Lena's legs wrapped around Finn's waist as he kissed her ardently. She retreated her head, only to catch her breath. Her eyes were bound to his parted dark lips. His eyes then pulled hers in.

"I know," he shrugged and smirked, "I'm pretty breathtaking." When he got a giggle from her, his head fell back with a vast grin across his face. "I swear, your laugh is the most beautiful sound in the universe."

    "Finn!" Lena's breathless voice gasped. "I just remembered! You never answered my question. What do you like most about Kepler?"

    "When did you ask me that? And how, no, why did you just think of that?" he said, still addled from the kiss.

    "I asked you in the ship, on our way here," she answered as though her original question had occurred no more than a minute ago.

    "Oh, I remember now. You were eating those gummies."

    "Well?"

    "Well what?"

    "What do you like most about this planet?" she asked, eager to know.

    Finn rolled his eyes halfway and chuckled. Confusion was dropped on Lena's face.

    "What's funny?"

    "Nothing," he said, and it was clear to him that she did not believe his words. "It's just ironic."

    "What is?"

    "How my favorite thing about Kepler isn't even on Kepler."

    "And what is it?" Lena asked, more curious the longer he had her waiting.

    Finn looked up. "The stars."

But they nearly faded to the twilight of that Monday. Few still shone above, while the first sunbeams reached the tree heads at the cabin up high.

    "I can see that you like stars a lot," said Lena, "but I still want to ask: Is there a specific reason?"

"I just feel a certain bond to them. I wouldn't know how to explain it."

"I get it," she smiled and hugged Finn, placing her head on his glacial shoulder. The water was no longer mild as it had been at the beginning of their swim, especially where their wet skin was wreathed by the dawn's fresh air.

"What do you like most about Kepler?" he asked her back.

"The sky," she answered, prepared. And, before Finn could request an explanation, she exemplified her answer by referring to the sky's change of color throughout the course of a day.

"I thought you were going to say grass," Finn could swallow his chortle, but he could not hide his amusement.

"Grass is definitely a runner-up! But no, the sky comes first. It's blue, and sometimes yellow, and red too. And more than often it has mixed colors. I could have never dreamed of a place like this. I can see now why Kepler is the capital of our solar system."

Finn pointed out that the sky was slowly turning flamingo pink. She could not help but laugh at his choice of words, nevertheless, her attention was dedicated to the pink morning sky overhead.

"This night felt far too short," she whined, pouting.

"No wonder. Today's the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year."

"Thank you, Mr. Professor, for the lesson. You know what I meant," she said with an uneven smile.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me." Finn gave her an unpremeditated kiss; unpretentious and quick, and yet full of manifest devotion. "We should get out of the water before you transform into a mermaid."

"Transform?" she laughed, one eyebrow raised. Finn took her hand and showed her the wrinkled skin at her fingertips. "What's wrong with my skin?" she shrieked and clung to Finn as if trying to escape the water.

"Nothing," Finn guffawed, "it's normal. Look, I have it too. Let's dry off."

A fierce nod of consent and the unhooking of Lena's legs led to them walking back to the bank.

The sky was free of clouds and gained color quickly. Having reached the shore, Lena nearly tripped over her boots as she was staring up rather than focusing on her own feet. Her upper body started shaking from the chill air drying her skin. She quickly wrung out her shirt and hair and slipped into her warm leggings. They had been tanking sunrays and worked like a heated blanket around Lena's legs.

She looked over to Finn, who was basking on a flat brown boulder. His arms were folded behind his head, one leg stood at an angle, the other sprawled on the rock. For the first time, Lena could see his lean body in good lighting and was so far sunken within her thoughts that she did not notice Finn opening one eye and catching her unmindful stare.

"You look frozen, should I restart you?" he grinned, and when she snapped and blushed, he winked at her.

"Sorry! I, my—I was thinking—I was daydreaming."

"About what?"

Lena practically spat out the first thing that came to mind; "Mermaids."

    Finn cracked up, "Looking at me makes you think about mermaids?"

"No, I—" her eyes fled to the lake, "I wasn't really looking at you."

"You're the worst liar I've ever witnessed," Finn laughed.

"What time is it?" Lena asked, seeking the exit of the topic and a distraction to his suspicion.

"You're asking me? I don't have a watch."

"I figured you'd know since you seem to know everything."

"Wow! The accusations are spoken early today," he threw his black hoodie at her and returned to his reclined position. "I actually do know," he mumbled past his smirk and closed his eyes.

"What did you say?" she threw his hoodie back with a terrible aim. "What time is it, you all-knowing god?"

"I prefer omniscient, thank you. It's six o'clock."

"Yeah, right. And how many minutes exactly?"

Finn opened one eye again and looked at the horizon. "It's pretty much six on the dot."

She derided his answer with a mock. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Why so surprised? You said I'm all-knowing."

"You're messing with me, right?"

Finn sat up. He did it with strain, his eyes heavy and small. He pointed his hand at the sun and explained, "Just like you can do with stars, you can read the time by the angle of the sun." Lena stretched and yawned just by the thought of having stayed up all night. "I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

"Yes," Lena chucked him a smile. "Where did you learn how to use celestial bodies to read the time?"

"My father taught me," he said very abridgedly. "Let's talk about those mermaids," he mocked and enjoyed the awkward expression of embarrassment sprouting up on her face. "Is that a sunburn or are you blushing?"

Lena sat down to tie her boots. A good excuse to let her hair fall into her crimsoned face. "We should try to get some sleep."

Her suggestion was more than welcomed by Finn. He bent to pick up his hoodie, and just as he turned to throw it on, Lena glanced at the scars on his back. Finn turned to her and she quickly looked the other way.

"Shall we?" he asked and gestured to her to walk ahead.

The trail up to the cabin gave the impression of having stretched into length since the night before. What they had run within two minutes now took them ten, and when Lena made her last step up to the grassland, her legs seemed to be lifting heavyweights in the place of her bones.

"If I'm going to live here, I'll need an elevator."

"I'll put it on the list," Finn replied with an equal quantity of sarcasm and stepped into the sea of rank weeds.

"I'm pretty sure that I closed the door," said Lena, approaching the cabin. Its door now stood wide open.

"The lock doesn't work very well. I'll fix that too."

But just before they could enter the porch, they heard a jingling noise coming from the inside, and a long shadow on the rough wooden floor appeared to be searching the boxes on the table.

"It must be Blake," Finn surmised and overtook Lena, for she stayed behind with caution.

Heedlessly, Finn trotted onto the porch. He had his greeting prepared along with a smile and sent his eyes to progress over the floorboard to reach the shadow's genesis.

His smile dropped and escaped into the grooves of the planks when the girl with long flaxen blond hair turned around and slightly lifted the corner of her mouth. This was the time to wake up, Finn thought to himself as he gasped, and ordered his shaking lip to vocalize the words that were crouching at the latter of his dry tongue.

"Nitha?" he managed to say.

"Hello Finn," she replied in a grave tone.