Night came with shocking abrupt blackness, blanketing the sky like an ink spill. An inky void flooded the sky, chasing the last remnants of yellow and orange and pink as the sun ran for the other side of the globe. Stars appeared in the wake of the sunset, winking with timid softness at the vast expanse of wilderness below them.

From the porch of an old cabin, Ray Kowalski watched this, poking at the last few Smarties floating in his coffee. The few patches of snow visible through the thick trees glimmered in the starlight. He sipped gingerly at his steaming coffee and wrapped his hands around the radiating heat.

The door opened behind him, spilling warm light over the steps. The light disappeared with the click of the door latch. "Ray."

This once he turned at the first utterance of his name and smiled. "Frase."

Ben blinked blankly at him, then rubbed iritatedly at his eyebrow. "Are we back to..."

Ray grinned engagingly. "Sorry, habit, Ben." He jerked his head at the night. "Thought you said somethin' about a light show."

Ben shrugged. "Sometimes. It's not exactly a scheduled event."

"Moon's not even out."

"It doesn't rise until later, after midnight."

Ray grinned and chuckled. "After the light show when the world ends?"

"The world is hardly going to end in one day. It has been posited by several esteemed scientists and cultural psychologists that it would take several weeks preceded by several major natural disasters and a few plagues to truly topple..."

"Ben!"

"And then, of course, there are several self-sustaining cultures that would not be affected..."

"Fraser!" Ray spilled some of his coffee in exasperation, staining the muddied snow on the steps even further.

"Yes, Ray?" Fraser removed the coffee cup deftly from Ray's hands and deposited it on the ground.

"You gonna lecture me 'bout our last day on earth?"

Ben took Ray's hands and raised one to his mouth. "Actually," he paused briefly to lick spilled coffee off an index finger. "I was thinking, rather, that..." His tongue made another foray around Ray's palm, and Ray's hands shook in his grip. "...we could celebrate the first day of the rest of our lives."

Ray's first reply was an incoherent moan as Ben applied all the suction of a limber tongue and a powerful set of lungs could give to his thumb. "Oh, yeah..." Ray breathed. "I am *all* over dat." He grabbed Ben's shirt and pushed back toward the door and the warmth and heat inside.

Outside, the darkness waited for morning, and for light.

The End

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