She loved it when he fell asleep first.

And he usually did, he was an Earth being, after all, he was fragile and poorly adapted to the darkness.

His breathing was a gentle creature. It was her favorite sound in the world.

It was quiet those nights, when he lay asleep and she lay beside him, and something inside her possessed her to just watch.

This was her life now. With a strange being on a strange world, who told her things he'd never told others of his species.

A strange being on a lonely planet, and she loved him more than anything.

It was an interesting universe that they lived in.

He always looked a little worried when he was sleeping. She wanted to take him in her arms and say, "There's nothing to worry about, everything's fine." But she couldn't.

All she could say was "I'm here."

He told her that sometimes. She was surprised at how effective it was. How when he said that, touching her shoulder, her back, her face, it made the saddest corner of her heart remember everything it ever wanted.

It caught her so off guard once that she cried.

There were causes worth killing for out there. And sometimes, sometimes there were people.

She liked the way he kissed her. The way he told her out of nowhere, "You know, you're beautiful" every now and again.

She liked sleeping in a bed.

She listened to him breathe and thought about how much she loved him.

On those nights when he fell asleep first, she watched the darkness out the window.

When the sky opened up and showed all her stars.

A people without a planet could forget the meaning of a sky. It was a blanket when the atmosphere gave it light, hiding all the darkness and the stars and the reminders that somewhere, someone was coming.

She had come to love the daytime. It was like HIM. It was like having something that made everything feel all right.

She watched the stars and she watched for signs of ships and she listened to him sleeping.

She was going to keep it all right for as long as possible.