Because the Night

camping, if you can call it that

After the picnic and more rounds of rapid fire questions she count count, Lily and Diego were released. Briefly. Not long enough that Lily could catch her breath permanently, but enough that she could slump her shoulders without fearing Moses would break out in hives at her lack of decorum. 

"I feel like I could write a thesis about you. Or fill out a profile for the FBI, after all that," Diego said, as they trudged down the mountain—not by ladder, thankfully. Lily had found the psychological exhuming even more exhausting than the vertical climbing. She laid herself out on the table, like a wedding buffet. What if they looked at what she had to offer, and decided she looked like she might give them...food poisoning, or something?

"I know. I was blisteringly honest. They were asking me questions too quickly for me to lie," she said. 

"Which is how they caught you confessing to the fact that you've eaten raw eggs," Diego said, bursting out with laughter. "I was waiting until they were out of earshot to bring that up. What the heck, Lily!"

"My mom went through a health phase, all right?" Lily said, laughing. "She thought we'd be closer to our ancestors if we slurped raw eggs."

"Yeah, maybe if your ancestors were other carnivorous birds," Diego said, and now they were both laughing. "Though your mom..."

"Don't say she looks like Big Bird! She's heard it before, and she hates it." She was laughing so hard she almost tripped on an exposed root. Why couldn't the test just be this? Watching them to see if they got along. To see if they lit up when they saw each other. 

That test, they'd past instantly—because they did. Once Diego let himself like Lily, it was all over for him. 

At this point, she figured she might as well tell him everything. She couldn't control whether he'd like her or not. But at least, if Diego and the Moodys kicked her out of Highland for simply being herself, she had one final protection: She was honest. And she couldn't have done anything better than that. 

"So, what's next?" Lily asked. "I mean, that couldn't be the last of the tests. Hercules had to finish a lot of tasks. I assume the same is expected of me." 

"Right, but no Medusa," he said. 

"Yeah, that'd be too easy. I'd know to bring a mirror."

"The truth is, I don't know what's next," Diego said. "But before we came down, Dex told me to rest now...and to wear layers." 

Immediately, the first vision that flashed before Lily's eyes was them fighting a bear, in the woods, at midnight. Luckily for Lily, that's not what the next test ended up being. Though chances are, there were bears near Diego and Lily, as they found themselves facing a challenge neither one of them was exactly prepared for. 

Though if you were prepared for all of life's challenges—well, that would mean you weren't really living, wouldn't it? 

***

Following Dex's advice, Lily and Diego actually slept when they got back to his room. Really! They did. For at least a few hours. By the time they got up, it was dark. So dark that it was easy to think, for a moment, that the day's work was through. 

"You have a lot of pent up energy, I think," Lily whispered, as Diego woke her up with kisses on her neck. He was spooning her. Her body fit into his like it was made to fit into his. 

"You think?" he murmured. "Hey, how about we skip whatever's next? Just stay here?" 

He turned her around, and started kissing her. A few days ago, she might've been embarrassed about her breath. But he already knew she used to eat raw eggs. What could gross him out, at this point? "I thought you might say that. So I created a strategy to motivate you," she said.