It wasn't a confession. Not by a long shot, but Ludwig still felt the back of his neck sweating as he spoke. "They must like you," he said, "and I don't blame them."

"Oh…"

He didn't know whether she had taken it as a compliment or not. It was next to impossible to read her face. Ludwig hated this feeling. He hated not knowing what kind of a situation he was in. There had to be a sure way to know if Lili felt the same way as he did, and there was only one thing coming to mind. It had it's pros and cons. He wouldn't have to speak, which was good. He would have no chance to play it off as something less serious if it went wrong, which was bad. Very bad. He had to go all in, or not at all.

There was a magnetism that pulled him closer to Lili and her to him. He brushed some of the hair out of her face as he leaned in closer, and her large green eyes threatened to swallow him whole. They closed slowly as her lips brushed against Ludwig's. He had to hold back a sigh of pleasure as their lips melded together in a gentle, but charged kiss. This wasn't what he had planned would happen, but he didn't care. He wouldn't trade the feeling of holding Lili in his arms with their lips pressed tightly together for anything. The pixies seemed to forget their dislike for Ludwig and fluttered around the two excitedly.

They broke for some much needed air. He noted the vibrant blush that had risen to her cheeks and assumed that he looked quite similar. Lili reached up to touch Ludwig's hand, which he had left tangled in her short hair. He didn't want to shatter the silence that hung between them like a delicate plane of glass, but something had to be said.

"I'm sorry. I should have asked," he apologized when he saw her startled expression.

"N-no!" She seemed surprised by the forcefulness of her own voice. "I-it's okay. I didn't mind. It was...nice." Her blush deepened.

Ludwig's heart soared. Maybe it was possible that she felt the same way he did. He had to know. It was too late to go back now. "Lili, I…" He tried to grasp the right words to say. "I wanted to tell you that...that I…"

Lili smiled and placed a finger on his lips. "It's okay. I...wanted to tell you the same thing."

He didn't know whether to believe his ears. "It doesn't bother you that I'm not...human?"

"Does it bother you that I'm not a werewolf?"

"No, not at all," he said with a smile. A real smile. It came from deep within his being and stretched his lips in a way he didn't think was possible. He even laughed. "I'm glad my brother talked me into this."

"Gilbert?" Lili gave him a look of confusion. "He talked to you too?"

Now it was Ludwig's turn to be surprised. "Are you saying he said something to you too?" He shook his head. Leave it to Gilbert to mastermind something like this behind both their backs, but Ludwig couldn't find it within himself to be angry. He probably owed his brother a favor. "My brother the schemer."

"But I'm glad." Her smile seemed to light up the night far more that the waning moon did. "Aren't you?"

"Of course."

A pixie with shockingly red hair flew toward Lili's ear and whispered something in it. "Will you leave them alone?" Lili asked the tiny creature. The pixie twittered something else. "Yes, all of them, please, not just Ludwig...yes, even if they smell like wet dogs." The pixie nodded and flew away.

"You can understand them?" Ludwig asked in amazement.

"Yes, can't you?"

"No." He studied her as if her appearance could explain to him how it was possible for her to understand the pixies. It just sounded like gibberish to him.

Another pixie, this time with olive skin, approached Lili and said something. "There have been humans around here," Lili explained with a look of concern. "It sounds like they came from my village…"

He waited in anxious silence for her to do something. To cry, to run away, to plead to be let go. All of these scenarios and more would have made sense. She was far from home and in a strange place. It was only natural to want to leave. But he hoped she didn't. He wanted more than anything for her to stay here. She had been told that she didn't have a choice, but that wasn't necessarily the truth. He couldn't stop her if she decided to run away while everyone was asleep, or to kill them all either. Those were her choices, but as the moonlight made her eyes shimmer like two polished stones, Ludwig hoped she would stay.

"The pixies are keeping them away from this area when they wander too close," she continued in a small voice. "They seem to be searching for something."

Ludwig had known humans had been wandering in his pack's territory. He also knew that they were probably looking for Lili, and if his feelings were true, he had to let her do what was best for her. If that meant Lili left and never came back, then so be it. "You can go to them if you want."

"But they'll make me tell where I've been!" she said with alarm. "I don't want them to hurt you."

"But I don't want to hurt you either."

She seemed to understand what he meant, but didn't appear to care. "I love my brother, and I miss him dearly, but I...I don't want to leave."

Her words were the sweetest thing Ludwig had ever heard. Without saying a word, he kissed her again. This time with passion and fire. And he thought that maybe he now understood what it was that Gilbert and Elizabeta felt when they were together. The thrill of being with someone who felt something toward him was an experience Ludwig had never had before. He didn't want to ever give it up.

"Then stay with me," he breathed as their lips parted. They both panted from the effort of the kiss, but they couldn't tear their eyes away from the other's. "Stay with me."

"I will," Lili promised as he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. This feeling was eating him up from the inside out. It was like a beast thrashing to get free, and he had an awful lot of experience knowing what that felt like.

"Let's go home."

"Yes. Home." She took his hand, and they walked out of the flowers with the moon lighting their way.

All their worries and troubles seemed to shrink into miniscule specks that could easily be blown away in the wind. They were from two different worlds, but a bridge had been forged that night to bring them together. Ludwig didn't know exactly what to call it. It filled his tall form with warmth as if Lili were his own personal sun, as if by some twist of fate their orbits had collided and realigned so that the centers of their universe now consisted of the other, an unseen force drawing them closer and closer together. The human and a werewolf.