Author's Note: Apologies for the lateness of the update and the shortish length of this chapter. I am the planning stages of my next project involving Amarante, Thanatos, and a little surprise. Sooo, my mind is elsewhere. Ehehehe...

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Thanatos lowered his eyes, pinkish tinge once more flushing his cheeks. I wanted to faint. I couldn't believe that I had actually gone and asked him something like that. I had just made things between us more awkward than need be. At least, I assumed Thanatos would say nothing after that and tell me to sleep after all, or perhaps just leave. But he caught me off guard this time.

"Uhm… Did you not already kiss me?" he asked, his hand leaping up to his cheek.

"Well, I actually meant a kiss…With…Mutual participation on both sides," I mumbled. "Here."

My own hand almost went to my lips, but I forced it back down into my lap. Thanatos blushed again. He was beginning to do a lot of that lately. I shrugged, wanting to kill off the tension between us immediately.

"Never mi--"

"All right."

Was I hearing things? I paled.

"What?"

Thanatos bit down on his lower lip, chewing it.

"All right. We may give it a try."

My stomach went insane. It twisted into taut knots, butterflies teeming inside me. My heart raced. My head was suddenly very light and fluttery and it took me a moment to stop myself from actually passing out. This was a dream! A dream! A dream! The words echoed in my mind repeatedly. But I knew it wasn't a dream. We'd gotten past the dream hypothesis ages ago.

"O-Okay," I said, edging closer to him.

He did the same, with some measure of reluctance visible on his face.

"Let's see… If we can do this right," I murmured, and allowed my hand to fall onto his shoulder.

He leaned in very close, so as our faces were literally inches apart. His right index finger trailed along my jaw, and he inhaled slowly.

"You are even more beautiful this close," he whispered.

I shivered.

"Thank you…"

I closed my eyes and parted my lips.

"Amarante…"



The initial brush of his lips against mine sent a wave of intense heat throughout my body, and sheer anticipation. He drew back from me, eyes half-lidded.

Then he leaned in suddenly, crushing his mouth against mine. It was very cold, but set my insides aflame.

I was in heaven.

Some fierce desire took me. I was kissing back with vigor, pressing myself against his chest. My hands were tangled in his silver locks. His arms were tight around me. I was being pulled under him, he was leaning over me. The kiss was eternity. The kiss was everything, and there was nothing else in the world. I wanted nothing else in the world. I wanted him. The heat was unbearable, but his body was so cold.

He wrenched himself away, hair mussed. His wings fanned out, having extended from his back sometime during the kiss. Their feathers were bedraggled, rumpled, and messy. He panted, and his eyes were wide. The fire still blazed inside me. He had ended it because he'd known I didn't want to stop deep down, and neither did he. We wouldn't have been able to resist going further for much longer. It was a terribly and beautifully painful realization. He seemed horrified. There was a storm in his eyes. He gawked at me, and I stared back. My heart pounded. I wanted him to kiss me again. He cleared his throat, and unexpectedly, grinned. It was very weird. Death didn't grin like that!

"I have never done that before," he declared.

"Neither have I," I confessed.

"Let us go outside," he said. "I am restless."

"I'm still tired, Than," I said, though secretly resented the fact our kiss was now in the not-so-distant past. "I really need to sleep."

"Sleep then, my amaranth," he said.

My heart fluttered. A pet name?

"I will take a walk, and occupy myself until dawn. Rest well."

He alighted from the bed and was gone; simply took off through the door like he had that first morning I'd seen him and discovered he had not been a hallucination. I expected that I would dwell on the kiss and never fall asleep in the end, but I proved too tired and passed out the moment my head touched the pillow.

Admittedly the smell of food woke me up. Thanatos had balanced a plate of something on the bed beside me. I squinted, rubbed my tired eyes, and gave the plate another long look. It had random 

breakfast items stacked on it—muffins, little plastic tubs of jelly, sweetbreads, eggs, and other items that really didn't go together on the same plate.

"Than, what is all this stuff doing here?" I asked, stifling a yawn.

Than, who had stolen my usual station in the armchair, rested his chin on the palm of his hand, which was propped up by his elbow on the armrest.

"I thought you might be in need of nourishment."

"Oh."

I sat up, eyed the "meal" (or whatever you would call this plethora of oddments), and set to clearing the plate if only to satisfy and please him. I did want him to feel he had done something nice for me; which he had. This would hopefully prompt other thoughtful deeds in the future, the like of which I could not imagine, but wanted just the same. I ate in silence and he demanded no conversation of me.

When I was finally done, I set the plate aside and stared straight across to room at Thanatos from the bed. The memories from the night before came flooding into my head. He'd kissed me. I strangled down the blush that should have resulted from the recollection, and asked about something else instead.

"Where'd you get the food?"

"There was a table in the main hall of this building."

"The lobby?"

"Yes. I believe so."

"A breakfast buffet? Stacked empty plates and different types of food to choose from."

"That sounds about right."

"Thanks for getting me food."

Thanatos' mouth stretched into a thin line. I smiled in return. Now, what were the plans for today? Maybe I'd try to take him to another modern means of entertainment. I could go downstairs and ask the woman at the front desk about what sort of things there were to do in the hotel's village, not necessarily tourist attractions. Yes. That sounded good to me. But first I needed to get dressed.

"Thanatos, I am going to figure out what we are doing today in a minute, but I need to get ready. Can you wait for me out in the hall?"

Thanatos nodded curtly and departed. He wasn't too lazy to actually open the door and close it behind him this time. I'd become too used to seeing him walk through the door entirely, akin to the phantom he practically was. I didn't wait any longer to go into the bathroom, throw on a red plaid skirt 

and black blouse with white lace frills, as well as black-and-red striped knee-high socks and black Victorian boots. I penciled in some red liner, plumped my lips with some blackberry-colored lipstain, patted on some pale foundation, and followed.