Jacob laid in a soft bed, staring at the ceiling unable to fall asleep. It was not because the bed was uncomfortable and it was not because he wasn’t tired. It was because all his mind could think of was one thing and one thing only: Maria.

Even as he tried smacking himself in the face or rubbing his face in the pillow, she would never leave his mind. He couldn’t bear being away from her right now. He needed to see her more.

’Just one more time. I’ll look at her one more time before I go to sleep. Just one more time... no, I need to be patient. I can’t bother her while she sleeps! But... she’s so beautiful, I can’t help it!’

He wrestled with these thoughts for hours, until he finally couldn’t take it anymore. He stood up from his bed and slowly snuck towards the door of his room. Right as he opened it, he saw none other than Maria, preparing to knock on his door.

She jumped up startled by his sudden appearance. Her face turned bright red.

"...Hi. I just thought-"

"Me too. I really wanted to see you one more time before we went to sleep. It feels like I didn’t talk to you enough today."

Maria’s face filled with shock upon her realizing how much they both missed each other.

"Can I come in?" Jacob glanced over at Lidia’s door suspiciously then down the stairs. He heard the distant conversation between Doc and Slimo. They were both laughing and seemingly enjoying themselves quite a lot. He finally looked back at Maria’s beautiful face.

"Please come in."

She slowly walked in and looked out a window. She put her palm on the glass and sighed.

"The sky looks beautiful tonight. If only we could see it better in this room."

"Maybe we don’t have to." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Maria turned around and looked at him confused.

"What do you mean?"

Jacob gently moved her out of the way and opened the window then gestured his head outside.

"What do you say?"

Maria smiled brightly and walked closer to him.

"Let’s do it. We should be fine. My mom is asleep and the two downstairs seem distracted."

Jacob held on to Maria’s hand while she led him down the side of the cabin. He landed on the grass softly. He waved to Maria, keeping his voice quiet.

"Jump down. I will catch you."

Maria flung herself out the window, lined up her body, and dropped right into Jacob’s arms. When he caught her, their faces were so close they could feel their hot breath fall on each other’s faces. Jacob’s face turned more red by the second as he lightly put her down.

"That wasn’t so bad. Let’s sit down on that small hill by the house and stargaze a bit."

He grabbed her hand tightly and led her to a place where they both sat down and looked up into the infinite sky above them. They put both their hands behind themselves to balance as they looked upwards. Jacob was able to see a myriad of stars and colors that littered the sky. It was an absolutely breathtaking sight.

However, Jacob looked over at Maria instead after a few moments. He saw something much more beautiful than the sky in front of him. Slowly, Jacob put his hand on Maria’s knee and looked her in her emerald eyes. In those eyes, thousands of galaxies were reflected back on themselves. Maria looked back at him with surprise. Jacob was normally never this forward before, but she welcomed it with no issues.

"I need to tell you something."

Jacob’s heart started pounding out of his chest. His hands started to sweat slightly. He was glad they were both sitting down, or his legs would be shaking. Maria looked at him with a gorgeous smile on her face. She brought her hand on top of his and leaned in closer to him.

"What is it?"

"I’m sure you already know. In fact, I think both of us have just been waiting for the other to say it for a while."

Maria gently put her hand on his chin.

"You don’t need to say anything. Just show me instead."

Jacob threw away anything holding him back up to this moment. He slowly brought his hand around her head, bringing her closer to him. They both closed their eyes. He could feel her breath slowly falling on his lips.

Finally, their lips found their way to each other. Jacob and Maria passionately kissed under the moonlight. To Jacob, this moment was everything to him. Everything they survived together, every moment they shared, had all led up to this very moment. Being here with her, in a loving embrace, made Jacob feel like this was all he needed in his life.

There was no need for a destiny, there was no need to become stronger, his only need was to be with her for all of eternity. A part of Jacob he never knew existed blossomed in his heart. They both wrapped their arms around each other, holding each other tighter, not letting one of them escape the other for less than a second, except to draw a breath to continue kissing.

After a while, they finally pulled away slowly from each other, still holding on to each other’s faces. Both of them were warm in each other’s hands. Jacob looked at Maria with pure joy.

"Maria... I love you."

Small happy tears filled Maria’s eyes.

"I love you too, Jacob."

They embraced once more. Stars glistened above their heads, the meadows stayed quiet, and the moon smiled down at them. The heavens themselves seemed to respect this fateful moment.

In the cabin, Lidia was looking out her window at the two with a bright smile on her face. She whispered under her breath to herself.

"It’s about time that boy made a move. I was about to start whipping him into shape!"

Downstairs, Slimo and Doc quieted their conversation down.

"You heard it too?"

"I did. It seems like those two love birds couldn’t keep away for more than a few hours after all."

Doc slid Slimo a small sack of coins. Slimo started laughing.

"You underestimated your own grandchild making that bet! I knew he had it in him! By the way, is this real gold or will I never be able to buy anything with this?"

Doc smiled cheerfully.

"It’s real... unfortunately."

Slimo laughed again and pocketed the bag to himself.

"Do you want to make one last bet?"

Doc looked at him, clearly intrigued by the offer.

"What are you offering?"

"Which one do you think will be the first to tell us they kissed?"

Doc pondered this question for three moments before responding.

"Lidia for sure."

Slimo seemed utterly shocked.

"You stole my answer!"

The entire cabin stayed in peace for the rest of the night till morning.