The lesson in bronze had been illuminating, but Vin found her mind desired to wander not to what she had learned, but to him from whom she had learned it. She straightened herself, looking up at the stars. Vin was a new person now. She did not hide from possible danger but instead now boldly pursued possible rewards. If she wanted Marsh - and she knew that she did - she would have him.

Marsh left his brother to his planning. Shaking his head, he tried to get his mind off the worries Kelsier gave him. As he left the house for fresh air, he found that the only other thought his mind would dwell on was of Vin. The moment he had become aware of her, his whole body had felt as if it were a compass needle and she were the phenomenally powerful and mysterious natural force of a planetary pole. Her latent strength overwhelmed his senses.

"Good evening, Marsh."

Marsh blinked, his reverie having become reality. The sense of attraction washed over and through his skin before his sense of sight adjusted to the darkness and he could make out Vin's slight form leaning against the wall.

She was smoking a nearly depleted cigarette, one foot against the wall, one hand supporting the crook of her elbow.

She blew smoke out of the corner of a crooked smile.

"Good evening," Marsh replied, suddenly feeling nervous. He was sweating; he could smell his own sweat and hoped Vin could not. He did not know what to say, but could not move away wordlessly without being awkward.

Vin lit another cigarette from the dying one, breathed deeply of it, then offered it to Marsh. "Will you walk with me?" she said, "and smoke with me, in the non-allomantic sense." He could see her eyes, faintly highlighted in the ember glow of the cigarette like two dark planets eclipsing two smoldering moons. They were the eyes of a beautiful contradiction, the shy, frightened girl and the strong warrior goddess bound together in the mind of one person.

"I don't smoke," Marsh said shortly. He hesitated slightly before saying, "but I do walk. I've been known to do so on occasion."

They strolled to the end of the street, where there was a bridge over an aqueduct. Vin unfalteringly left the road and climbed down to the short wall of the aqueduct. Marsh silently followed her.

Vin noticed that she had unwittingly been trailing one hand behind her as if she were reaching out for Marsh to grab it. She would have been surprised if he had.

Marsh sat down on the wall next to Vin. Their legs dangled above the sluggish water of the aqueduct. Marsh stared at her ivory hand, wishing he had taken hold of it as it beckoned like a flag in front of him throughout their short walk. He held his breath and placed his hand over hers where it now rested on the top of the concrete wall. She did not flinch.

A slow smile spread across Vin's face. The warmth and weight of his hand felt wholesome. Rather than surprise or cause fear, the feeling increased her courage. She lifted his hand and set hers down in her lap, his still resting on top of it. She leaned into his chest and rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder. She took one last drag of the small cigarette and prepared to stub it out on the wall top. "Maybe I will try it," Marsh said, pinching the end if it out of her fingers. He sipped a small puff of it, coughed quietly, and snuffed it in the stone.

So close. Seeing her chance, Vin grabbed his shirt and pressed her mouth softly to his. Softly - at first. He kissed her demurely, out of bewilderment, and began to pull away, but she recaptured his escaping bottom lip with her teeth, and with a wide-mouthed swoop, devoured his warm mouth.

Responding instinctively, Marsh pushed her back against the column of the bridge, both hands on either side of her shoulders. She arched her back and they stood together, braced against the bridge. Vin's hands urgently pulled downwards on the waist of his trousers. He kissed her hard and broke free hard as he hurriedly pulled his shirt off over his head, then made up for their brief loss of connection by slamming chest to chest and lips to lips back together with her.

Vin grasped Marsh's buttocks, ran her hands up his hips, hooked her thumbs on the waist of her own breeches and tugged them down while still pressed against him. Her face surfed down his chest, into the hollow under his ribs, and over his hipbone. She turned to face his erect penis as she pulled her trousers past her ankles. Her mouth was wet and hot and her whole being was hungry for his sex. She pressed her tongue to his shaft and lavished it with love, grateful for its existence.

Marsh pressed his eyes shut and let her do this until it was unbearable to restrain himself from thrusting into her mouth. He grabbed her shoulders and raised her to her feet. Pressing the full length of his trembling body against the lithe compactness of hers, he held her in embrace for a moment, breathing against her as she breathed with him.

Vin gasped slowly and deeply. She could feel the head of Marsh's penis pressed against her clitoris. He shifted slowly and it traced down her slit. Vin buried her face in his neck, her black curls brushing his jaw. Squeezing her eyes tight shut, she clawed her fingers up into his hair and gripped it in two trembling fists. "Fill me," she demanded, teeth bared. It was a hungry begging plea and an urgent order.

Marsh leaned his head back, yielding to her powerful grip on his hair. He thrust the tip of himself into her hot, wet vagina, then the rest slipped in smoothly. He sighed as he pulled out and thrust in deeper. Vin moaned with pleasure. He continued in an irregular rhythm that kept catching her off guard, kept her entertained. Fast thrust, then slow ride, relishing the entrance, and then out and in and out and in, and then in further. She breathed in deeply through her nose, a sigh of blissful satisfaction.

They slid down the wall, and, twisting sideways, sprawled luxuriantly in the grass beside the aqueduct wall. Vin spread her arms, and rolling her head back she gazed up at the stars. Mist obscured them now. Naked in the grass, her lover wringing pleasure through her whole body from center to edges, she felt that the mist was a living blanket that encompassed and enhanced them. She let her eyes fall closed and slid her hands over Marsh's shoulders and across his muscular back that arched up and sank down like the waves of the ocean.