"Shaping up to be another beautiful day, hun."

Cam smiled, her cheeks warm from the sunrise spilling onto the cityscape of Lestallum, flooding the structures and buildings in vivid hues of orange and pink. She breathed deep, eyes closed, drawing the energy of a new day in and letting it soak into her bones. As she did everyday her hand smoothed over the bend of her right hip, her own little ray of sunshine hidden beneath. Although city air wasn't as fresh as that from the Duscae countryside, it was good to get out into civilization once more. She exhaled, content. "Yeah, sure is."

Too bad they were getting shorter...

Behind her, Nolan set the last crate of peas on the supply wagon and locked up the truck, flipping his shaggy blond hair back and out of his eyes. "Alright," he hummed. "Good to go."

They carted the wagon up from the parkade and across the street, heading into the heart of the town with Cam's family produce in tow. Every weekend her and Nolan, her highschool sweetheart and as of three weeks ago her fiance, would make their way to Lestallum's market to sell the produce from the farm Cam grew up on. Half of the goods she'd dug up herself before sunset the night prior, fingernails still caked in dirt despite her attempts to scrape them clean before heading out.

It was good gil, as there was always the demand for produce; they typically sold out by noon each day, taking the rest of their time by chatting with the other provisioners and checking out their wares. They also purchased seedlings and bulbs for tubulars there. Cam's weekends played out this way even when she was a young girl, dotting along with her father before taking over for him when his back deteriorated.

Recently however, they were lucky to sell out by the time the sun went down. Shorter days meant less sunlight, and less sunlight made for lower quality harvests. Soon they wouldn't be able to afford the weekly trips into the city, perhaps turn to canning and preserves for year-long profits if even that.

Cam frowned. That quaint cottage on the water was still for sale, but her and Nolan barely had enough scrounged up for the down payment. She couldn't abandon the family farm; for one, her mother would smack her upside the head, tell her to 'keep to her roots.' Her father would of course, tell her to do whatever makes her happy, though she would see the pain in his eyes, the Reynold's family business closing down with her to blame. It was daunting, to say the least.

But for now she hid her internal squabbles as they set up shop, bright offerings of fresh beetroots, sweet peppers, Eos green peas and Lucian tomatoes the pick of the crop today, so fresh patches of dirt clung to their flesh. Nolan unfolded chairs for the two of them and they relaxed, watching the other vendors prepare their displays.

By mid morning they already turned a fair profit, just about half of their goods sold and the gas money for the trip in covered, so Cam was at least grateful for that. Nolan left to help with procuring the next seeds for sowing before the summer months came, so Cam was manning the booth by herself. She'd just finished helping one of her regulars with a rather large order when a tall, sharp-dressed young man approached.

She felt ought to greet him, but his focus seemed elsewhere as he squinted through his glasses, comparing the peas and peppers. Instead Cam decided to offer assistance. "May I help you with anything, sir?"

He looked up. Bright eyes, handsome, well groomed. A city slicker, perhaps. "No need, I'll take a bundle of beetroot, miss."

Remarkable accent on him. "Sure thing. Forty gil, please."

He flipped through his wallet, pulling the required funds as three others joined him, all dressed in black clothing that didn't seem to fit in with the vibrancy of Lestallum. One of them had a camera and decided it be an opportune time to take Cam's picture. She furrowed her brows, though smirked in jest as she counted change for the man. "Didn't even ask me to say 'cheese?' Some photographer you are."

"Oh man, you're right! How could I ever forget the basics?" His voice as bright as his blonde fringe. "Alright, look over here annnnnnd, 'cheese!'"

Cam tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear as she gave a kind smile, plain, unexciting. Even still, he gave her a thumbs up before his bespectacled friend thanked her for the goods. "Might have a new recipe in mind with these. Enjoy your day, miss."

He turned to speak with a very tired looking young man, eyes puffy from either lack of sleep or too much of it. Cam pocketed the profits in her gil satchel, flipping through the bills before something blocked out the sun.

Or rather someone. A man, tall and equipped with enough muscle to flip a tank stood beside her booth, checking out the seller's wares next to hers. A cocoa mop of hair ruffled in the breeze and he exhaled, as if letting a great weight off his back. Then he stretched his arms over his head and Cam's heart skipped a beat.

On his hip, barely visible but definitely there, a small sun about the size of a golf ball discolored his skin, peeking out from the hem of his leather jacket. Any person catching a glimpse of it wouldn't have given it second thought but it had the full range of Cam's attention now, her stomach doing somersaults as her hand flew to her hip where underneath her clothes, she hid an identical sun of her own.

The mark of a soulmate. On a stranger, right in front of her.

What was she to do, tap him on the shoulder and hike up her shirt? Would he even know what it was? There was also the tiny detail that she was happily engaged to the love of her life.

Speak of the devil, he startled her as he sauntered back behind the booth. "Stock of wild onion bulbs is in," Nolan announced. "I got you a couple dozen, thought that would be good to start. The peppers have really overtaken most of the...Hey, Cam. You there?"

She snapped out of her thoughts, turning to give her fiance an overly exaggerated smile. "Yes! Sorry, was distracted…"

As Nolan continued speaking, she watched the stranger regroup with his three friends in black and they left the market. A pang of regret, despite the circumstances pained her insides. She supposed it didn't matter; not everyone ends up with their soulmates and she already found the only man she could see spending her life with. And so as her and Nolan sold their last bundles of produce, drove back to the Reynold family farm in time for chicken dinner and peach cobbler before reading themselves to sleep in eachother's arms, Cam decided life as she knew it was absolute perfection the way it was.

Though every now and then, try as she did to prevent it, her mind wandered back to that day with questions of what could have been. She thought of him and saw the sun, warm and intriguing as the new day washing over Lestallum.

She saw the sun, even when those days lasted mere hours. He kept entering her thoughts even at the most inopportune occurrences, especially when Nolan was around.

But more than ever, she saw the sun when darkness finally swallowed Eos whole.