"Dont you just love the way the moon shines so bright every night? She's always there, with her beautiful curves, against a backdrop of absolute darkness, pinpointed with tiny concentrates of light, of all that's good and pure and beautiful, poetic brilliance in one tiny dot. They're like her bodygaurds, have you ever thought of that? They chase away the clouds for her. You see," I said, tilting my head back to look at the sky, "those clouds are moving away so quickly. Revealing the stars. They look like they're running away, don't you think? All the haziness, the uncertainty, the tiny droplets of saltwater tears, all disappearing into the darkness. Letting the moon shine brighter than ever. Light attracts darkness, because despite their obvious differences, light cannot be without darkness. Darkness needs light to survive. It is, if you like, seduction."

I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, watching as the heat condenses into tiny droplets on the cold air, drifting out of my mouth in spirals.

We were still there, sitting on that lonely park bench in the middle of the night, now. But two's company so they say, the moon was the third wheel that night. He didn't say much, but I knew he was listening. Thinking. Sifting through my every word and making sense out of all the nonsense I was spouting. Cutting through the unimportant nonenities and deriving the core of my ramblings. Doing his math. I didn't know that, though. It's really strange how I remember that exact feeling, how I remember exactly what I said, how I remember what he looked under the light of the moon that night. But anyway -

I turned to look at him. He was leaning back against the bench, facing the sky, eyes closed. He really was beautiful. Not just in terms of his features, though those were pretty much perfect. But him, in general. Everything about him was beautiful. The way his eyelids, the same pale nothing colour of the sky after night and before dawn that I loved, fluttered against his skin. The way his lips, the same colour of violent lovemaking, quivered each time he inhaled, exhaled. The way his hair ruffled gently in the breeze, the way his nose twitched whenever the breeze wafted the scent of nature, of flowers towards us, the way his eyes reflected the moon, the way it had the makings of the most beautiful painting. 

It was, if you like, seduction.

He leaned forward abruptly, put his feet on the ground, elbows on his knees, then turned to look at me. Startled, I turned, just as abruptly, facing the front. I heard him laugh softly, a little wryly, and I turned my head, curious. And then he was right next to me. Inches apart, let lips do what hands do, I opened my mouth, he opened his, our warm breaths mixed together in the cold air, we drifted closer like the clouds overhead and -

He drew back, same time as I did.

He opened his mouth to speak, but words bubbled out of me before he could, out of my control.

"You know, the moon exists forever alone, despite her beauty. She had so many lovers, all those poets, all those painters, but the thing is," I shook my head, tears clouding my vision for no apparent reason, my feelings spilling out of my throat, "they never knew her for who she was. They admired her beauty, spent their whole lives loyal to her, but they never loved her like she loved the sun. They never loved her like the sun loved the earth. I don't want to be like the moon. Let me be the earth everyone needs, let me be the earth everyone relies on. So what if they cut me down? So what if they dig me up? At least I'll be used, I don't want to be nothing more than an ornament. I don't-"

"I understand."

I looked up, he smiled.

"I've been trying to figure that out for ages now, you put thoughts in words the way I never could. I been sitting here for days, soaking up the night, staring at the moon, the stars, the clouds, but I could never understand exactly what all these made me feel. That-"

"That feeling you get deep in the pit of your stomach. That slight ache, like something's missing, but also like something filling up, isn't it?"

I was smiling now, too.

"You understand."

It was, if you like, seduction.