Back then, they didn't know what they celebrated, or even what days meant. Time passed without their comprehension, but something in their soul recognized that Dagan had been with them for two years to that day. At least, Seras saw it. But she saw a lot of things that no one else recognized, and she herself lacked the words to describe it. She'd long since stopped trying.

Hours ago, the festivities ended. Conversation and roughhousing died down, and Attis, Nike, and the others all departed for their respective homes. Seras and Dagan had not left, though. They were together in her bed, devoid of clothing and covered only by blankets. Seras was lying upon Dagan, head upon his shoulder, heart still beating a million miles a minute. She reached her hands up to touch his soulders, leaned her head up, and still exasperated, placed a kiss upon the side of his neck.

They'd been together for a long time, almost as long as Dagan had been in this city. Seras was found nearby, wandering aimlessly, a year and a half ago, and she'd been with Dagan ever since. Dagan's best friend Nike found her. Nike and Dagan-- they might as well have been brothers. Close enough that they never really fought over Seras. For awhile, Nike had some semblance of feelings for the young woman, but there was a silent understanding amongst them all that Seras didn't return them, that her affections were for Dagan, and that was absolutely fine. Nike never pushed the issue, never broke a boundary, never held a grudge, and moved on with his left.

Seras had longer hair back then, and it was all one color. She was blond and hadn't yet accumulated any piercings or body art.

"You're the best," she whispered to him, "You really are."

They were happy here in this world of Memories. They were content to spend the days together in a workless society. Never thirsty, never hungry, and never aging. Their gray world was paradise.

The day had been a blur of memories, of emotions and sensations; he hadn't wanted it to end, but it did and it did so spectacularly. An exhausted Dagan lay in bed, devoid of clothing, and a woman he genuinely loved was atop him, equally spent.

He murmured something of a whisper in reply to her words, but it’d be difficult to hear; he lifted and crossed an arm over her, creating a sort of half-embrace. Surprisingly, he was oddly quiet this night, and deceptively, there really was nothing going on in his head: there was no contemplative thought, no epiphany, no life changing sudden realization, and nothing even remotely similar to disappointment, but in place of all that, he was content--happy, satisfied and at ease with himself for the first time in a long while.

However fleeting the thought may have been, he felt that this one moment, for whatever it was worth, would be one to remember, and everything else, regardless of what his future had in store for him, somehow became all the more bearable.

A long time passed between them, wherein the lovers were locked in a comfortable quiet. They had little to say but expressions of love, yet the redundancies of it seemed clear to the both of them. That they laid together now and held one another in the most gingerly of ways was proof enough of their affections; it all needed to be said once and only once, after which the soft serenity of comfort sufficed.

But as all comfortable silences proceeded, there was always a guaranteed end. This end came in the form of speech. Seras set her elbows against Dagan's chest and pushed herself up enough that she could better see his face. Once she did, she smiled.

"So, hey--" she began, paused to wet her lips, and paused even longer to place a peck upon Dagan's, "I know it was pretty chaotic back there, but do you remember what Nike was saying? About exploring the North?"

Exploring the North . . . certainly, it was a prospect that Nike had brought up, but not in grave detail, specifically because their other friend, a rough and tumble young man by the name of Hart, interrupted Nike by wrapping his rather bulbous arms around the man's throat for a surprise choke hold. This undoubtedly ended with a wrestling match that Dagan won.

"I was thinking that . . . well . . ." she said on the precipice of an excited giggle, as if that alone was all that was necessary for Dagan to understand where she was going with this.

"Did he say something like that?" He paused in thought for a moment, thinking back to all the noise and confusion, and while it seemed familiar, a lot of details were lost. Not that it mattered, of course, because Seras said enough for him to come to a conclusion on his own.

"--do it ourselves?” He replied, but considered briefly that perhaps he should have at least included Nike's name in there somewhere. After all, it was his idea, wasn't it? Maybe Seras hadn't actually even meant to leave their friend out, either. Whatever.

"I don't see why not," he added with a small gesture that would have probably been a shrug had he actually been standing.

Excellent! So they could go out there together, then! With or without Nike? That was a question and a half, but Seras was a bit too excited by the prospect of seeing a new place to start thinking too much about the circumstances of it just yet. It took her a second to let her growing enthusiasm to settle before she could adequately respond.

Seras smirked some. "Well . . . I didn't exactly mean we'd exclude Nike, you know?"

Though, after a second of thinking about it, Seras realized what Dagan might have been implying. That was kind of . . . well, she didn't think he was into that sort of thing. Not that she was about to start complaining, of course.

"But if we did-- we would be alone out there, I guess, if that's what you were thinking?" Seras said inquisitively with her head tilted to the side.

Not that she had any problems with the idea. Either way, they'd be getting out of this city, if only for a little while. Intense exploration or mild exploration followed by impromptu love making-- really, she was fine with both ideas. It wasn't like either activity was something she was against under normal circumstances, after all.

Dagan blinked confusedly for a second. Why did she reiterate what he said? That was a little odd, but he guessed she may have just been considering the inherent difficulty of exploring a new area--an area they had never been to, at least--and without a third or fourth person present. That must have been it, he decided amongst his thoughts.

"Uh-huh, well I'm sure Nike won't mind if he's left out. Probably."

He would make to sit up and it really did not matter if Seras compensated for this action or not, but he only moved so far as to prop himself up on his arms and hands.

"Not that he wouldn't want to be involved, of course," Seras noted with a hint of awkwardness behind her voice, "He's, uh, well-- you know how he can be. But, well, you know. For stuff like that, it's sorta . . . I'd rather him not involved . . ."

The whole concept of monogamy was pretty much lost on that guy. Honestly, she had to explain to him several times how much she didn't want to be "shared" between men. Sure, Nike was charming and all, but she already had a man. She did not need two.

With Dagan sitting up, Seras rested her head against his belly and wrapped her arms around his waist. She was comfortable here, and could easily fall asleep just like this.

"It's decided, then," she concluded with a slight nod, "We'll go out once we've slept a little."

Another wave of confusion, but one that would be lost on Seras: he almost sighed, in fact! He had thought they were leaving now, and was a little disappointed that they weren’t. Well, sleeping was a bit of a waste for him, but he supposed Seras needed to sleep a bit more regularly than he did; after all, there were only a scarce few who seemed capable of matching or trumping his stamina.

“Right,” he agreed and made to lie back down. A long night awaited him...

It took a little while for Seras to fall asleep. She had a habit of thinking about a million things at once, making it virtually impossible for her to go straight to sleep. After thinking a long train of thoughts, all of which were seemingly random and barely interrelated, she finally slept peacefully-- while, of course, using Dagan's chest as a pillow. She was comfortable there, after all.

Hours later, morning came to them in spirit. In the Unreal City, they knew no such thing as morning or night. There was only one time of day: gray. It did not even have a proper name. It was a singular light source looming up above, forever invisible to the eye, regardless of how far one could pierce the fog of their world. You could fly for hours and you would never find that light source. It was omnipresent, limited only to the darkness of concealment-- through hoods, roofs, and other such devices --and was a mostly frightening thing to even begin thinking about.

Yet that did not spoil Seras's mood when she woke up. Had Dagan not moved, she'd still be there, laying flat upon him, head upon his chest, feeling as warm waking up as she did when she fell asleep.

The first few seconds of Seras rousing from her sleep were met with only silent acknowledgement by Dagan: he moved his hand and shifted his body, he rubbed her shoulder and brought her closer, but he never actually spoke. It almost seemed a shame to break the eerie silence he had grown accustomed to over the night. It did not last.

A few ideas crossed Dagan’s mind before he finally did speak, but many of them seemed awkward and clumsy, and mostly a means to stall. Well, he was not going to have any of that!

“I hope you slept well,” he said through an almost mischievous smile. “When’re we leaving?”

A romantic, Dagan? Maybe, but not right now.

Seras smiled up to him. It was great to wake up like this; she couldn't count the number of times that she had, yet each time was--

"Wonderful," she whispered contently.

Content, but still quite sleepy. She shut her eyes and released a breath, almost ready to just get comfortable again and let herself sleep for another couple of hours. But then Dagan asked when they were heading out, and Seras opened her eyes again, looked at Dagan with a slight tilt of her head, and quietly questioned what exactly he was talking about. After a few seconds of thought, she let out a yawn, tensed up all over, and stretched out her arms, legs and back. By the time she relaxed again, she finally remembered what Dagan was referencing.

"--oh!" she exclaimed, albeit hushed by sleepiness, and propped her upper body up via her elbows against Dagan's chest. "You're really eager, aren't you?"

"Eh? Well, yeah!"

He refrained from mentioning that he had been awake all night, waiting, because really, he didn't want to make her feel at fault. At any rate, eager did not begin to describe it--he liked seeing and exploring new places, and he very rarely seemed to get the chance to do so. Now that the idea of exploring the north was planted into his head and he had a bit of time to think on it, he was rearing and ready and he didn’t want to wait much longer.

“Should’ve expected that when you brought it up, right? I mean,” he paused in thought for a moment: “You put the idea in my head and all.”

Seras stifled a giggle. "Sorry! Me and my big mouth, huh?"

As she sat up, Seras took hold of the large blanket the covered them. For decency's sake (not like it mattered much, but still), she wrapped her body in the blanket whilst sitting up, until she was up and decent, holding the blanket to her chest, and contemplating where to start.

"I'm going to get changed, then," Seras announced as she pulled herself out of bed, dragging the blanket along with her, "Your clothes are at the foot of the bed, I think. I think that's where I threw them."

Though she was correct about that, Seras didn't actually double check. Instead, she moved to her dresser, the blanket following along and dragging across the floor. She took a moment to sort through to pick out an outfit, after which she turned, made her way out of the bedroom and to the living room, where she could get changed in privacy and peace. With how eager Dagan was, she was afraid he might not wait until they got out in the northern wastes-- which would really defeat the whole point! Might as well not entice him into action too early, right?

Dagan moved to the foot of the bed and sat for a second; he seemed almost contemplative, but he eventually snapped out of it and got dressed in record time. He found his clothes right where Seras said they were and was nearly surprised by it. By the end of it all, he would find himself dressed to his usual tastes: A green, button up shirt with long sleeves, dark brown trousers, and a scarf, which was wrapped and folded around his neck. Though oblivious of the state of his hair, Dagan placed a hat atop his head when he walked out of Seras’ bedroom.

“You ready yet?” He called, but proceeded into the living room regardless. After all, he was pretty sure he left his shoes near the door. He needed those shoes. There was no possible way Seras could mistake his intention.

By the time Dagan left the room and called out to Seras, she wasn't entirely done dressing. She had four things on: her bra, underwear, pants, and boots. Surprised by Dagan, she instinctively covered herself and gasped, but relaxed almost immediately thereafter.

"I-- y-yeah, almost," Seras said as she dropped her arms, only to sigh shortly thereafter and smile awkwardly, "Jeeeeez, you're really anxious, aren't you?"

Seras retrieved the blouse she was picking for the day, a button up shirt with short sleeves that was particularly easy to remove. Dagan had no concept of intricacies. She kind of had to make things easy for him sometimes. Nevertheless, she threw on her coat and scarf and was ready to go.

Offtopic: I apologize. This post is not only late, but it's extremely short. Alas, I've been pretty busy for the last few weeks. Not a problem anymore, though.