Eva tossed around her bed, her brain buzzing with new questions and theories while her heart felt like it was going to burst any second. She wanted to go to the library and yet feared meeting anyone on the way. Anyone being the man who had dropped her off to her room with each of them busy processing their own thoughts.
Finally, her feet met the cold wooden floor and she slid into her shoes as quickly as she could. Opening the door to her room, she shut it in slow motion and winced as it snapped louder than she had imagined it would've had.
As she walked past the library, she remembered all the nights she danced around whenever she found herself alone in the middle of this world. This time however she felt her throat dry up at the thought of dancing. Taking a deep breath, she continued on her way.
Climbing the stairs with her slippers padding softly on the material, she made her way up to the roof as silently as she could.
Swinging open the door without worrying about the noise, her eyes widened when she saw a too-familiar back seated on the edge of the roof.
The body turned around sharply at the noise and his reaction mirrored hers when he cast his eyes on her.
"What're you doing here?" they both spoke at the same time and Eva rubbed her arm as a distraction from his eyes that were now fixated on her frame.
"I'll leave if you want—"
"No!" Eva cried out and then wanted to smack herself for being so unbearably loud again. If this continued then the whole of Eden would wake up because of the racket she was causing.
"Would you like to sit?" he asked and she stared at his features, mesmerized just like the first time she had seen him when she had woken up in an unknown place and questioned if it was heaven.
Walking toward where he was sitting, she let herself dangle her feet from the tallest building existing in Eden. The view was stunning and she had to catch her breath for a second. She would never get used to its beauty, she realized with a small smile that only widened when she turned to look at him.
"Couldn't sleep?" he asked again, his voice low and sending a whole troop of butterflies down her stomach.
"I'm guessing you couldn't either?"
He nodded, his face edged with gloom. He looked like a fallen angel who had lost his way back to his home. Eva felt like blowing up the person into bits who was the cause of his sorrow. He had gone through so much and yet he was still here, trying to protect his people and being one of the most remarkable men she had ever met.
He might be a monster to the rest of the world but he was a savior in her eyes. A home. A haven. An Eden.
"How about we play a game?" she requested, and his eyes flashed to her, unblinking and bleak yet still managing to snatch her breath away with just one look.
"You're stealing my words Birdy," he said with a light chuckle, and her heart blossomed in her chest like the first flower of spring.
"I'm a fast learner."
He smirked and Eva looked away, her cheeks lit aflame. "Jerk."
"So what's this game about?"
She nibbled on her bottom lip and then parted them to speak, "A thought in exchange for a thought. Of course, you can demand something other than thoughts as well—"
"I'm in," he spoke in between and she looked up, her eyes shining brighter than the stars above to his eyes.
"Okay." she gulped. "You first."
He sighed, looking ahead toward the vast ocean with its water twinkling from the Moon's light. Eva could see him hesitate, as his hands clenched into fists over the edge. Her hand reluctantly slipped sideways towards his and she placed it right beside his bigger one.
Theo looked down when he felt something cold touch his hand. Without thinking twice, he covered her hand with his warmer one and wrapped his fingers around the smaller one.
Both their shoulders dropped down at the exactly same time and Theo stopped himself from groaning out in relief. After a tiring day, if he was to receive this angel's touch then he'd happily work endlessly for the rest of his life without any objections whatsoever.
"I always despised the Moon." he started and Eva looked above at the shining object that glowed brighter than any star in the dark sky.
"If it didn't cause so many casualties, I would've loved to crush it and beat it until it blew away into nothing but dust." his voice was nothing but soft and weary as he continued. "My mother adored the Moon and my father would take her for flying trips whenever she demanded. She told me that it reminded her that hope was always alive and unrestricted to the people who accepted it.
"The day she was killed, the Moon was glistening brightly up in the darkness. I had her blood on me and when I looked up, no hope arose in my heart. I didn't believe her words from that day onward. I cursed it and blamed it for everything but I guess it was me shifting my fault to other things that weren't alive to argue."
Eva didn't bother wiping the lone tear that slid down her cheek. Her mind was conjuring up images of a small, dirty boy covered up in the blood of his mother who lay close by. The moon shone up in the sky and the boy gazed up at it, hopeless and demanding the answer to why.
"It's your turn," he spoke quietly, not looking at her but staring down toward the city that he had fought to protect at all costs.
How desolate had he been when he stayed away from his birthplace for so long?
"I'm thinking that all my life, I'd spent it searching for a home. I desired happiness, endless bliss, and my family with me to experience it. I'm thinking that life doesn't go as you hope it would. The family I once had is now gone and if I had one last thing to say to them, I would want to say I love you." her words got choked in her throat and she waited a second before continuing. "I love you since I never wanted them to doubt anything related to my feelings. I love you in place of I'm sorry because I'm sure that they would figure it out themselves."
She smiled, a tear sliding down her previously dry cheek.
"What is home?" he was now staring at her as if everything else had blurred out and ceased to exist. Everything but her.
"Home can be anything. I always felt restless in Gleana, always used to look up at the sky in hopes that someday." her voice lowered to a whisper. "That one day I would find my home. Even if it was temporary, I would protect it. Whatever it was. Because home can be a place, a thing. A person." she looked up at him, her eyes blinking and glowing with hope.
And Theo realized it there and then.
He didn't hate the Moon anymore.
The Moon reflected hope for his mother.
Eva resembled hope for him.