"Serenity says she and Endymion are destined to be together forever."

There was a moment of silence.

Had Nephrite been a weak man, he would have declared the same about himself and the slim brunette lying curled against his side on the grass.

Had Nephrite been a lesser man, he would have tensed with the strain of hiding his reaction, and thus betrayed his thoughts to his lover.

Had Nephrite been a cruel man, he would have told her the blunt and honest truth before she had a chance to ask him if the same were true for them.

But Nephrite was none of those things, and so he remained silent, his body still relaxed, his gaze still fixed upon the clouds rolling by overhead. Still, the unrest within him was acute. If she were to ask the question that naturally followed such a statement, what would he say?

They were in love. They were supposed to be honest with one another. But how could he tell her what he had discovered in his observatory, that their union was not destined to endure, that it was simply not in the stars for them? Their path together was these precious bright days, and after that, there was only mysterious darkness. Night after night he slaved over the problem, struggling to seek out a way to change what lay before them, but it was always the same.

How, though, could he lie to her? How could he look her in the eye and tell her it would be forever when he knew it would not? Surely the lie would be equally as painful as the truth.

If she forced him to make that choice, he did not know what he would do.

But Lady Jupiter was as strong as he, and so she simply laid her head on his chest, and sighed, and closed her eyes.