Ethan's POV

Mates. The very word was a ray of forbidden sunshine in my shadowed life. How delicious it sounded! I've waited three thousand years to taste that word in my mouth and know it was meant for me. Maybe, I silently repeated to myself. He said maybe. Another five-letter "m" word that completely crushed the eternal promise of the first. Was he afraid of commitment or did he just have doubts? His work ethic proved time and time again that his hesitancy couldn't have been caused by the first. Doubts it was, and I thought of an easy way to verify it. "Patches, right before I left last time, do you remember anything, ah, touching your face?" He blinked in thought with a curiously blank expression.

"I thought I felt…something on my lips," he slowly answered.

"Like what?" I wanted him to say it, hear it in his own voice.

"I think it was your finger. D-Did I have blood on my face?" he asked, looking unsure. My face fell; his mind was completely closed off to suggestion. Catching my expression, he raised his head and propped himself up on two elbows, his palms digging into the pillow. "Wh-What's the matter?" I sighed and waved it away.

"It's nothing." It was everything. "Just relax, okay?" Because I won't. Putting on a fake smile, I petted his head again and guided him back down on the pillow. Behind me, sunlight flickered in the window, falling over the mountainside in the west. Time made its presence for the first time in a while. "We only have a few hours left." He huffed out a small sigh and glanced toward the window as well, carefully calculating the minutes until sundown.

"I don't want to go back yet," he mumbled. "I'm good right here." I raised an eyebrow, unable to tell if he was kidding or serious.

"We'd have to return sometime; the Masters need us," I reminded him. The throne room would most likely be a rancid mess about now. Corpses everywhere stacked in a large heap in the middle—a blow torch might be necessary.

"I know," he replied with weak eyes, looking so delicate all snuggled in bed. "But I like here better."

"I'm not promising anything, but maybe we could come back another day." That put the smile back on his face. He needed something to hope for. He slowly nodded, clutching the corners of his pillow. It was clear that he didn't want to go back and work a full schedule so soon. I really couldn't ask for another day; it was generous of Aro to give us a full twenty-four hours, and a minute more would be asking too much. The sun had disappeared, which meant it would be safe for us to go outside. "In the meantime, do you want to go out for a walk? We hurried this morning, so here's your chance to really see the town."

"Sure," he smiled, perching himself up on his wrists and enjoying a good stretch. I reached over him and turned the heat blanket off while he looked around the room. "Ethan? Uhm, wh-where's my clothes?"

"I put your shirt in the dryer and everything else is in the other room," I said as I pointed in the general direction of the hallway. He immediately shoved the covers away and dashed to retrieve his clothes and shirt. When his back was turned, I noticed more deep red lines striping his tailbone and thighs. A large part of me wanted his briefs off so that I could see the whole picture, although I had an uncomfortable feeling that it wasn't going to happen. As he left, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and started pulling all of my clothes back on with a slight frown. To say I wasn't disappointed would be lying; I wanted a straight answer from him, not a "maybe". Still, it was much too early to give up hope. I'd show him the town like he always wanted to on a moonlit stroll and that would be enough to win his interest in me.

"I'm ready," came Patches' voice from near the front door. He was all dressed up and ready to go before I finished sliding my pants on.

"Just a moment," I mumbled more to myself as I sped up the process so as not to squander any more time. "Alright, let's go." I opened the door and locked it securely behind us, tucking the key in my pocket. Looking out in the distance, houses, other buildings, street lamps, and sidewalks bunched together in one civilized area, leaving the outskirts wild with rolling hills of blissful green grass. Not a human in sight. "Where should we go?" Patches glanced around and pointed to the wider space.

"There, the hills."

"Good choice," I grinned, taking his hand in mine. I led him quietly through the streets to be on the safe side and let him go when we came to the top of a high hill. The air flowed with a gentle breeze and the stars twinkled brightly above us.

"It's so spacey out here," he observed. Patches stretched himself out on the grass and proceeded to roll downhill, laughing boyishly all the way to the bottom. "You try, Ethan!" Sighing at his antics, I sat down and lowered myself into a flat position before pushing off the edge and letting gravity do the rest. As a joke, I urged myself to keep going when I touched the bottom and continuously rolled away from him. Between rolls, I saw him scramble to his feet with a look of surprise. "Hey, come back here!" he called, chasing after me.

"Help, I can't stop!" I lied, curious to see what he would do. Patches jogged ahead and bent his knees, his hands pushed out like a barrier. Like a bowling ball, I toppled him over and timed his fall so that his chest was pressed up against mine. Together we rolled in equal turns—one moment he was on top and I the next. I felt his arms wrap around my back for support and I easily returned the favor. He gasped with alarm and tucked his face into my shoulder. What a sweetheart. At last, I stopped rolling. He lifted his head and looked down into my eyes, detecting the hint of playfulness.

"You did that on purpose," he correctly accused, trying in vain to suppress his huge grin. I tousled his hair with a hearty chuckle.

"Yes, I did. What are you going to do about it, Patches?" I challenged. His face blanked and he gently climbed off me, his eyes steady on the ground.

"N-Nothing." I lifted my eyebrows and sat up.

"What do you mean, 'nothing'?" He gave a small shrug like it was obvious.

"You outrank me," he said softly. "I can't do anything." I moved closer to him and draped an arm over his shoulders.

"In the castle, yes, but out here when it's just the two of us, no. We're playing, Patch; you can mess with me if you want to." A moment of silence passed as he thought this over.

"B-But I don't want to mess w-with you." He raised his gaze to meet my eyes. "I-I'll get in t-trouble." I didn't follow. Even between the two of us, was he afraid to have a little rough fun? I eyed the silver band hugging his neck, that hated piece of metal I blamed for crippling his sense of self-worth.

"Patches, can I ask you a serious question?" He nodded, giving me his full attention. "Why do you still wear that thing?" His eyes darted around uneasily and I suddenly felt like I had embarrassed him.

"I-I can't take it off," he admitted sadly. "Master Aro says it's too close to try to rip off. Th-The only way i-is to…is to…" He raised his hands next to his ears and imitated twisting his own head off. My eyes widened, crestfallen that he suggested such a horrifying idea.

"That won't ever happen," I said solidly. "I don't even want you to think about it, okay?"

"Okay." He touched my hand on his shoulder. "It's not so bad," he added with a weak smile. "I'm so used to it; sometimes I forget it's there." I knew what he meant and the truth of it nearly crushed me. The inescapable relic of his dark past had become a part of him, shaping not only his personality but his perception of himself. Out of pure instinct, I leaned over and locked him in a strong embrace, determined to hold onto him until the end of time. Dry tears threatened to well up in my eyes.

"You're brave," I whispered huskily into his ear, glad that he couldn't see my face struggling to stay strong as I looked over his shoulder. "You're so brave."

Patches' POV

Brave. He called me brave! I patted him on the back to tell him that it was okay and he shouldn't feel sorry for me anymore. "Thanks. You're brave too." It was true; I've never known anyone to stand up for what he thought as boldly as Ethan. He never backed out of a fight either. A few years ago, Santiago challenged him to a wrestling match for rights over a DVD player. Ethan won, and within the hour introduced me to the classic film Heidi. It's an emotional one about a girl with no parents who tries to make friends with her grandfather because he needs one and then gets taken away to the city to be some crippled girl's pet-child because she has no friends either, and finally returns to her grandfather's house because she misses him and the landscape. That's about it—I liked it a lot.

Ethan pulled away at last and looked up at the sky. "What do you think is beyond the stars?" That was a curious question for him to ask.

"Heaven," I sincerely responded. "Heaven is up there."

"Well, if it really exists, then you deserve it." He took my hand and stroked his thumb across the top. "I'm just sorry that I can't give you that kind of paradise." I blinked at him with astonishment.

"But you did." His lips twitched as if he wanted me to argue my point. "That place, the one in all silver and white—that's what Heaven is supposed to be like!"

"Isn't there also something about a golden gate?" He had me there. I sighed and gave his hand a squeeze.

"Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of gates." He smiled and then broke into a happy laugh, tilting his blonde head back as he did so.

"You're adorable," he murmured, partly to himself. If my cheeks could turn pink, they would be bright red by now. I breathed in the crisp evening air and exhaled with a smile. The world was ours; we could run around like crazy people if we wanted to. The hills in the distance looked so inviting, but eventually they would cross over the Volterra border off our city's land. But I didn't want to think about that right now.

"Do you want to play a game?" I blurted out all of the sudden.

"Sure. Whatever you'd like." Hmm, I didn't know too many games except the ones from my early childhood.

"Uhm, Hide and Go Seek?" He nodded.

"Yeah, but just in this region, okay? Anywhere after the first street is off-base."

"Got it. You count first to, uhm, fifty." Smiling, he released my hand and put his arm up to his eyes as a blindfold.

"One, two, three, four, five…" I took off running toward the town since it was the only place with all the hiding spots. Before the first street, I came across a quaint little store with a sign that said "Curio Shop" on the front. Dozens of little exotic figurines stared at me through the window, beckoning me to look inside. I crept along the side of the building and hid behind a couple of empty trash cans. Peeking inside, I saw a whole wall of calendars and postcards with beautiful pictures of the world's wonders on them. Lovely rainforests and waterfalls that looked so real, I could almost sense the moisture practically dripping out of the photo. A Chinese calendar had pictures of delightfully decorated dishes and bowls in them; sometimes they were drawings of strange-looking animals. Another calendar had a chuck of ice on a mountain with the title "Mt. Everest". The sights from these multiple locations must really be something to behold if people had to take pictures of them. Would it really be so bad to want to travel and see the world? I decided that I would tell Master Aro about my wish someday soon. Surely, he'd understand, having seen so much of the world himself.

"Found you," Ethan declared from between the trash cans. I flinched at the sound of his voice. He caught me looking through the window and glanced inside himself, his eyes burning with disappointment when he realized what I was thinking.