**“Guess this makes you one of those ‘human sympathizers’ huh?”** Cassie teased, brushing Serix’s own dark hair from his violet eyes. He smirked at her, “I suppose it does.” Then, her expression turned a bit more solemn, and she looked up at him intently. **“Serix? Promise me something, okay? Promise me that we will both get out of this together.”**

“Of course we will,” Serix replied, tilting her chin up to gently kiss her once more on the lips. “I promise.” And he meant it. As strange as it might have seemed, he couldn’t imagine going on in this wasteland without Cassie by his side. The few days they spent together may as well have been years considering how strongly he felt for her. He didn’t want to lose her. After all, they were in this together.

Suddenly, he heard the soft growl of Cassie’s stomach. He raised a brow at her, a smile tugging at his lip. After everything they had just been through, it was almost funny how unimportant food seemed. Yet, hunger was what brought them back to the real world from their imaginary isolation.

**“Well,”** Cassie laughed. **“I guess we forgot to get something to eat after we were stuck in that room. How about we go grab something before bed?”**

“Sure,” Serix said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. Then his stomach let out a growl as well, making him flush. He scuffed his foot at the ground embarrassedly, “I guess I’m kind of hungry, too, now that you mention it.”

Cassie took him by the hand and led him down the hallway, back to the storage room where she kept her food stocks. She grabbed a can for herself and he followed suit, sitting down across from her. He opened the container to find what looked like some sort of cooked meat. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious. He bent the lid of the can to form a makeshift eating utensil, and then dug into the food.

**“Serix,”** Cassie spoke up. **“When did your feelings for me start to change? I mean... at first you seemed to think of me as some inferior human. And... now we are where we're at. When did it start to shift like that?”**

“I never really thought of you as inferior,” Serix replied. He paused to take another bite of food before continuing, taking the time to think his answer through. “Just… _different_. But I never really considered you as anything more than a foreign being until yesterday.” He looked up at her, offering a small smile. “I have nothing against humans, but when I realized you were half Lunairan, I started thinking ‘maybe.’ After that, I don’t know… It just kept getting harder and harder to stay away from you.” He felt his cheeks grow warm and he looked down at his can of food. “When we were dancing, I just couldn’t help myself. You’re beautiful when you dance.” His blush deepened. “I just had to kiss you.” He laughed and shook his head. “I know, it’s an odd reason, but there it is. So… can I ask you the same question?” He looked up again, meeting her blue eyes. “When did you stop thinking of me as just an eccentric Lunairan?”