Their meetings were becoming more frequent and their relationship had escalated quicker than Pallas anticipated. They weren’t at the temple for once, or the private quarters of Pallas’ starship. Rather, they were planet side, on a world where the trees would die during the night and then bloom again during the day. The only true temple of the Sacred Penumbra was on Sintra, the remainder were shrines, and one such shrine was here.

Maude requested an escort and the Emperor agreed, supplying Pallas to them despite his protests.

“How much further?” Pallas asked, looking back the way they came. It was mid afternoon, the leaves on the plants around them were beginning to bleed red and yellow.

“We’re almost there.” Maude assured, using their staff to pull themselves up a particularly steep drop on the path, “Soon.”

Pallas had no other choice but to believe them.

###

Once they arrived, Maude told Pallas to wait outside while they tended the shrine. Pallas wasn’t a believer and thus stepping inside would be disrespectful.

Pallas sat cross legged on the veranda, watching as some of the leaves began to fall from the branches. He could smell incense beginning to burn, heard the shifting of fabric and the sound of dust being swept away from the floors and alters. Pallas had lost faith in the Penumbra many years ago, after the death of his wife, but even he could not deny the way the atmosphere changed. The light which followed Maude’s careful tending to this place of worship.

He must have dozed off.

When he woke, Pallas found his head laying in Maude’s lap, the monk gently pulling their fingers through Pallas’ curls. It took all of Pallas’ restraint not to bolt up immediately. Maude smiled down at him, playful as ever.

“You’re awake.”

The leaves had almost all fallen from their trees, the ground was covered in a sea of shimmering and shifting colors.

Pallas blinked at it, puzzled, before he felt Maude’s hand gentle against his cheek and bring him up. It was their first proper kiss since all of this began. Maude’s fingers continued combing softly through Pallas’ hair as their lips greeted each other, and Pallas could feel his heart beating heavily in his chest. 

He realized, rather suddenly, that he wanted this.

He wanted Maude and the gentle love they had offered him.

He didn’t think he deserved it.