” Lev moves further into the corner. Aira menacingly stares him down, but sighs and proceeds to clean up.

“And how about you? Shaggy brown hair, average build. You play sports but you don’t exert enough effort to be on the first team. Smart enough to be in first class but not enough to be an honor student. The only thing admirable about you is your passion for gaming, and that isn’t even a remarkable quality at the least.” She walks over to where Lev keeps his gaming consoles, and brings out one. She hands him a controller.

“I challenge you on a 1 v 1!” She grins boldly at Lev, who seems too troubled since he just finished cooking. Aira continued, “If I win, I get to sleep on the bed.”

“Playing a game is fine and all, but what’s in it for me?” Lev asked the challenger.

“You can decide on what punishment I’m going to get,”Aira smiles and confidently places her hand over her chest. “I’m going to win anyway”

Lev sits up slowly out of interest. “Oh, so I presume there would be no complaints if I order you to do anything that might be a little too much for you…”

Aira gets flustered for a second, but quickly recovers. “Hmph, don’t you remember I’ve never lost a game against you since the Tekken competition of ’09?”

“And you do remember that I only need some motivational prize to win right?” Lev stands up and sits with her in front of the TV.

Aira turns on the console and playfully punches Lev on the shoulder. “Bring it!”

…

“No! That’s unfair, why doesn’t Sonik’s 10-hit combo leave any space for recovery…” Aira complains as she loses the best of five 2 – 3. Lev ruffles her hair with a smug grin.

“Not so upbeat now are you? Come on, where did all that confidence go?” Lev teases her some more.

Aira still has her face in her palms, and is muttering something about overpowered characters. Lev pokes her sides to no avail.

“Come on, cheer up. It was a close game and you did well.” Lev pats her in the head. He decided to cut the teasing and make amends so they could go to sleep.

“Really?” She says in a muffled voice.

“Yep. You would have definitely won if I didn’t get lucky and dodge that special move on game 4. You were definitely the better player.”

“Th-thanks...humble jerk” she says in an inaudible voice.

“Come again?”

Aira blushes, and asks loudly, “I said, what’s my punishment?” She crosses her arms and lifts her chin up to prepare for what’s coming.

Lev smiles seeing her regain her usual composure and answers, “I’ll think about it. For now, let me take a shower – all that gaming and cooking made me work up a sweat.”  

Lev stands up, picks a towel and heads straight for the bathroom.

Aira thinks of how nice it would be for her to take a shower too, but she didn’t have any spare clothes. She walks around the room to spend her idle time.

…

Half an hour later, Lev comes out to see a fully cleaned room, but with a few empty cans of beer he had been saving for whatever occasion. Aira was nowhere to be found.

“What’s she up to now…” Lev wondered as he put away the cans. A cold breeze blows through and makes him shiver. He notices the glass sliding doors to the balcony opened.

He stands outside the balcony wondering if Aira suddenly decided to run away. The sky was covered with clouds, with but a few stars trying to get their light onto the dark world below.

“Aaachoo!” a high pitched sneeze from above breaks the silence and erases Lev’s worries. He sighs, goes back inside for a moment, returns and climbs up on the roof.

Aira was sitting there cooped up, with a pen and a sketchpad by her side. She sneezes another time before picking up her pen and paper to continue what she was working on.

“See, I wasn’t lying about the cold drafts.” Lev simply said while draping a blanket over her shoulders. The warmth it gave her and Lev’s voice startled her, but she nodded her head in agreement.

“Thanks.” She replies as Lev settles down a few feet to her side. “I just couldn’t resist coming out here. Tonight was supposed to be a clear sky with a full moon.” She starts to sketch to capture the scene before them.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Lev always admired Aira’s drawings since they were kids, and couldn’t stop watching her when she started immortalizing something she deemed beautiful. Although she only draws when someone asks her to, and this is one of the few times he’s seen her draw for herself.

“That doesn’t quite explain the empty can of beers you left”

“It’s to get myself in the mood.”

“Liar.”

Silence engulfs the atmosphere between them, and only the sound of markers on paper can be heard. Lev shifts his gaze from the moon to Aira, who was wearing a troubled expression.

Without stopping her sketching, she speaks indifferently.

“Your gaming consoles were gathering dust. I noticed it when I took one out earlier.” Aira averts her gaze from him. “You’re up to something aren’t you? You didn’t even contact me for two months.”

Lev shifts his gaze back to the sky. “Were you lonely?” Aira doesn’t answer this, and Lev proceeds to explain. “I’m trying to develop my own game, so I don’t have as much time to play around like before.”

Aira abruptly stops drawing. The night’s chilling wind passes by them. Lev notices how it seems much colder than it was before.

“Everyone’s already taking their own paths. Even you.” Wearing a depressed smile, Aira takes a look at her sketchbook. “I’m afraid of being left behind. Everyone’s moving forward so quickly, I …”

“What are you talking about? You’re a talented artist, you could just enroll in an –“

“I can’t draw anymore, Lev. I can’t draw…” She meekly cries out. She rips out the piece of paper she was sketching with, crumples it and throws it on the ground. “I’ve been drawing for others for so long Lev… I’ve forgotten what it means to me. Did I enjoy it? Was I happy with my work? If I only did it for people who asked me, what was in it for me? My parents were the ones who wanted me to love art… but how can I love something that killed them?”

Lev knew of the accident which took her parents’ lives. It was a fire at an exhibit her parents were holding. Aira was only ten when she lost her parents, and at the time Aira loved drawing as much as her parents did deep in her heart.

He imagines how it felt like to be betrayed by something you loved most.

Aira continues with a wistful tone. “Everyone’s already moving on with their lives, following their dreams – while I just sit around here, unable to do the only thing I can be remotely good at. Something I hate, a burden, a reminder from mom and dad.”

Calming down and returning to a depressed state, buries her face on her knees. “Without drawing, who am I? Without my friends, my family, where do I even belong?” Her muffled voice leaks out.

She raises her head by an inch and looks at Lev pleadingly.

Lev meets her eyes. Her eyes were clouded with feelings of isolation, of loneliness, of despair. He wanted to share his strength with her, but he barely had any. The past two months he had been trying out for a game developer’s circle; he tried his very best, but in the end he didn’t make it because he had no connections inside. That’s when he decided to develop his own game, which isn’t doing so well. He tried to say something, but no words came from his mouth.

 Her despair slowly started to eat at him. Aira looks down disappointed.

Light suddenly washes over Aira and Lev snaps back to reality. Lev looks at the sky expecting sunrise – but a much more lucid scene was before him.

“The moon.” He says in awe.

Aira looks up to the sky to see the clouds start to clear. The night sky is riddled with stars- as if it was a black sea with a thousand lighthouses spread out – and the full moon with all its glory, shining down and guiding those who are lost in the night.

Aira, with a mesmerized look on her face, stands up and shakily walks forward to the edge of the roof. Lev reaches out and holds her hand from a sitting position to maintain her balance.

“‘I want to draw it…” the words came to him. “…is what you’re probably thinking of right now.” Lev looks at Aira. “You don’t hate drawing Aira. It’s not something you’ve been only doing for others – all this time you were also drawing so you could move on. You might have hated it at some point, but you only kept doing it because you believed you would like it again.”

Tears run down Aira’s face as she tries to loosen her hand from Lev’s.

He tightened his grip on her hand. “Your parents would never want you to hate art. You know that. And as you kept on drawing you wanted to find yourself – the daughter who loved his parents’ profession so much.” Lev smiles. “You wanted yourself to fall in love with it again.”

Confidence surges through Lev. Just a few hours ago he was so depressed he bought alcohol so he could get over it – but this unexpected visit was what he needed. Cooking for someone, casual conversations, playing games after 2 months of losing himself – it made him realize how important this visit was to him.

Or was it really the visit? He looked at the hand he was holding. It was shaking, either from the cold or from Aira’s insecurities – he didn’t know. But what he did know that she was the one who needed him right now, and so he did his best to pass on the warmth of his palms to hers. He thought Aira would reject such an embarrassing situation, but her hands were firmly locked with his. Aira needed him and he – what he needs –

 “Then why did I lose my ability to draw…” she asked while wiping the tears from her eyes. She forces a weak laugh and smiles sadly, “I always do lose my things don’t I.”

“You didn’t lose it.” Lev picks up the piece of crumpled paper Aira was using earlier and opens it up. It took some time since he only had one hand free, but as soon as he saw inside he smiled at her. It was the drawing of a young girl in her school uniform. It was a rough sketch and it lacked the precision and grace Aira usually had in her art. Nonetheless, Lev spoke: “This is a drawing of you in grade school isn’t it?”

“Eh?” Aira was shocked how someone could recognize her from a failure of a rough sketch. “How…”

“Come on. This is probably just around 2 to 3 months before I met you.” Lev looks at the drawing. “Besides, anyone could tell this is you. You have your eyes drawn down perfectly.” Aira blushes and wonders why she feels so embarrassed by a little criticism. His hand holding hers was definitely not helping.

“You haven’t lost anything” Lev shows her the drawing. “To you, this may be just a downgrade from your usual work, but to me – it’ something that makes me smile. It’s something that brings me back to fun days and memories.”

Lev smiles at her. “Earlier you asked me who you are without your talent. To me, you’re still a conceited little miss who always loses her things.”

Aira looks at her slightly angered. “I don’t see the good in that.” She wipes away her tears with her free hand.

“You’re also a really good gamer, the way you pout or blush when you’re embarrassed or flustered’s really cute, and I’ve known you since we were kids – you were never the type to give up.” Lev lets go of her hand, as she seems stable again. “Even if your art wasn’t as good as it was before, I don’t care. You’re still Aira, and you’ll be up and drawing in no time.” He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell her just how important she is – and at that moment, he could tell what she meant to him.

Looking away, Aira muttered, “You don’t mean that.”

“Don’t I?” Lev challenges.

Silence breaks out again, and as cold winds foretell the possibility of snow, she found it surprising how the warmth from her hands haven’t dissipated yet.

Aira slowly absorbs the silence between them, and looking at the moon, she whispers: “This night’s moon is probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

She wasn’t expecting an answer, but she got one, and it wasn’t something she fathomed.

“Not really.”

She turned to look at Lev, only to find Lev meeting her eyes. She tilted her head in confusion and caught on in a few seconds. She felt a mix of emotions she didn’t understand, and she stuttered as she tried saying something in reply.

Lev didn’t say it to tease her. He only told her what he thinks to be true. He then took on a bit more serious tone, and asked her. “Aira, would you be the artist for my project?”

Aira immediately wanted to reply, without even thinking, but she suddenly found herself stuck between choosing a yes or no. Her face still felt a little hot, but she answered: “I’ll – I’ll think about it –“

“Great! Then we can get started tomorrow, we’ll use this apartment as a studio –“

“Wait, I said I’ll think about it, I haven’t agreed yet!”

“I can buy you your art materials, so just tell me what you need –“

“I can buy the materials myself, okay?! Besides – “

“So you’re in?” Lev donned a teasing smile, and Aira sighed. Aira sat down –or rather, fell down - a meter to his left, a tad bit embarrassed at all that’s happened.

Aira picks up the blanket, but hogs it not sparing a single centimeter of cloth. She pops open a marker, and starts drawing on it.

“So,” Aira said.

“So?” Lev replied

Aira glanced at him for a moment, but only for a second. “So what’s your winning wish gonna be? I don’t want to owe too much to a coworker.”

Lev “Oh – I almost forgot about that.” Lev tried not to make the happiness in his tone too obvious. He was actually a bit anxious whether Aira would reject his offer, but now he felt relieved. He thought about what the wish would be, but he didn’t really care because having Aira aboard his project was the only thing he had asked for.

Funny how a lot of things changed in over an hour.

“Remember how I always carried your stuff when we were kids?”

“Yeah. You did it so I didn’t lose my things right?” she pouted.

“The first day we met, I saw you having a hard time lugging around your bag. Thought you could need some help.”

“Well, there were a hundred other students who probably had the same problem.”

“Yeah, but for a kid, you really had nice blue eyes. I think what I thought back then was, “maybe if I could marry this girl…”

“Yeah, you wish.”

“But I do have one. A wish from you, that is.”

“Unfortunately, you need to have 99 more wishes for something of that level to be granted.” Aira says cheekily, a bit accustomed to the embarrassment she felt yet absolutely did not understand. Her heart was beating fast, and she tried to calm herself by focusing on her drawing.

All this was said without Aira shooting a single glance at Lev, afraid to see how he would react to whatever she retorted. Curious, she peeks at her side a little, only to see Lev shiver a little from the cold, seemingly thinking about something. It occurred to her all this time that the blanket Lev had was only long enough for one person, yet he let her use it.

He accepted her into his house when she had nowhere to go. He cooked her dinner, and it was her favorite too. He picked her up when she was in the pits of despair. He told her things she could easily misunderstand. He made her want to draw again. He believes in her. Aira felt her hands stop moving, and looked at the finished product of sketching on the very blanket keeping her warm. What she drew surprised her. Is this the feeling she harbors? She felt the need to confirm it.

“Well, just as expected from our feisty princess. A dowry of a hundred wishes, eh?” Lev notes and exhales on his hands to warm it a little. “Though I don’t think even additional wishes would make any diff – .”

Lev was cut off as Aira scoots over, sits in between his legs, and wraps the blanket on them both. She leans back and rests her head on his chest. Aira looks up at Lev’s face and catches him a bit red, avoiding her gaze by looking at the sky, and she smiles a little. The warmth they both felt was nothing new to them.

 Aira starts to understand why such a simple gesture made her happy. She felt the beat of his heart, which rivaled her own. At first she was uncertain, but right now she knows that this feeling is the something she can be sure of. She decides to tell him how she felt.

---

Lev couldn’t get what had gotten into Aira, leaning on him. The wind blowing through her hair and the scent that emanated from it made him blush, and at exactly that time Aira looks up to catch him. He directs his gaze at the moon instead. Her head was on his chest, and he prayed she didn’t notice how furious his heart was beating.

Yet a part of him wished Aira would notice. How he told her the moon wasn’t the most beautiful thing he knew of. How his heart was beating faster. How he wanted to use his wish. 

To be fair he gave very vague, teasing statements so he couldn’t blame her. He has to tell her directly himself.

---

Aira brings her face near Lev’s. Her face was a bit hot, being uncomfortably close to his. She whispers, “Thank you. For everything.” Aira dares to move a bit closer –

Still looking at the moon, Lev starts to speak up. “I guess I just have to defeat you again and again.” He swiftly turns his head around to tell her eye-to-eye –

“Aira –“

“Lev, I –“

But Lev and Aira’s words are cut short, as an act much stronger and more heartfelt than any confession seals their lips. The wind, perhaps having sensed that the blanket wasn’t needed anymore, picked it up and carried it away. Sketched on it was an image of a young boy and girl walking along a road made of stars, having nothing but each other, to traverse the unknown path before them.