Lights of the north
Evening descended quickly.
When Seika looked out the window, she could almost watch the sun setting. The sky spanned above in the most stunning colors.
She turned to the man who was preparing tea in the small kitchen. „This place is so lovely. I really like it here."
Aiolos, Gold Saint of Sagittarius, lifted his head and gave her a smile that made her heart melt. „I'm glad to hear that."
The two of them were in the small, scenically located village of Lavik. It lay between some small, beautifully green mountains and the Sognefjord in Sweden. They had rented a nice, small and almost cabin-like house at its outskirts. Courtesy of the Graude Foundation, the company Athena Saori in herited from her adoptive grandfather. They had arrives yesterday, and had spent the rest of the day unpacking, before crashing to bed early, exhausted. Today, they had gone for a long walk in the afternoon, which had been absolutely amazing.
„It's so different from everything I know", Seika said, taking the darkening landscape in again. „I've never actually been in the countryside back in Japan… which is a shame, because if it's anything near as beautiful at this, I really missed out on something."
„Don't think too much about it. But I do agree". Aiolos said as he filled the tea into two cups. „While I have gotten around the world a lot in my duty as Gold Saint, I did grow up in Greece, where there's nothing like this. And even on my travels I have only seen few similar places."
He joined her at the window and gave her one of the cups.
„Let's go out onto the veranda, shall we?"
Seika happily agreed to the suggestion. „Great idea!"
So they put on their thick jackets and their scarfs, grabbed their teas and went outside. The air was more than crisp, it was cold. But not yet too cold for comfort, and it was incredibly refreshing. So unlike the city air of Tokyo or the warm, humid air of Greece.
The young Japanese took a first sip of the steaming fruit tea. The warm liquid warmed her from the inside, the jacket warmed her from the outside – it was just so cosy. She couldn't hold back a sigh of contentment.
„It's so nice of Saori-sama to enable us to spend some time out."
Aiolos threw her a smile that made her heart skip a beat. „It is. And luckily, things are peaceful at the moment, so we can afford some time for ourselves."
In amiable silence, they watched together as the last light of the day vanished.
Seika was pondering the nightly landscape so lost in thought, that it took her a moment to notice what was going on in the sky. But something flickered to life in the corner of her eyes, drawing her attention. When she lifted her gaze, she gasped involuntarily.
The sky had become alive.
In awe, Seika watched the dancing bands of light above. They shone in ethereal shades of blue and green. Never in her life had she seen anything like this. There was something surreal, something magical about the sight Seika had heard of this phenomenon – but never seen it.
„The aurora borealis", she whispered. The Northern Lights. They're absolutely gorgeous."
„They are, aren't they."
Something in Aiolos' voice made her turn her head towards him. That smirk… that glint in his eyes… what was it that bugged her...
„You knew it!", she suddenly burst out, the answer dawning on her out of the blue. „You knew there'd be Northern Lights tonight and lured me out here on purpose!"
The Sagittarius Saint's smile turned of a grin. „Guilty as charged."
For a moment, Seika didn't know wether to punch him or to kiss him. In the end, she gave in to the latter. Carefully, for she still held her cup, she wrapped her arms around him, stood on tip-toes and pressed a kiss on his lips. It was an automatic reaction almost, one that Seika not even considered supressing. Her Aiolos was just the sweetest and most considerate man a woman could wish for. That he had proven to her time and time again. And he was hers.
„You're welcome", he said after they broke appart. Of course he'd understand her even without words. „I'm happy you like it."
„Like it? Like it doesn't even come close. Incredible sounds more like it."
Seika wrapped the arm that didn't hold the tea cup around his arm, leaned against him and gazed at the dancing lights at the night sky.
,They're just so magical', she thought. ,As magical as our love feels.'
After all those months they were together now, it still felt so incredible that such an overwhelmingly powerful and kind-hearted man like Aiolos had chosen her to be at his side. And with those qualities, he had a perfect body to go with them.
,I am so incredibly lucky.'
She had told herself that countless times by now. And it was how she truly felt. She felt indeed lucky to have such a man at her side, something she did not take for granted a single second.
„In various mythologies around the world", Aiolos said in a low voice, „Northern Lights are connected to the world of the dead. Some say, it's their campfire over in the afterlife. Others believe that it's the souls of the dead themselves dancing in the sky, and that the more brighter it shone, the happier the dead were."
„You think it's true?"
„Who knows?" He gave her an enigmatic smile. „I do know how the aurora borealis comes to be in scientific terms. But who can tell that there isn't something more behind it?"
„Well… I like that last idea very good. The afterlife being a happy dance in the sky…"
„I agree…"
For a moment, the fact that Aiolos had died once hung in the air. Seika actually had to supress the urge to ask him how it had been in the afterlife. However, beneath the dancing lights in the sky, it dissolved like a speck of fog in a breeze.
She remained leaning against him. Happier than they had been in a long time, they sat and watched the spectacle above. Let the magic of the moment seap into their every fibre. That they were able to witness this sight together made them even happier than they already were by simply being in each other's presence.
„I love you, Aiolos. Do you know that?"
„How could I forget? You told me plenty of times."
His lips found hers. To Seika, even after all this time, every kiss was special. But this one… this one was magical. For this kiss was illuminated by the glow of the aurora borealis. It was as if the dancing spirits themselves blessed their united fate.
„I love you too, Seika."