sortileges |

[ He really doesn't know what to expect when they make it out to the top, just not... this. For him things were easier because he could cheat with magic. He could make vines or whatever to hold something, could create a fire to keep them warm.

It must have taken her effort to do this.

At first he opens his mouth to protect that she's getting the door for him, but soon enough he's just staring at the blankets and lights on the floor. ]

Are you thinking that you should've worn pyjamas? [ His voice is soft when he says it though, stepping closer to the area she's set up, eyes drifting up to the sky. Slowly, he twists to look back at her, a wide smile spreading on his face. ]

What are you waiting for?

[ He holds his hand out then, and even if it shakes because wow, okay, he wants the contact and wants to spend this moment with her properly. He feels elated. ]

[ she ignores how he's shaking, since he'll probably feel better later on. she takes his hand and leads him to where the blankets are and quickly takes a seat in the middle. it's not so hard, at least. it's a bit soft since there's a cushion underneath.

there's a book by one of the pillows, and she grabs it. ]

I bought a book about the stars you can find here in Tellus. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll even see a meteor!

[ she... is so excited about this. outer space is a lot of fun, ok. ]

[ He's careful once they're at the blankets, trying to not tread dirt onto them. His hand presses to the floor anyway, just so he can lean to look at the book she pulls out. ]

What's a meteor?

[ It's nice to see how excited she is though, so he presumes that with this and the moon earring combined space must be important to her. He got glimpses of her memories before, but she hadn't gone into detail on that sort of thing. Not really. ]

[ she shifts in her seat to get a bit more comfortable. flipping through the pages of the book, she says: ]

They're shooting stars. I guess you could also call them falling stars. And... [ her index finger lingers on one edge of a page, flipping it back and forth. then she looks at him, sparkles in her eyes. ] they say that if you make a wish on one, it will come true.

[ ugh...! this is the stuff of her dreams. ]

[ He looks up at her explanation, as if searching for one of them. He probably could cheat and make a light like one but that would be cheating way too unfairly with how hopeful she seems about this. He looks down when he hears the crinkle of paper, her words coming out... more excitedly? At least it feels like it. It feels like he can easily get caught up in this moment.

That's why instead of saying something normal he asks: ] What would you wish for?

[ gomen ....... ]

[ with how caught up she seems on daydreaming, she almost tells him. almost! but she doesn't. ]

I can't tell you, [ she says with a laugh. she's not superstitious by any means, so she doesn't firmly believe in what's going to come out of her mouth, but-- ] It won't come true otherwise.

That's why if you see one, you shouldn't tell me what you wished for, either!

[ Almost... probably for the best that she doesn't. He isn't entirely sure what he'd even wish for at the moment. Sure there are ideas but some of them seem ridiculous because they might not even be necessary.

In the end, it wouldn't be surprising if he came up with something utterly stupid on the spot because all he can think of is how the shooting star, whatever it is is in the sky and there's some ridiculous superstition for it that she believes.

Then again, he's learned enough from Gaius that these kind of talks usually exist for a reason. ]

So it has to be a secret?

That's right. You can't tell anybody. [ she looks utterly serious when she says it, too!

and as she flips through some pages, she comes across the constellations section. she looks up at the night sky and squints. ok, she can't see anything yet, but maybe later when she can relax some more and get a better look at the stars above them. ]

Do you know what constellations are?

[ She really is serious, isn't she? So he nods slowly, trying to not laugh. Sorry, Athena. You just get excited and worked up about the weirdest of things. ]

Alright, it's a promise then. [ A promise that he'll keep his wish a secret--even if it ends up being something dumb like wishing for cake. You never know. ]

I think what I know of them is probably a lot different to what you do. [ He pauses then, looks her in the eye and says: ] Tell me.

Well, it's a set of stars... [ she flips through another page and points to a photo of stars. the picture also has lines drawn on it, connecting each star to another with a white line. and these stars form the shape of a...

... it's a sandwich.

what kind of constellations does tellus have. even athena doesn't look impressed. ]

They form a pattern. And in this case, it's bread? [ sweats................ ] Do you want to try looking for it? [ she perks up when she asks that, at least. ]

[ ...Slowly, so so slowly, his head tilts with a look of utter confusion on his face.

Is that really--

yes. yes it is. ]

Not very original, is it? [ OR MAYBE IT'S THE OPPOSITE. ] Does it give any directions of where it might ...be? [ Because looking up he sure can't tell that well. ]

[ she... she looks so confused and thoroughly unimpressed right now. she even wipes the non-existent sweat on her brow because this is just too much. ]

It says here that it's next to a knife.

[ why... why are the constellations in tellus insane. they're supposed to have meaning to them! and it's supposed to romantic, looking for them! lions, crabs, bears-- those are what they should be looking for. not trivial household things.

she feels like she has mosley to blame for all this. ]

Maybe I should have done my research before doing this.

[ Athena are you okay...? Are you okay Athena? ]

Maybe we're doing it all wrong.

[ He reaches out for the book then, pulling it gently away from her only to... toss it somewhere up the blanket fort. It doesn't have to be perfect, when it comes down to it. In fact: ] We can be creative... Like-- [ He pauses then, squinting up at the sky as he tries hard to find a good example. There's a bunch of stars together that looks something like: ] there, if you follow it with your hand, doesn't it look a bit like a crown?

[ He ... is definitely trying to make her feel better about this. ]

[ she pulls a pillow to use on her head as she lays down. this angle gives her a better look at the sky, and it isn't going to give her a stiff neck, either. she does search for the crown, though, tracing a finger in the air. and she can't help but smile when she sees it. ]

Yeah, it does! [ she even cants her head to the side to get a better look. yup, that sure looks like a crown.

but now she has to look for something else. something better. something to impress him. ]

Okay. [ she bites her lip. ] I think I can see a horse. Can you look for it?

[ He's still leaning back on his other hand, though she's probably right to lay back instead of being stuck with a crick in her neck. They're definitely too young to deal with something like that.

Somehow, instead of looking to check she finds the mystical somehow non-existent crown constellation, he looks down at her. It isn't anything gross in the way he actually looks at her though, though there is a gravitational pull. It's a warm feeling, one that associates her with something higher when her hair spreads out across the pillow and blankets, her eyes shining as she looks up at the sky and the smile on her face.

His hand grips into the blanket and he holds his breath, bites into his lip.

sweats profusely. ]

A-- [ He swallows, tilts himself to finally flop down on the blanket next to her. His arm is shaky from holding himself up--physically and emotionally apparently. ] --horse. I'll give it ago.

[ Only somehow the sky suddenly feels a lot more blinding than it did when he found the "crown" before. ]

[ she can feel the world spinning when merlin flops down next to her. this is unreal. and she wants to savour the moment and make sure it's etched well in her memory when she remembers that this isn't for her. this is supposed to be for him. for his happiness.

she clears her throat as she shifts to her side to look at him. it's not anything like stargazing when she notices the way his face curves, or how his cheekbones shape his face, or even how adorable his ears are. it seems even better than that. so she observes him, not saying anything. he's busy too, after all. let's not disturb the boob. ]

[ The only problem is that he's too hyper aware of what she's doing now, and even if his hands have stretched out to make a shape that looks like a square while he tries to narrow down the stars in the sky, she's clearing her throat and turning. She's watching him. Observing similar (it feels like that anyway) to how he just observed her.

His eyes flutter, his head wonders if she can hear how hard his heart is pounding already, and finally he notices where she means. ]

To the left. There.

[ He can't bring himself to turn to look at her yet. ]

Just under it there's-- [ he pulls his bottom lip into his mouth, sucks on it for a split second before letting go ] --there's something that looks like a heart.

[ well, turning back to look at the stars is distracting for her, at least. and it takes her a while to even find the horse, even when she was the first one to find it earlier. it takes even longer to find the heart.

it's probably been two minutes now. ]

I can't find it. [ and she looks like she's at peace, but her tone is irritated. of all the things that she can't find. . . ]

[ He can't help it... a soft breathy laugh follows her declaration, the tone of her voice more than anything. ]

Come here... give me your hand.

[ It's too close, in a way. That he shifts in a way that indicates she can shuffle right up against him. His hand, the furthest from her, waits with his palm facing up. ]

[ fine, she does just that—moving closer and giving him her hand—not even thinking of anything else but finding the heart. once again, he's won... not that they're even playing a game of who can find this or that, in the first place. (athena, why do you have to be so competitive.) ]

I'll have to make sure I find something difficult to see later on.

Like a dragon.

[ He lightly licks his lips to try and stop them from going dry as he takes her hand. He's careful to keep his palm against the back of her hand, using them to point so she can follow her own arm.

He drags her in closer with his other arm, trying to make the viewpoint more similar to his own. ]

You haven't even seen a real dragon. [ He murmurs it softly, tilting his head to check she's looking properly, but okay he's. Close. Now. He points her hand in the right direction, holding his breath tight while he waits for her to see it. ]

[ oh, she sees it! and she even shakes her hand, pointing at it. ]

Heh, I see it now! [ she shifts a bit to get a better look at him before she grins. ] It does look like a heart, doesn't it?

[ she'll comment on the dragon thing later. for now, she's more than pleased with herself for finding it. that's three constellations down! and they're even better than the scientists in tellus who discovered the sandwich and the knife.

she's been trying to block the weird thumping sounds of his heart; it's a pretty common thing with this guy, isn't it? though being this close now, she probably made the sound louder. /shrug. ]

[ His hand actually relaxes against hers when she starts shaking her hand, sliding down the length of her upper arm to her elbow. ]

A little. [ Though he isn't surprised that they chose food when it's so... good....... ] Can you see anything else?

[ He sure did ask that to hopefully distract her to start looking for another set of stars they can use. ]

[ she puts her arm down before it goes sore, bringing merlin's down with hers, then she looks back up. ]

I guess I'll look for that dragon.

[ speaking of. . . ] Have you seen one? How big are they?

[ It's absent minded when his fingers curve over the joint, trace slow lines up and down and he stares up as well. He thinks of home. Thinks of the times when he does actually visit Kilgharrah... No wonder the dragon is getting fed up with him, honestly. But. ]

Oh yes. [ Why does it sound like he's bragging-- but then his voice softens, grows solemn. ] They're practically extinct, but Uther keeps one chained up under the castle. It doesn't fill up the underground cave but... it's huge.

...He's actually helped me out a lot.

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