Weird to think that National Tell People You're Going to Write a Novel but Hardly Get Anywhere Before Giving Up Month has ended already. Where does the time go.

Having scoured much of the house already, Phil headed outside, still waiting for Keely to finish talking to Tia. He saw a familiar figure sitting on the steps of the back porch.

"Uh... Via?" he asked, slowly.

Via let out a small sigh and glanced over her shoulder. "Wh-- oh. It's you." She stood up suddenly and cleared her throat before turning to face him.

"Is that... is that a problem?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, not at all," she replied airily.

"...Is everything okay?"

"Brilliant. Tickety-boo."

"Right..."

"That's not seriously all you have to say, is it?"

"Hey, I was just seeing if you were alright. You disappeared, thought I'd check up on you."

"Well, everything's fine."

"What are you doing out here anyway?"

Via took a long breath and replied in an oddly high-pitched tone: "Thought I'd get some air. Does a body good."

"And you're sure nothing's bothering you?"

"What could possibly be bothering me?" She turned to look Phil right in the eyes. He looked back into her eyes for a moment, but her accusatory stare made him too uncomfortable, forcing him to look away.

"I- I don't know. Just thought I'd check and make sure."

"Well done."

Phil sighed. "Keely's always been better at this stuff..."

"Keely's got more tact than you do, as well."

"You know you can tell me stuff, right? I mean, we're pretty good friends..."

"I know," Via said shortly.

He sighed and nodded. He still felt like something was bothering her, and he wanted to talk to her about it, but she was being characteristically recalcitrant. "Well, if you change your mind, just know... I'm here. And Keely's here, if you're more comfortable with that."

To his surprise, she laughed. "Well, Phil, at least you know enough to admit your weaknesses. There should be more blokes like you."

Phil smiled and quietly thanked her while trying to determine just how much she had to drink earlier.

"But, most of them are tossers, unfortunately. There's a few decent ones, I suppose, but..." She slowly looked over at him. "...but you're different," she whispered, almost as if realizing it for the first time.

Phil fidgeted uncomfortably. Via laughed.

"Don't flatter yourself, Phil. Your Keely has nothing to worry about..."

"Oh... good," he breathed in relief, though now he felt slightly insulted by her.

"No, you're just... different. It's peculiar."

"Uh... well..."

" ... But no matter." She leaned against the porch railing and hummed to herself for a while, before lowering her head and looking at Phil out of the corner of her eye. "Where's Keely, anyway?"

"Oh, she's talking to Tia. Wanted to make sure she was okay after her fight with Owen."

Via opened her mouth, then thought twice about what she was about to say, and fell silent.

"What?" Phil asked nervously. "Is that bad?"

She looked up at the night sky, speckled with stars, and the moon shining full. "Isn't it funny?"

"You're deflecting."

"I'm changing the subject. It's different."

"So what's funny, then?"

"Love, I suppose."

"Oh, you don't mean like ha-ha funny."

"Not particularly, no."

"What's so funny about it?"

She let out a loud, short laugh. "Where to start... well... People tell us that love is this great, indescribable feeling you get when you meet that one right person - which personally, I don't buy into the idea that there's one perfect person out there for each of us - and that you'll just know you're meant to be together... but all the compulsions we feel to that person we supposedly love, they're... they're really all chemical reactions. It's the same chemical process in the brain that happens with addiction. It's an evolutionary imperative, really. If we didn't feel love like we did, these chemicals telling us to stay together and have children, we would've died off long ago. Who would knowingly bring a child into a world like this without feeling a biological urge to do so?"

"So what, you don't believe in love?"

"What? No, I didn't say that. It's love. It's not like Santa Claus."

"Oh... so what's the issue? Romance?"

"What's love to you, Phil? Would you say you love Keely?"

"Absolutely I love her," Phil answered without hesitation.

"So what is it to you? What is it you feel with her?"

He took a moment to consider his answer. "I guess above all I'd say she makes me feel whole. I love making her happy, and that she makes me so happy. It's more like a sense of belonging, being together. There's a feeling of need there; not desperation, just... a need. I don't know how to explain it."

"Indescribable?" she asked, smirking.

"It's tough. We just seem so... in sync. Like soul mates, I guess."

"Twin flames?"

"Huh?"

"A soul mate is someone who help us grow and evolve as people. You can have more than one. Your family could be soul mates. A best friend, maybe. It's someone you're close to on a physical and emotional level, someone who understands you really well. Someone who knows you on a deeper level than most others. There's a deep love there, not necessarily romantic, but still very strong. A soul mate could be a lover, or it could just be completely platonic or familial. A twin flame, on the other hand, is much deeper. And it's always romantic love. It's essentially the other half of your soul. It's supposed to be an incredible connection, emotionally and sexually. Like you two were specifically made for each other. It's obviously much rarer, since people only have one true twin flame, and that person might not even live in the same lifetime..."

Phil nodded slowly in understanding. "Wow..." He grinned at the thought of fate landing him in the present, to be with the one woman truly made for him... but his thinking was interrupted by Via's voice.

"But that's if you believe in all that spiritual bullshit," she added, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand. "Which I don't."

"So I gathered... but I guess that's a good way to describe Keely and I. Twin flames..." He turned his face skyward, reflecting on the term and how it seemed to fit more perfectly with each passing second. "Twin flames," he repeated.

She looked up at the night sky. "Romance is tricky, I reckon. I'm not sure I understand it much."

"Love is... a giving thing," Phil shrugged.

"No it's not."

"Well, I mean, not entirely..."

"There's a saying. An old one about the home. About how a house borrows the heart and soul of a fire so long as it houses it in itself..."

"Don't think I've heard that one..."

"It's not unlike the Moon and the Sun, really. 'The Moon's an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the Sun'..."

"Walt Whitman?" Phil asked.

"Not even close."

"Then who...?"

"Maybe it's because of that spirit that makes the Moon such a romantic symbol..." Via mused to herself. "But calling it a thief sort of takes away from that, doesn't it... strange."

"What are you talking about?"

"So glad I didn't talk to Owen about this. He'd be completely lost."

"Right..."

"No matter, I suppose. Don't suppose you have the time, do you?"

"It's almost midnight. Why?"

"Oh, I'm a lycanthrope and my body's about to transform into a wolf."

Phil looked uncertainly at Via. "Wait, what?"

"Is it really that hard for you Americans to pick up on sarcasm? It's like we're speaking two different languages here..."

"Guess this means we're not soul mates, then."

"Perhaps not. No matter, though. I know it's hard for you to accept, but you'll pull through. Chin up and all that."

"Right. Well, this has been a rather ...enlightening talk, Via. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"I'm gonna go head back in and see if I can track down Keely. We'll see you later tonight."

"Looking forward to it."

Phil nodded and slowly turned and headed inside. Via sighed and leaned on the porch railing, then gazed up at the full moon. After a long moment of solitary silence, she broke her gaze and slowly headed back inside.