"Did you have a fight with Inu?" Fabian asked as they walked alone on the edges of the temple through the dark of night.

"Kind of," Liv answered, looking at the buildings and mountains around them.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I, in fact, do not."

"Even though, you're still angry. After hours upon end."

"Even after."

Fabian sighed and then gave a small laugh, only stopping to look around to see if anyone heard.

"Oh, stop the worrying. All these people adhere to the curfew like it's the gods' word."

"It is," Fabian asserted as aggressively as he could while being as silent as possible.

Liv suppressed a laugh at his expression. How could he act so young while looking as adult as any? What did he even do to look like that? Surely the genetics helped. His father was a handsome man in his own right, but Fabian's skin had a peculiar smoothness. Maybe it really was the gods' love.

Had the love of the gods given him such a physique as well? Liv could have sworn she had seen ripples of defined muscles on his torso when she accidentally happened to see him changing.

"What are you thinking about?" Fabian asked with his sweet and soft voice.

Liv blinked, realizing he had just been staring at his face. "Wha..." She shook her head and tried to answer. "It was..." she rubbed her face violently. "My eyes just fell asleep."

Fabian frowned slightly and seemed about to wheel around. "Right, it's getting late. I think we should go sleep."

"No," Liv said more intensely than she meant to, grabbing his hand.

He looked down at their locked hands. "But I thought you were tired."

"I'm not." Liv let go of his hand quickly and raised her arms. "I'm not." She looked around quickly and found a spot on one of the mountains that had a view over the entire temple. "I want to go there." She said, pointing at it.

"Huh? How will we..." Fabian stopped as he realized and tried backing off.

"Oh, come on. It's not a long way. Just close your eyes."

"I don't know, Liv. It... That's..."

"Please. It's nothing to sit there alone. I won't let you fall. I promise."

Fabian shook his head but extended his hand.

"Uh." Liv looked at the hand awkwardly. "We need to be a little more connected."

Fabian extended another hand. "Like this?"

"Like this." Liv stepped in between his hands and awkwardly grabbed him into a hug.

"Uh, right." Fabian wriggled in her grasp awkwardly.

"Could you touch my neck?" Liv asked.

"What?" Fabian's voice broke a little. "Your neck?"

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"We should be contacted by skin," Liv explained as formally as she could manage while focusing intensely on the spot she had pointed out. Then she felt as Fabian's warm hand descended on her neck hesitantly. "Close your eyes," she instructed.

Then it was go time. She clasped her hands. Space folded.

"You can open them now," Liv said, letting go of him slowly.

"You did it already?" Fabian asked and opened his eyes. He seemed to be his with nausea immediately and grasped Liv tightly to him. "Aaaaa," he said as he looked down.

Liv said nothing as Fabian pushed her against his chest. She looked up. He really was tall. After he calmed his breathing, Fabian looked down at her and gave a startled blink.

"You can let go of me now. I think the nausea has passed," Liv said with her cheek kind of smushed against him.

"Sorry, sorry. Thanks," Fabian said as he let go and slowly stepped away from the edge and sat down.

Liv put both her feet on the edge. The slightly cool winds breathed life into her hair and fluttered her robes. She looked straight down at the fall to her death and smiled.

"Liv, could you get away from the edge?" Fabian asked, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

Liv wheeled around. "What? Am I making you nervous?" Then she pretended that her foot slipped. She let out a little sound as she fell backward. Fabian's eyes went wide as he launched himself into movement, only to be stopped by Liv's hand after she teleported right in front of him. "Trying to save me? Oh, you're so noble. And stupid."

Fabian's expression fell a little before he grabbed her by the shoulders with surprising strength. "Don't... do that." He breathed deeply a few times. Liv just chuckled. "And don't laugh." It was the first time she heard some actual irritation in his voice.

She calmed herself and raised her hands in surrender. "I apologize. My nature bequeathed me."

"Beseeched," Fabian corrected with a frown.

"Oh, you got that one." Liv snickered.

"Huh?"

"Well? You missed the one I did with clepe and cozen." Fabian seemed to only grow more confused. "I mix words to see how big that brain of yours is," Liv explained. "Now let me sit down please."

Fabian shook his head at her before letting her go and going to sit down next to her.

For a while, they just watched the temple. At least Inu hadn't lied about it. It really was beautifully constructed. Religion could amount to something good at least.

Liv glanced at Fabian, hoping he couldn't hear her thoughts. He was already looking at her, his face bathed in the light of the distant moon. She smiled, a little confused. Not in a bad way. He smiled back.

"What?" she asked.

"I was just pondering something."

"Well... tell me."

"It's embarrassing."

Liv perked up. "Now I really want to know."

"You have to understand, I didn't know you. I didn't think you were even really human. But you know what it was that got me thinking."

"What's with all this storytelling? Get to it," Liv said, growing impatient. She would hypnotize it out of him if he didn't get to talking.

"Your beauty spot. On your right cheek."

"What about it?"

Fabian touched his right cheek. "It's like mine."

Liv raised her brows in amusement. "That's it? My beauty spot convinced you of my humanity. Ha, just as I planned." She opened her mouth, threatening to eat him. He actually flinched. She burst into laughter.

He hurried to put a hand over her mouth. "Shhh."

She quieted herself. But not because of Fabian. She heard something. She put up a finger and listened.

"What?" Fabian whispered. Liv listened for longer. "Come on, what? Stop joking."

Liv sighed. "It was nothing." She was paranoid. "But back to the matter at hand. My beauty spot? What's up with that?"

"Well? You know. It was imperfect. In a human kind of way. It made me realize that you're just like me and anyone else. You're just human."

Liv's amusement was wiped away and replaced with a kind of inner warmth. "Imperfect, huh?"

"But in a perfect way. Like—"

"I get it." Liv smiled. Then she reached up and touched his beauty spot. "I get it."

They looked at each other in silence, but it wasn't awkward. Suddenly, Fabian's hand was on her cheek as well. Liv'd had her doubts, but they were gone. Fabian wasn't a liar. He was a genuinely good human being. The best.

Their breathing slowed, as they gazed into each other's eyes. Fabian's pupils were like a warm pit of darkness one willingly emerged in. At some point, Liv noticed that their breathing had completely synchronized.

For the first time in her life, Liv felt something indescribable as she leaned in, closed her eyes, and touched her lips to Fabian's. She had never known quite how sensitive her lips were until that moment when she could feel an irresistible tickle on them as they touched with what seemed to be the entirety of Fabian's warm being.

At first, she didn't think about it. Then her heart grew cold for a moment as she didn't feel an immediate feedback from Fabian. But when he leaned in as well, and when they touched each other, it turned into something otherworldly. Peace, warmth, utter bliss. That moment was everything Liv had ever wanted.