'Floating here

Like this with you

Underneath the stars

Aligned

For 13 billion years

The view

It's beautiful

And ours alone tonight

Underneath the stars'

~ ~ ~

Much like she's found herself doing frequently in the past, Nene Yashiro has picked up a new hobby, and it's all because of a boy. Quite unlike the previous times, however, it wasn't necessarily in the name of impressing said boy, or an attempt at garnering his attention - no, it started as the upwelling of an impulse that even she herself did not at first understand.

There was a restlessness settled deep into her bones, she realized that first week of her return from the Painted World, wide eyes staring up at the stick-on bats and crescent moons adorning the ceiling above where she lay. They glowed a faint milky white against the darkness, but it was pallid and almost embarrassing compared to the memories of stars and meteors that would not stop swirling around in her head, halting her slumber. Insistently fierce, those memories streaked through her consciousness just like the Perseids they had witnessed claim the summer night's sky.

Undoubtedly the beauty of that cosmic debris would have enraptured most anyone privy to its spectacle but if truth be told it was not the wonders of the stars or the meteor shower Yashiro couldn't keep from burning a trail in her mind, but the bewitched boy sharing it with her whose profile she couldn't keep her gaze off of. An Amane-who-was-Hanako, showing her a face of his she'd never seen the likes of before: a face of reverence, of innocence, gracing the sky above with a smile so soft and rare that even just the remembrance of it sent her spiraling in the most devastating of ways.

The childish stickers she'd been staring at the past few nights as sleep eluded her quickly became too poor of a substitute - she needed to capture that moment, that feeling with Hanako, if only in the confines of her imagination once again - and deep down the idealistic girl had an idea on how to try.

Which is how Nene Yashiro has taken up star-gazing.

Pressing her back against the railing of her apartment's cramped balcony and leaning backwards, she'd crane her neck so far back she feared she may topple over the dang thing, but any thoughts of discomfort were soon dispelled by the enormity of the beauty looming over her.

She'd stare and stare, up into an endless expanse of jet-black ink dotted with brilliant, fiery clusters, looking like the haphazard splatterings of a child playing with ivory paint. She'd fixate so intently that when she closed her eyes, that unearthly light still burned bright against the black of her eyelids, its chaotic brilliance evoking that of a certain ghostly grin.

Yashiro had arguably never really paid the night sky extra mind until now, finding plenty of other opportunities at keeping her head in the clouds, so to speak, but it didn't take long for it to feel like girl and stars had been secretly rendezvousing for most of her life. Part of her couldn't help but wonder if her sudden compellence towards this new pastime could be attributed to some after-effect of the bond she and Hanako shared, perhaps a transference of the feelings the ghost once felt as a curious boy gazing up at the celestial wonders; the joy he once regarded the moon and stars and seemed to no longer allow himself to feel.

Like a self-imposed penance.

Or maybe Yashiro had taken to searching the sky every night for more selfish reasons, because when she pressed her eyes closed tightly enough she thought she could see the outline of Hanako's smile there, in that galaxy of her mind, after drinking in the light of the stars like an ethereal elixir.

The more time she spent gazing at the stars, the more she thinks there's a piece of her seeking an answer to questions she hadn't known lay within her; as if she could beseech from the moon and stars themselves how she could possibly unlock that unadulterated smile from the Hanako she knows now. It lead her to methodically and obsessively pouring over the details of their rooftop interaction, like an archaeologist brushing the dust away from unearthed debris in search of long-buried secrets.

She'd turn each moment over in her mind, a feeling twirling and pulling upwards from the very tingly tips of her toes all the way to where her heart beat feverishly against her ribcage, recalling how the dusky shadows played along the slope of his jaw as he turned eyes wide and honeyed up at the latticework of celestial light winking high above them. That gentle smile parts, and suddenly his serene voice is ringing through the perfect night air.

"Red giants are stars that are soon going to die. So we might not even be seeing the real antares."

"Even if it's visible now, it could already be dead. In a way...it's a bit like a ghost."

The words fell from his lips like dark chocolate, sweet at first, but with an underlying bitterness that felt like a revelation when she slipped them over her tongue. Briefly, she is struck by the feeling that the Hanako she had met that night, under the breadth of a fake sky, had shown her deeper parts of himself than he'd ever dared allow before, and it's a bittersweet thought in of itself when she realized it was only because he wasn't expecting her to remember him.

As Yashiro gazes up at the stickered-ceiling of her bedroom tonight with sleep once again a fickle little mistress, her thoughts first turn to earlier in the day before leaving school, where she also encountered a Hanako with his head thrown back and facing towards the vastness looming above them. Gazing upwards as the sky draped itself in the beginnings of dusk, he had stared and stared, as hushed and still as a stone gargoyle, awaiting as the encroaching darkness stubbornly pushed the last bit of sunlight downwards.

It wasn't like the Hanako she had been spending all her nights consumed with thinking of. It was a Hanako whose eyes were dark and blank, like a starless night sky. It made her want to become the stars themselves for him, filling up the expanse of nothing with something warm, something bright.

Yashiro watched his unmoving back until a few stars started to shyly dust the horizon, and a look passed over him that she couldn't quite discern but somehow called to her mind his words of dead stars. Almost as if the feelings she saw now shadowing his face were like his description of latent starlight, residual from a time long ago, when a ghost was just a boy.

"If I look at it too much, it makes me want to go there."

And before true evening could fully make its descent, lighting up the sky like a cosmic parade, Hanako had disappeared in a flash of supernatural energy and dramatic rustle of his cloak.

"And I've made up my mind now. I'm not going anywhere."

Tonight Yashiro realizes the idea of sneaking out to her apartment's tiny balcony and straining her eyes to compete with the lights of the city around her just didn't quite feel like...enough, this time around. Her thoughts were an endless whirlpool, spinning around so violently it was impossible to catch hold of any single one of them. The feeling seemed to trickle down through her blood and leave a frenetic buzzing in its wake.

That wild energy singing through her veins could only be appeased by one destination, her heart somehow knew instinctively - the rooftop of the school. The centerpiece of her whirling, circular thoughts; that very same place she and Hanako-as-Amane shared a resolution.

Releasing a small, determined huff of air, the girl pushes the ruffled bedspread off of herself, quickly wriggling out of her cotton nightdress and into the first proper article of clothing she could lay her eyes upon, which just so happened to be her school uniform. Forgoing her usual black leggings, she instead slips on a pair of chunky ankle socks and her sneakers - she wasn't going that far, besides.

Yashiro says a quiet farewell to Black Canyon, but otherwise does not spare a second glance behind herself as she hurries out of the hushed, sleepy apartment and down the few blocks separating her apartment and Kamome Academy.

~O~o~O~

Hanako was undoubtedly surprised (and admittedly a tad affronted) when his Hakujoudai brought him the news. Yashiro was in the school at this late of an hour, and she hadn't even come to see him? Well he'd just have to go give his naughty radish a good chiding, then!

As is usual when he makes his patrol through the school grounds at night, a distinctive hush has fallen over the darkened hallways, somehow seeming more cavernous and furtive without the daytime bustle of students. The only visible movement to be spied came from lesser supernatural spirits retreating fearfully back into the shadows at Hanako's approach.

The impulse to mess with them like he oft does arises, but is quickly tamped down by an overwhelming excitement fluttering about the pit of his stomach that spurred on his quickening strides past empty classrooms. Hanako pauses once he reaches the stairway leading to the rooftop, hand ghosting just before the handle of the door as he tries to calm the butterflies making a riot of his stomach. It wasn't that Yashiro's company didn't inspire excitement in him otherwise, but tonight there was an underlying current of something decidedly new and almost romantic towards the thought of this circumstance. Boy and girl alone, meeting underneath the midnight sky.

His eyes scrunch up as he finally turns the handle, trying to settle on what kind of face to wear with so many different emotions warring within him. He was definitely still going to give her a good scolding, he decided, for coming here on her own so late and not coming to him even moreso.

Hanako pushes the door open and moves forward enough to catch the girl in his line of sight, a smart retort waiting on his tongue, but frankly the capability of forming any words at all seems to vanish as his gaze eventually lands on her.

She was sitting atop the same, small edifice of the old school building as they had in the Fourth's Painted World, just above the little outcropping of a jutting window. Her feet were planted on either side of it, presumably to hold her weight steady, while the arch of her upper body slumped over the arms she had thrown askew over her knees.

There is a small moment in which reality seems to melt away from him as he's staring up at her, the scene before his eyes shifting in minute ways: the curve of the golden moon currently behind Yashiro disappearing to that of a new moon's sliver. The light filigree of stars peppering the horizon bursting brilliantly into an explosion of candescence almost too much for him to behold. And by the Wonders, he could see them again: the shooting Perseids comets freely weaving throughout it all, their image threatening to unearth feelings dead and long-forgotten.

But all it takes is one blink, and the memories that had suddenly, rudely, superimposed themselves over his vision are gone and he's looking back up at a silly girl who had ridiculously fallen asleep on the rooftop of her school well past midnight. He shakes the vestiges of the jarring hallucination away, burying down deep any feelings it may have sparked, and sets on his way once again.

Naturally forgoing the ladder propped against the building's side, he floats up to her at face-level, the honey of his gaze softening as he affixes it on the slumbering beauty. He gives her slouched form a once-over, noting with slight bemusement the fact she was wearing her school uniform.

Grappling with a blush, he tried not to linger too long on the rare sight of bare legs and the deliciously coquettish way in which her socks draped about her ankles, resolutely swinging his eyes back up to her face. There's an inclination that's impossibly strong to brush her bangs away from the sweep of eyelashes against her cheeks, but before he lets his self-control get away, he notices the slight pink hue stretching along the bridge of her nose.

He's about fifty years past being able to tell himself, but the ghost figures she must be cold sitting up here in the middle of the night with no coat and those damned bare legs - he feels his face flush again - even if it were the peak of summer.

So instead of indulging in selfish impulses, Hanako does what he thinks is the more gentlemanly thing to do; he summons his billowing cloak and drapes it about Yashiro's shoulders like a makeshift blanket. She immediately snuggles into it, a small, contented sigh escaping past her lips. He's still concerned about the temperature - at least that's what he'd tell her - so he moves to sit behind her, framing each of her sides with a leg and encircling her ribcage in a possessive embrace. To help keep her warm, of course.

He gingerly places his chin atop the crown of her head, a light, flowery fragrance pleasantly invading his senses as he feels her stir underneath him. Her sleep-laced voice breathes into the stillness of the twilight.

"Hanako-kun? What are you doing here?"

He scoffs at that.

"That is most assuredly the question you should be answering, Miss Troublesome Assistant." Yashiro squirms in his grasp, trying to turn around and face him, but Hanako keeps his hold around her strong and unyielding before continuing, "The supernaturals of the school are far more active at night, you should know this. And you, coming here, without even one of my charms," he pinches her cheek for emphasis, "so what in the Wonders' name brought you out here so late?"

He can feel her tense ever so slightly at his chiding, but he can't quite find it in him to feel guilty. While there was definitely a part of him that was still filled with boyish excitement to be sharing what felt like a secret moment sliced out of time for just the two of them, it was largely eclipsed by the fact she truly was putting herself in reckless danger. Again.

"Out with it, or I'll go get the hose."

He playfully tickles at her sides and she squeaks in response, both at the sensation, and the implications of a threat she was sure wasn't merely a bluff, as she futilely tried to push his hands away.

"O-okay, okay! Uncle! I'll tell you but it's a little embarrassing...promise you won't laugh!" He nods vigorously above her, stilling his torture momentarily and hoping she can't see the fingers he crossed at her side.

"I...I just…I've been stargazing every night since we left the Painted World, you know." There's little tremors spiking through her words, hesitant and unsure as if she doesn't entirely know what she intends to say, and Hanako loosens his hold as she twists once again to better face him. That was definitely not the start to any answer he could have expected.

"So much happened that night, so many things I'm sure touched and deeply changed each of us, but the one thing I can't keep my mind from circling around is…"

There's a beat of silence as she pauses to collect her thoughts, and Hanako trains his eyes on the way her teeth pull the flesh of her bottom lip in and out, worrying at the skin before her own eyes swing up to his. Their gazes lock, the action appearing to restore her confidence before she continues,

"...the Hanako that I met there. The one who showed me what kind of face he makes as he talks about something he loves deeply; the one who allows himself to smile in such peace with his gaze fondly cast up towards a sky full of stars."

One by one, the weight of each of her words presses into him, his eyes widening as they take in the seriousness painted on the face of the girl sitting in his grasp. Stargazing. Him. They're not really things that go together any longer, but he doesn't, can't, vocalize these thoughts as he's completely pinned underneath the intensity of her gaze, daring not a movement or sound as he awaits for what feels like her continuing of his undoing as she sucks in a little breath and moves on.

"I know I should be thinking more seriously about what I learned of myself."

Hanako somehow finds himself stilling even further, a flower of dark emotion blooming in his chest. He's unused to the previously taboo topic being breached so openly but Yashiro doesn't give him time to digest before pushing forward with her confession, and he notes her eyes taking on that resolved sort of shimmer he's otherwise come to love.

"But I also can't seem to stop thinking about how I want to help you. What I've learned about you. What more I could learn about you. I meant everything I said in that world - I want to keep on living as long as I can, but it'd be a waste if I didn't get to do what made me happy, right?"

Her fingers fiddle nervously along the edges of the cloak gripped tight against her shoulders, "I know it might be a little selfish of me, but I realized I really want you to share a smile like that with me again sometime, and not just because you think I'm gonna forget about you soon."

She's looking up at him with a sheen of slight admonishing in her gaze after that last bit, but it's gone quick as she giggles and shakes her head. "I haven't exactly answered your question, huh? But I guess I didn't quite know myself until we were sitting here together, just like that night. So how about it, Hanako-kun? Will you indulge your favorite assistant and sit and look at the stars with her?"

Hanako swallows thickly, his mind working to unravel the threads she was unwittingly tangling about the two of them. He had half a mind to stop the conversation right there, to go back to the playful teasing of moments before, the light interactions far more preferable to whatever path she was leading them down and uprooting all these real feelings like choking weeds he didn't know what to do with in her wake. But she's looking up at him so earnestly and with so much conviction it's as if she's branded his soul with the fire of it and what can he possibly do in the face of Yashiro and her desires?

He realizes they've been silent for a little too long now as her fidgeting intensifies and hell, she's probably expecting him to say something but aside from the moment Tsukasa re-entered the picture he frankly hasn't felt this frozen by fear in as long as he can remember and seriously this ridiculous girl is going to die and all she wants is, is to have him look at the stars with her, and somehow she thinks she's being selfish? He doesn't deserve-

Hanako's rambling mess of a mind is thankfully prevented from spiraling further, the staccato of his thoughts halting like the needle suddenly being removed from a playing record as Yashiro takes the opportunity to move from her position wedged between his legs. Though the ghost is still working through his inward stutters, pure instinct drives him to reach out and help right her as she stumbles up the little incline of the roof. Yashiro titters out her thanks as she settles in next to him, stretching his cloak past her shoulders so that it blanketed the both of them.

For a moment the ghost feels trapped, like a wild and wary animal, but when he looks over to the girl waiting quietly by his side, his eyes drink in the serenity of her face and the pressure building in his chest evaporates like warm smoke, allowing himself to breathe.

Though they're still slightly glazed with sleep, Hanako is struck by the fact there are stars in her eyes - they're like pools of a raspberry sky he could drown in, futilely spending the rest of eternity trying to map out each of the little gold-flecked constellations dotting their expanse. Her lashes are long and impossibly like the color of starlight, contrasting with the shadows the sweep of them cast on the apples of her cheeks. They flutter in an endearingly delicate manner as she simply sits, sits next to him and looks up at the stars with a small smile lifting her lips.

It all feels so...so uncomplicated, and easy, next to Yashiro, and he can't even stop himself as he turns his head up to the sky too and the words just tumble out of his mouth.

"Do you see that harp-shaped constellation there? It's named Lyra and in it resides the celestial princess, Vega. She's that bright, blue-white star at the top. She and her lover Altair are both part of the famous Summer Triangle along with Deneb, though sadly Vega and Altair are forever separated by a great river of stars... " Yashiro starts at the sound of his voice, but then widened eyes follow the line his shaky finger is making. Hanako tends to prefer the science behind space and not the myths and stories people have attributed to it, but he thinks she would like the story of the two star-crossed lovers and so he recalls all of the details as best he can.

And once he's finished with the regaling of that tale, he finds his eyes traversing the rest of the black and white tapestry unfurling before him, and it feels just like pouring over an old, favored book one hasn't picked up in ages; exciting and yet comfortably familiar all at the same time. On and on he continues, moving from star cluster to star cluster and reading the sky to Yashiro. Eventually Hanako realizes her "ooh's", "aah's", and other generally reaffirming noises have been replaced with the soft, steady breaths of one fallen into slumber.

A cool breeze rustles the mint ends of a few stray strands of her hair, blowing them towards the tip of Hanako's chin. He looks over in time to catch how angelic her sleeping face looks, lit up by the light of the heavens, before she gently falls sideways towards his shoulder. She bumps against him in a way that sets the phantom of his heart aflutter, and he can't help how his gaze lands on the way her lips slightly twitch as she slumbers, as if she's listening to his dream-counterpart finish rattling off all the celestial facts that he hadn't known still took up so much of him.

His own lips quirk upwards ever so slightly - it's not the usual wry grin of a mischievous spirit hiding behind a facade, but something softer and more honest and closer to the gentle smile of a boy enchanted by the constellations dripping like precious jewels high above him.

Or maybe it's even something new, something in between that of boy and ghost, a timid little newborn smile brought on by the warmth of the girl nestled so tight and sweet at his side. He can't find it in him to be annoyed anymore, feeling almost grateful this stubborn girl had woven her idealistic and yes - he can admit that maybe they were a touch selfish - desires about him, before he knew he was ready to once again bare this part of him to anyone, including himself. But of course he could for her - it would always be her.

He knows he should be waking the sleeping beauty as his hand stretches out to idly stroke at her cheek, but if Yashiro ends up snoozing during her homeroom he thinks he can figure out a few different ways of keeping her awake.

Her lips tremble again as his fingers continue their light, teasing dance across her skin and something that sounds to him like a plea whispers out between them,

"Hanako-kun…"

And it is then Hanako decides that maybe it's okay for him to be a little selfish sometimes, too.

His touch moves from cheek to chin, angling her face up towards his own with as gentle a grasp as possible. Her scent fills his nose as he leans down, closer closer closer, gaze of molten fire wavering as his eyes narrow to feline-like slits. The moon behind her is illuminating her figure before him with shades of shadowed gold, and his vision is swimming in the light of her as he presses his lips to her own as soft and shy as any boy bestowing their first kiss.

Yashiro's eyes flutter open, and she sees stars.

Post author's notes: Heeeey y'all! If you're still reading, thank you so much for sticking with me and I deeply apologize for the wait! Life ended up hitting me pretty hard what with losing my longtime job and other fun pandemic/general current craziness (you'd think that having more time to write would be beneficial, but not when it comes with a big ol dose of depression lmaaao). And I'm even further sorry that I'm not sure if this is any...good?! Idk I had originally started a few other different ideas until this one seized me while listening to the song it's titled after (Underneath the Stars by The Cure). Unfortunately I wrote a bunch of different parts of it out of order when inspo decided to rear its head/didn't have much of this mapped out on where I wanted it to go, so it took me forever to piecemeal it all together and finally be marginally satisfied. Boy I wonder what having a beta reader is like... anyway I know it's not cute when creators bash their own works and don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to fish for sympathy or anything of the sort - I just want to be honest with where I'm coming from and how I'm feeling. I want to keep getting better! But HUGE thank yous to everyone who's alerted/favorited/REVIEWED! I've greatly enjoyed your reviews! It always helps us to know we're giving entertainment to some~

That kiss though *bigsideeyeemoji*
Hopefully looking to do some pure fluff for the next chapter (though heads up I am slowly working on a couple other fics as well and can't control what my brain decides it wants to work on ugh)! We'll see if I can keep the slight angst away from these two hahaa-