Stars

Hinata Hajime always thought that the stars in the sky were beautiful. Their brightness eliminated the darkness of the pitch black night sky, and brought him a security which he could not quite understand. For hours he would sit out on the roof of his house, watching the glowing entities. Some nights he even stayed up to count and the stars, and believed he could count every single one.

But his fascination with the stars did not seem to be a childish phase. Even in middle school he took the time to number each and every star he could, even going on to naming them. And he longed every night to see the one that made the others dim in comparison, illuminating the shadows around every street corner. And even though he had named countless stars before, none of the names he could think of sounded the least bit fitting.

And he continued with this ritual up until his first year of high school, when his eyes glowed as red as blood and his hair as dark and vast as the night sky. When his skin was as pale as death, and his demeanor as unchanged as a slate. After all, doing such things would prove to be boring.

Suddenly, his life was full of color. The tan sands below his feet, the green foliage of the trees, and the cerulean of the sky. But most of all it was the people who he met in this paradise like nightmare. It was the purple of Gundam's scarf, the scarlet of Koizumi's hair, the dark green of Komaeda's jacket. And his passion for watching the night sky came back almost instantly, as if he had forgotten why he had stopped in the first place. Which, in a way, he had.

He found a place of refuge looking outside of his cabin. Sitting on the roof outside was far too dangerous to consider. And even though he was nowhere near his home where he had gazed upon it many years ago, the bright star which had no name was there.

But he soon became enamored in the events of the island, too caught up in the deaths of his friends. Such childish things like star gazing were trivial compared to his plights.

He forgot the existence of the stars when she died. Suddenly the star with no name was a flickering light bulb, stuck in a sea of eternal black.

And when he was reminded of the redness of his eyes and the blackness of his hair she was there, shining as bright as the stars he had always loved. And her light shined through the dark and brought him out of his despair.

And on the night of his awakening from the simulation, he gazed up at the stars. The star with no name was still there. But it was no longer nameless as her name spilled from his lips.

"Nanami."

The beautiful star in the sky he had always admired suddenly didn't seem bright enough.

A/N: Tears are rolling.