Right at the outskirts of Sanitarium, there was a small diner. The place was a total dive, but for some strange reason, Luigi Largo had a fondness for it. Luigi was just nineteen years old, enrolled in the GeneCo University for the Medically Gifted. His girlfriend was Magdalene "Mag" Defoe, the baby-faced, buck-toothed woman with a beautiful singing voice and light blue digital corneas.

They sat in the diner together, just through with a meal. The couple was in a booth, next to each other, talking about various things.

Suddenly, Mag said, "Just think about it, Luigi. We can get married, start a family; live the perfect life!"

"And one day," he replied, "I'll be a big-shot like my dad, running GeneCo all by myself. We'll be so loaded…not a single person could keep us from doing whatever the fuck we wanted!"

Mag smiled. "We'd have a child or two."

Luigi furrowed his eyebrows, and said, "But we'd treat them all equally. We wouldn't play favorites, or anything. We'd always let all of our kids know we loved them, right?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't we?"

"Well, you would think that. But we could end up with two kids that acted completely different, and had different ways of behaving. Like, one that is like perfect fucking little angel child, and one that has trouble following the rules. You would think that you'd love them both equally, but sometimes it just doesn't fucking happen that way, and sometimes one kid gets to be the reject. You dig it?"

"Well—"

Luigi went right on talking. "It's important to give your kids an equal amount of attention. Some people don't realize that, and then when one kid grows up to be not exactly how they want, they blame the kid. Like it wasn't their fucking fault for ostracizing him." He began to drive his fork right into the table.

Mag, upset at seeing her boyfriend in such emotional distress, decided to change the subject. "I have an idea. Why don't we cuddle? Put that fork down."

Luigi snapped out of his pity-party immediately. "Did you just ask to cuddle with me?"

"Yes, I did," she said softly, scooting over and resting her head on his chest, her arms around him. "I did say I wanted to cuddle with you."

He thought about the first time he ever saw her, in that alley by the fire, singing arias for anyone who would listen. She was still blind at that point.

"How did I get lucky enough to be the first kid to pull you out of that alley?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I'm glad you did." She paused briefly. "I'm the luckier one, because I have you."

"Oh, fuck that. If I hadn't found you, right now I would probably be in that godawful tower filing papers or something. I never had an excuse to leave, or get out of work, or just go out somewhere like this until you." He stopped to think. "Well. I guess if you hadn't met me, you'd be a hobo. Okay. Maybe you got me beat on that one!"

"I suppose you're right," said Mag. "Hey, why don't we go out for a walk?" Before Luigi could respond, she grabbed him by the hand and the two of them stumbled out of the diner into the city streets. "You know, it's almost…peaceful, out here in the dark."

"Yeah," Luigi said, a bit nervously. He spotted a Repo Man taking back GeneCo property, and turned Mag away so she wouldn't see. "Where should we go?"

"There's this place in the old park…the one with the rusty benches and all."

"You know, I've always lived here," he began, "but I don't think I've ever even been to the park before."

"Better late than never!" she smiled. "Come on, it's not too far from here."

They walked a little further, until they reached a small, isolated park that looked like it hadn't been touched since the last century. Mag sat down on the grass, and glanced up at Luigi. She extended her hand and motioned for him to sit down with her.

"Won't you join me?"

"I've…never sat on the grass before. Dad doesn't want us to ruin our clothes." He took a seat next to Mag. "It feels, um, weird."

She fell back into the grass and gazed up at the sky. "Look at the stars! They're so bright and beautiful!"

How naïve she was, as innocent as a child. Luigi couldn't help but laugh. "You confuse me, Mag," he said. "You're seeing for the first time in your life, and you're not even amazed by these huge things we have to see. There's so much new shit this way and that way, but you always only look at the little every day things. I don't get it."

"If only you'd stop and look at the little things...then you'd see what I mean."

"But they're little for a reason, Maggie," he replied. "Do you even get what kind of generation we're getting to be adults in? My dad is revolutionizing everything—he can actually change your genetics. People are getting more confident. They're getting smarter. Buildings are huge and technology is at a high. The big picture is getting bigger, but all this stuff...it just stays the same."

"Sometimes, though, the little things—like these stars—are so much greater. They've been shining for...God knows how long! And they're still doing it! Technology will come and go, but the stars will last forever." She rolled over on her side and looked at him tenderly. "Just like our love-that will last forever, too."

"I think I would rather our relationship grow and change and develop, always getting bigger. Those stars, they only time they get any different is when they die." He sighed. "I don't want us to be like that."

"I suppose you're right." She paused to think, then said, "Hey, why don't we change our relationship right now?"

"What do you mean?" he asked nervously, propping himself up off the ground to look at her.

Mag lowered her head, and said timidly, "Well...I've been waiting a long time for someone special to come along. And now that you have, and we've gotten to really know each other…I think there's one thing we should do."

"I hope you don't mean we should explore other people to make sure we really do belong together…"

"No! Not at all! I mean…okay. I figured, since I really love you, and you love me just as much, it's time that we…" (here, she began to giggle like a child) "…well, you know!"

"Are you okay? I don't get it."

Mag whispered something into Luigi's ear, and as she spoke, his face turned red. "Do you get it now?" she asked.

"Um…um…" he stammered. "That…that is something else. There's an idea. Whew."

"I'm just as scared as you are," she admitted. "I've never done…'it' before."

"You're not the one barely out of his high-school years and still getting over his acne, doll."

"Aw, come on, don't you want to? I thought you would."

"I don't know."

Without saying anything, she took his face in her hands, and gently—albeit passionately—kissed him. "How about now?"

He grinned a bit, though he was still anxious. "I don't know," Luigi said. "I don't want to look stupid."

"You won't," Mag reassured him. "And even if you do, how am I supposed to know the difference?"

"You make a good argument," he replied.

She put her arms around his shoulders. "Well? What do you say?"

"All right. Let's try it."