"Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes! She, by the way, insisted afterwards that it wasn't so, that we had, of course, loved each other for a long, long time, without knowing each other, never having seen each other... "

- Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita".

9 am, 10th of March, Friday. 2541. NovLondon.

The first thing he saw when the door opened was a face. Her face.

Oh, how he wished to see her after all that time. It felt like ages.

"Hi," she shyly said, standing in the doorway. Even though her face was a bit sunken due to tiredness, her eyes held incredible elation.

"Why hello, Cass," he said, smiling at her reaction to his words. He so loved to see her again. "How've you been?"

He knew she couldn't take it anymore.

"Skylar!" The young woman cried, jumping and flinging her arms around his neck. "I can't believe I'd see you so fast!"

"Cassitude,..." Skylar breathed, because his girlfriend was close to suffocating him with hugs. He held her tight to his chest, still unbelieving that his boss had let him leave so early.

Neither one could believe their happiness. The light that shone from both of their pairs of eyes, the genuine smiles on their faces – nothing could make it any less joyful, less loving. It was a sudden, but happy welcome after long, grueling worries about a long-time farewell. A painful inner death swallowing them from inside would have gobbled them up, if not for the unexpected events that had happened. The previous night, they had been a struggling pair trying to make it with his astronaut job, and with her programmer job, but at that luscious morning, they were two beloved, girlfriend and boyfriend, who cherished and loved another.

Four years before, their two souls were joined together by love and light but, full of the youthful energy we call life, they knew it had happened long ago. They knew they were destined for each other, and albeit their bodies and lungs were in the dusty porch drowning in the accumulated dirt in the air, they felt nothing but happiness at that fraction of a moment. If they had concentrated too much on their everyday duties and materialistic thoughts, they might have forgotten what they were created and destined for. And one of the things they were destined for is love. And not just the pure, utter and innocent love but unconditional love too.

It had brought so much peace to their hearts that they had forgotten the circumstances they were in. But, alas, it was time to face reality.

"I was so worried about you, I couldn't understand why-" Cassitude said, her words muffled by the fabric of his jacket.

"I can't imagine what you felt at that moment," Skylar said. But "how could I be so selfish?" was in his thoughts.

"I hope everything's okay... Nothing else happened, right?" She looked into his eyes.

"No, nothing else," they shared a kiss. "Let's go. I brought the tea."

A joyous smile had replaced her frown. "Let's go."

After a few more hugs and kisses, half an hour was spent laughing and talking about simple matters in quite a comfortable ambience. And as the couple spends their blissful time together, dear Reader, let us take a look at their appearance and where they spent most of their time.

The man had sleek mahogany hair, with deep grey eyes, as if he knew a lot about the world at his young age. He possessed a lean but medium-sized figure, and his skin was slightly pale due to the big misfortune he had encountered. The man wore a rich-coloured black frock coat with thin silvery lines that represented beauty and hope even in the toughest moments of his life. Skylar's age was about twenty-twenty-five; he possessed the beautiful youth which would give him the chance to age gracefully and still maintain some of his features when he got older.

Born in Engel, former England, the young woman was short, but elegant; she had long wavy hair and light hazel eyes. Her movements were gentle and graceful, and no wonder Skylar had picked her as his girlfriend four years ago; she was Cassitude. It had been quite a pleasant time when they met, at that official conference, where they talked about literature while trying not to steal glances at each other.

Cassitude was an avid literature fan – even though most of this antiqueness was impossible to find in Engel – admiring the works of Poe, Dostoevsky and Coelho, about the works of whom she could go on for hours. This was partly the reason for her falling in love with Skylar – the young astronaut could listen to her for as long as he was free to, which meant for an hour or so, since the job required much time. Howbeit, like in that short parable, the last coin given to a church from a poor woman was worth more than even a thousand from a rich man, who had billions – Skylar's free hour was worth eternity, since he spent all of his time with her.

Skylar's flat, mostly consisting of his bedroom, was an incredibly little place. It could have been fit for a hotel room, but there were more bookshelves than your average hotel would include. There was the wooden desk, where Skylar did most of his studies and the long, convertible sofa where he slept and rested. The sofa was a brilliant shade of forest green.

A meagre fluffy rug the same colour as the sofa, loose at its edges, covered the polished marble floor, a pleasant contrast to the ugly polka dot floor most of the other flats had. The couple had taken some time to redecorate and redo the home to what they liked the most. Although it was completely different, it felt like home.

Lots of sunlight streamed through the window by the desk, capturing and infusing everything with warm welcoming light and bouncing off the glass surface of the bookshelves with blinding brightness. The chair, switching to six modes – still and straight, 5-min-break, massage back, legs or head, twirling around (for thought) and temperature; cool and heat – was the most technologically advanced thing in the flat, and perhaps, the most expensive thing too. Neither television nor AI of any kind was visible in the room.

Apart from Skylar's room, there was a little bathroom, an attic with some food and drink tablets, and a miniature balcony, which had not been used for a long time due to the climate change and the polluted atmosphere, which was unpleasant to breathe in. An air conditioner, a present from university graduation, worked quite sufficiently to clean and cool the flat. The pure oxygen without much carbon was a blissful addition to their lives. Skylar could endure more hours of training due to its effects.

Altogether, Skylar's flat on Mindway Street 22 was a small but inviting place. He had moved out of his parents' house the day of his graduation, 21 of April 2537, and had lived there ever since. Cassitude sometimes came to visit, but she couldn't stay there for long because her parents would get worried if she was out for more than three or four hours. Even though she worked at a job, dated an astronaut who was often at training, and was twenty-five years of age, her parents still worried about her safety. She found it quite unappealing since she liked to be independent.

However, Skylar secretly respected her parents because of how they cared about Cassitude. His own parents started to ignore and neglect him since he started chasing his career in physics. They constantly made him apologize for many insignificant things in hopes that he would lose his motivation for physics. They believed that he wouldn't succeed at becoming an astronaut. He was glad that Cassitude stayed by his side, despite the numerous occasions they insulted his choice and tried to break him and her up. They thought that she was the only thing, the only person to support him and his career choice, so separating their son and her had seemed to work excellently. And until university, where he met the a professor and other people who worked in his chosen field, that was the truth.

The only thing the young couple ever wanted was to get through the next ten years, be financially stable doing the things they loved and live a happy future together. So, when it was announced that Skylar, one of the youngest and most "promising" astronauts in Engel, had been chosen for the mission lasting at least four years in order to check some distant planet, they were crushed (although much money was promised). Skylar had only wanted to go on little missions, like fixing some issue in the ISS or flying commercial spacecrafts for an excursion to the Moon or Mars, let alone discover something for the first time in history, so the situation had been devastating. So he was thrilled that at the last possible moment, his bosses left him out.

"So will you go on similar missions sometime later? Have they repaired "Big Hope" yet?" Cassitude asked, mentioning the spacecraft which Skylar was usually assigned to fly. They finished their chamomile tea on the sofa. Since Skylar had been grinning ear to ear due to some joke earlier, the grin froze on his face as his brows furrowed. "Oh well, you see,..." He stopped, deep in thought. She still didn't know anything about what happened, and he worried about whether to tell her or not.

"Well, I don't quite remember what they said about this mission, but I'm glad I've not been chosen. I didn't want to explore this far anyway," he said. He intended to smile, but instead turned away, his gaze stuck to the windows.

But she had said something.

"S-sorry?" he said while impulsively looking around and saw that she had now frowned.

"I can still hear your scent when you are out in space, chasing your dreams," she whispered, softly as if she didn't notice she was speaking, as if she didn't notice what effect her voice had, as if she didn't notice the world around them. "I can still see you right beside me, and you can still touch my hand, there, in space. Nothing will stand in our way; please don't worry about my loneliness. I shall think myself selfish if you have to stay at home in fear of my saudade," she finished, taking a strand of his long hair and gently stroking it, gazing into his eyes. Skylar blushed, but, he knew what she was saying was exceptionally important.

"You are not selfish, Cassitude! If I have known a billion people in life and spirits and bodaigh in the subliminal world, you are the kindest being to have ever been! You continue to overwhelm me with kindness, so much that I don't know what I have done to deserve you..." his voice quietened, trailing off because he saw something glassy starting to form in her eyes – tears, they were... He immediately stopped and pulled her over in an embrace, and she held on to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and running her hands through his hair as to soothe him although she was the one needing to be soothed... She was pure, and utter love in its unconditionality, and maybe partially owing it to the relaxing effects of the tea, which they hadn't had in months, they didn't realize that they needed more time together than the one hour or thirty minutes every few days. Sometimes it was better to spend a little more time for support.

"W-would you chase your passion? for me?" she lifted her head to look into his eyes, her hair dividing in many chestnut-hued locks, one of which even fell down onto Skylar's forehead. The 21-year-old smiled, although not knowing what to reply. He didn't know what to reply.

A knock interrupted their time.

"Skylar? Are you there?" a voice inquired and gently letting go of Cassitude, Skylar instantly stood up and hurried to open the door.

He was glad an occasion robbed him of having to answer Cassitude's question.