Everloving

As Above, so Below

Their lips met in a long, grateful, amorous kiss, and only then did they realize they hadn't dreamt that proposal up.

The promises contained in that kiss forced ​​Max to break from it. He couldn't let things go too far – he didn't want to rush Liz into anything, especially because she had called him there for a reason still unknown to him. He leaned his forehead on hers and smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry... You wanted to tell me something?"

His voice crept in her exhilaration and she opened her eyes slowly, unwilling to waive the ardency of their contact.

"Uh... yeah... I wanted to show you..." Liz walked into her bedroom, emerging shortly after with two papers in her hand. She handed him one.

"What's this?"

"Come here." Tenderly, she took his hand and guided him to the telescope. She set the coordinates that she knew by heart while he read the paper. His curiosity piqued when he saw the words 'Star Registry', 'Max', 'Liz', and a set of coordinates. "Take a look." Max looked through the telescope and was staggered by the sight: in the dark wilderness of the Cosmos, he gazed at a small region of enchanting light, with the brightest stars he had ever seen.

"Liz!..."

"Did you find them?" She smiled in anticipation.

"If you're referring to the brightest of the bunch, yes."

"It's a binary system. To the naked eye, it looks just like one big star. The first time I noticed them was when you saved my life at the Crashdown... that tiny speck of light in the infinite dark sky... It was there when you allowed me to say goodbye to my grandmother; it was there when we first kissed; it was there when we took a step back; it was there that night we went to the desert to find the orb; it was there when we jumped off the bridge; it was there when you serenaded to me..."

Her dreamy voice trailed off... Max's memories of all of those moments flashed before his eyes with the binary pair as background, and he had to smile, reliving every emotion she evoked in his heart. "You decided to register them in our name," he finished her thought, softly.

"It felt like a good investment." Liz replied in the same tone.

"Investing in eternity...!" Max chuckled.

"Yeah..." They were both lost in the majesty of that celestial sight.

"They're located in the center of the Lagoon Nebula in the Sagittarius Constellation." Max read in the paper registry.

"They're young, just a couple million years old," Liz said.

"Young?!"

"The oldest star ever found is 13 billion years old."

"I hope we can last that long!" Max sighed.

"Well, they're not too big, so they'll live a lot longer-"

"I wasn't talking about our stars," Max said, finally taking his eyes off the telescope. They gleamed as strongly as the stars above and Liz blushed under his gaze.

"I know," she murmured, looking at him with equal intensity. "Do you think we can last that long?" She wondered, unable to hide the yearning in her voice.

"I'm sure we can last longer than the longest star," he said, putting his arms around her waist, closing the space between them completely.

There wasn't any rational basis for his words, but when she wrapped her arms around him, around his strength, and felt his heart beating against hers, she believed that the mortal plane would never taper their love off.

"I mean, it's not like those stars have someone to bring them back from the dead," he added, with a knowing smile. Liz gave a hearty laugh in response. He planted lingering kisses on her forehead as he spoke softly: "Thank you for the wonderful gift... for saving my life... for teaching me about Humanity... about Love... for loving me when I didn't deserve it-"

She cupped his face in her hands and looked deeply into his eyes. "You were never undeserving!" She assured him, just before her lips covered his.

There was no denying the yearnings that kiss contained. As it deepened, both of them knew that nothing and nobody would come between them. A random night sound startled him and he looked around nervously, wondering if they could ever have a peaceful night.

"So, how long are your parents going to stay out?" He asked, glancing at her bedroom window, afraid that they could be home already.

"For a long while," Liz said, self-assured. "They are gonna take their sweet time with this graduation gift. We'll only see them at the ceremony." She opened a smile that made his heart swell. "Isabel and Jesse are at the movies, but they will be at school in time for the ceremony. Michael has already left," she said, dropping the smile for a moment.

"I know; he told me he was leaving... Maria must be distraught." Max sighed, wondering if the impasse between Maria and Michael would ever end.

"She is... I was with her before you arrived, but then I told her you'd be here and she left."

"Just like that?! What exactly did you tell her?"

"I told her the sleeping cure is over," Liz laughed, "and she swore to me that she would stay home 'till the graduation ceremony."

Max's smile spread widely and he held her closer in his arms, pleased with the news. The air around them was getting thicker with the fluttering fever they exuded, but neither of them seemed bothered. The world vanished when her eyes gleamed before him and her lips held that encouraging smile. Liz could feel his heart thudding stronger against her chest and added, in a playful tone, "The Crashdown is closed; all the doors are locked. There's nobody in the building, but us. Do you know what this means?"

He nodded and gulped. He leaned over her, their foreheads touching slightly, and whispered: "Yeah... This is our moment. Just ours. Finally ours!" After a quick kiss, he gave her a mischievous grin: "Do you think Zeus will give us the night off?"

She just smiled and held him tightly: "Oh, we've shown him what we're made of. He's no match for us... trust me."