"What time is it for you?"

"It's 8. Which means it's-?"

"It's 2 here."

Learning to adjust to their new time differences was a scenario that Luna and Erik struggled with. Luna often woke up to messages from Erik sent in the middle of the night, relatively normal times for him, only to find that when she woke up, nearly Eric's entire day had gone by already.

"That's not too bad. Still have all day left," Erik replied, trying to sound upbeat.

"Yeah, but then it means you'll be heading to sleep soon."

Erik's silence on the other end of the screen made Luna squirm. It was harder for her to tell if she had said something that annoyed him, not that he ever seemed annoyed, or if he was trying to process the same information she was. Their friendship had been confusing the moment he returned to the Netherlands, almost hot and cold but still maintaining a soft warmness that made Luna wish she could wrap herself up in it. The thought of it left a funny feeling in the pit of Luna's stomach, though she didn't entirely understand why.

She couldn't figure out if things were easier or harder with Erik away. On the one hand, they had fallen into a sort of rhythm, but on the other, she was very aware that things were going to change the moment he was out at sea. Not that it mattered much, Luna argued with herself. It wasn't like she didn't have everything she needed already, so she let out a small huff.

"What is it?" Erik finally asked.

"Nothing," Luna replied, her tone a little sharper than she intended it to be. "Listen, I know it's getting late for you, so I'll just head off now. Good night." She didn't wait for Erik to reply and clicked the end call button. She stared at her laptop's screen briefly before slamming the top closed when she saw Erik typing something to her.

Luna let out a groan, rolled off the couch and onto the floor, and covered her face with her hands. She had no idea what was wrong with her lately, and she didn't understand why she was suddenly so short with Erik. Things had been going great, all things considered.

Sam had been keeping up his end of the bargain, letting Luna relax for just a little while until her unemployment could kick in. The squeaky wheels of the government meant having to wait entirely too long for it to arrive, and the days seemed to stretch longer and longer with each passing hour. Luna had more than deep cleaned the house seemingly several times over with Erik being on the other side of her phone or laptop screen nearly the entire time. She went out every so often, mostly to walk the dogs and to the store, but met up with a few of her ex-coworkers every so often.

So what if Sam had been exceptionally grumpy and had started arguments with her over the smallest things? She understood why Sam grew increasingly irritated every time she would go out, reminding her that her $4 coffees once a week were too much and that he deserved his new $60 game that he would play late into the night, often falling asleep on the couch. If he was spending so much extra time at work, it was okay. Luna understood that he was taking the brunt of the work to care for them.

Luna grimaced as she heard the rattle of her phone vibrating against the wood table next to her head. She knew that the only reason her cellphone would vibrate was because Erik had finally finished writing what he wanted to say, but she couldn't look. Instead, Luna grabbed her phone and her laptop and trudged upstairs. She dropped everything on her bed and returned downstairs to start an exceptionally early dinner. Or, Luna realized as she stared at the baking sheets she had decided to clean just to have something to do; she could let herself not think too much and bake. It had been a very long time since she had made macarons.

Ordinarily, Luna would have taken the time to prep her ingredients better, but with where her mind was, she didn't care. She pulled out her mixer, set it on the kitchen counter, and gathered her ingredients. Luna stood on her tiptoes to grab her bag of almond flour and sugars. She turned to the fridge to grab her eggs and paused for a moment to think.

She could use premade icing but quickly added vanilla extract to her list of ingredients. A homemade buttercream sounded like a much better idea.

Making macarons was a good distraction for Luna. All the work needed to measure and separate ingredients in the correct order left her with little time to think. She had no idea what Erik might have said and didn't have to think about it. Instead, she let her mind wander to how things had been at home.

If she was at all allowed to be honest with herself, Sam was spending far more time outside of the house than he was in. It had been an entirely different stressor for her because she never knew when he would be home. She had his work schedule, but he often came home later or left the house earlier, depending on the day. Luna frowned slightly and rolled her aching, tight shoulders. The uncertainty of when Sam would be in the house left Luna anxious, and she felt like a tightly wound ball of string.

As Luna carefully piped out her macaron batter onto her silicone sheet, Luna rolled her neck on her shoulders. She studied the blue color she had opted to dye the batter and wished that she had changed it to a different color because she knew once it baked, it would turn into a grey color that would remind her of Erik's eyes. If she wasn't careful, the bottom of her cookies would crisp to the brown of Sam's eyes that she had seen tinged red with anger far too often lately. It was useless for Luna to dwell on that fact, and she shook herself out and continued to pipe her perfect circles onto her mat.

She was determined to have her macarons be nothing less than perfect.

When Luna finally ran out of space and batter and let her macarons sit long enough to settle, she finally placed them into the oven. The baking was always the most challenging part. Keep them in the oven too long and they would burn. Take them out too early, and Luna risked the cookie still being too doughy and caving in on itself. Even worse – if she hadn't let her macarons sit long enough, they might not ever grow their feet and be a failure. The last thing she needed was to be a failure after Sam seemed to try and sneak that in every time she didn't get a response from a job she had applied to. All Luna could do was set a timer and hope for the best. In at least 13 minutes, she would know the outcome.

Needing to be distracted, Luna rushed to the living room and grabbed the first book she could. She sat at the kitchen island and snorted at the book she had picked up. Of course she would grab one on mythology.

Luna had always been interested in mythology, starting with the Greeks before finding fascination in Norse myths. She was increasingly fascinated by the stories of Odin and the massive mythical and beastly creatures like Fenrir. However, she had never read much into Asian mythology before she realized as she flipped through to that section of the book, and one caught her eye.

The Red String of Fate, Luna read, letting out a quiet hum. She had never heard of it before, and as she read the story of a young boy meeting an old man who stated that his destined wife was attached to him by a red thread, she found herself captivated. Though the girl and the boy never made a connection as children and went through life apart, they had come to each other in the end. Like most myths, the story had different variations, but in the end, they all wound up the same.

No matter how much happened in life or how things changed, the two tied together by the red string would always meet and be together. Their strings could tangle and stretch, but they would never break.

Luna found it sweet, but before she could think about it more, the sharp sound of the oven's alarm rang out, and she hopped up to investigate her macarons. She was relieved that they looked exactly as they should when she pulled the cookies out of the oven. Setting them aside to cool, Luna made quick work of her buttercream icing, taking sneaky tastes before scooping it into another piping bag and finally creating her macarons once the cookies were ready.

With her freshly made macarons sitting pretty on a plate, Luna admired her creations. She wished she had her phone with her so she could take a photo of what she had made, but she wanted something for herself instead that felt like a little secret. Not many people knew she could even make macarons, and she enjoyed having it be a surprise when she brought them to parties. Luna picked up a cookie and took a bite, letting out a moan of delight as she chewed. There wasn't much that she could say that she did well, but macarons were one of those things, and the fresh buttercream was a delight.

Luna grabbed another macaron, returned to her book, and thought about the story. As she chewed on her second cookie, she mulled over her thoughts. Were she and Sam attached by the red string? They had to have been. They had known each other for several years before they had gotten together, only meeting because they had gotten into an argument over something stupid that had come up with a mutual friend. Sam and Luna had gone their separate ways, meeting up occasionally over the years before finally, perhaps begrudgingly, giving things a try.

For some reason, they just seemed to work, and after so many years together, they had a place to live, and their pets, and were working towards their goals.

Well, mostly, Luna thought to herself. Sam had given up on returning to school, and Luna couldn't exactly go back when she had to support them. Her full-time work didn't easily accommodate school schedules. Sam had been content with working in retail, and Luna had been okay with that when they had money. But still, they had made things work. No matter how much their string had been tangled over the years, they were together.

The thought of it gave Luna a funny little feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she knew that she needed to talk about what she had read. There was only one person that she knew would be willing to listen. She finished her cookie, put the rest in the fridge to stay fresh, and ran upstairs to grab her phone.

Luna blanched when she looked at her screen to see several messages from Erik asking if she was okay and that he hoped he hadn't done something wrong. The most recent message had come only a few minutes earlier which meant that he was still up, which left Luna slightly grateful. She quickly pulled Discord up on her phone, and ignored the rest of his other messages because she didn't want to be reminded of how she had just left. She typed as quickly as her fingers would let her.

| So, Erik, have you ever heard of the red string of fate?

| The red string of what?

| The red string of fate.

| And why would I have ever heard of that?

| You're a reader who enjoys myths and legends. Considering this one is romantic, I would have thought you would know about it.

| I can't say that I've ever heard of it.

| Do you want me to tell you about it?

| I have a feeling that no matter what I said, you would tell me anyway.

| And you would be very correct in that statement.
| So, the red string of fate is a myth based primarily in Asian countries.
| I'm not sure where it originated exactly.
| It says China
| But also says Japan
| Could be one of the others
| Not sure, but the premise is the same even if they're a little different. So maybe it kind of originated everywhere.
| Don't know
| You know how myths are
| Anyway
| It's sometimes called the red string of marriage, but I feel like that's a given
| It's about love, after all

| Wait, the red string of marriage?

| Wait
| Let me finish and then you can talk
| Thank you
| Anyway
| According to the myth, the gods tie a red string to people who are meant to meet one another no matter what
| In Chinese legend, the deity in charge of the thread is basically a matchmaker
| The two people tied together are destined lovers, regardless of time
| The cord can stretch or tangle, but it'll never break

| And why would I have ever heard of that?

| Just figured with how much you read, you would have heard of it.

| So, it's like a soulmate situation?

It was a curious question, Luna had to admit. Was the red string myth like a soul mate? She pondered the question for a few minutes before finally answering.

| Well, in a way, but this is fated. A soulmate is someone whose soul matches up to yours.
| I suppose the red string leads you to your soulmate, but it's different.
| It's like when people say twin flames and soulmates are the same thing.

| They are the same thing.

| They're not, actually.
|You can have one twin flame, and multiple soulmates.
| I suppose the red string could be closer to a twin flame because there's only one person.

| So you're telling me that you believe in this red thread nonsense?

| I more than believe it. I know it's true.

Luna realized that she must have sounded mental, but a giddy giggle crept up her throat. She was more than determined to show Erik that she was right and that it existed. It had to! How else would she and Sam work? It was the only explanation for how they got together and had been together for so long. They were fated!

| You can't be serious right now.

| Why not?

| Because it's a myth.

| And that makes it any less real? In fact, I know who my red thread is attached to.

| Who?

| You don't even believe in it. Why would I tell you?

| You can't just lead in and say you know and then not tell me. But it obviously has to be Sam, right?

| Well you don't believe in it, so it's stupid. You're going to make fun of me now, aren't you?

| Why would I?
| I just don't believe in those things. True love and the whatnot. It's stupid to believe in those things and look that far into the future in hopes someone will come along.
| I don't believe that there's one single person that's destined for us.
|That doesn't seem possible.

| Well, you're wrong.

| Am I?

| Yes.

| Okay, fine. I'm going to prove you wrong.

| Oh, are you?

| I will. I'm going to prove that your little red string of fate is just a theory, not even a myth. There's no such thing, and that myth is horribly wrong. A myth is a myth for a reason

| You can try and prove me wrong all you want, Erik. But I'll prove that you're the wrong one in the end.

| And how are you going to do that?

| You'll see.

Luna stared at her screen and watched Erik's online icon disappear into nothing. A little bubble of annoyance broke through her giddiness at wanting to prove Erik wrong. What did he know if he apparently didn't have a romantic bone in his body? Not believing in true love – how was that even possible? She was about to close her laptop but froze when she saw his icon pop back on.

| By the way, you should make your own server for your stories
| I know that you haven't started sharing anything you've written with others yet, but you should be prepared for when you do
| Make it and people will come
| I have to go to sleep, though. Have to finish packing because I leave soon
| Good night.

Before Luna could answer, Erik was offline again. She wasn't sure what to do and looked between the green plus sign at the bottom of her screen and Erik's message. Momentaily derailed from their conversation, Luna found herself thinking. Could she do such a thing? She had finally been coerced into sharing some of her writing with Erik, and he said it was amazing, but she couldn't show anyone else yet. But could she?

Luna stared at the symbol for a moment longer before deciding to hit it out of curiosity. A window popped up in the middle of her screen.

"Create a server," Luna read aloud, running a hand through her hair and turning her attention to the button that read "Create My Own." She stared at it for a few minutes before deciding to click it, and before she knew it, she was presented with an empty screen with the only option of a page labeled "#general." With a very long night ahead of her, Luna got to work to try and set up what Erik thought would be eventually a community of her readers.