He couldn't shake her. Ever since the end of the war he couldn't shake her. Sure, she'd gotten better about giving him space when he asked for it but even when she wasn't around she still managed to distract him.

He kenw why, of course. She was pretty, and sometimes she was even pleasant to be around. But she was still the most annoying person he'd ever known and nothing could change that. Of course I'm not...no, never, even if she weren't so annoying she's...

Matthew sighed. Leila had been the one grand love of his life, and he could never feel that way for someone else. She hadn't just been his lover, she was his partner and friend and everything in between. How could anyone compare? Especially someone like her?

Tonight he'd let her tag along with him on a spy mission in Thiria, and she was talking his ear off as usual. How much longer could he take this?

"-and then Dame Farina said well, Lord Hector, you're just gonna have to get used to it because that's the kind of woman I am! So he said-"

"Serra, I find them as amusing as you do, but I don't need a play-by-play of every one of their arguments," Matthew groaned. "Now be quiet, would you? Just because it's night doesn't mean we-"

Suddenly, she shrieked and grabbed hold of his arm, pointing upwards with her free hand.

"What is it this ti-" And this time it was the sight above that cut him off. A single white streak across the otherwise pitch-dark sky, followed by many more. Falling stars. They only happened every so often, some even said once every hundred years.

"Aren't they beautiful?" she whispered, leaning against his shoulder. "Oh, Matthew, this is so..."

"...romantic." The word left his mouth before he had a chance to think. As he looked up at the lights, then back down at her, it happened. The moment that when he grew old and would spend much time remembering, he would always remember as the exact moment he lost his heart to the most annoying person he'd ever known.

With a sigh, he wrapped his arm around her and leaned his cheek against her hair. She snuggled into him, and together they sat in perfect silence as the stars continued to fall all around them.