Stars Tonight (Lover to Lover)

[selenias]

Title: Stars Tonight
Author: lavendre
Fandom: Tales of Vesperia
Pairing: Rita/Raven
Rating: all audiences
Genre: Fluff

They were a ship without a captain, waiting for an evening to sail and the stars to rise, and it was easy to imagine, beneath the atmosphere and upon the blue blue waves, how simplified everything seemed when the only sounds were the quiet conversations and laughter of friends at the hull, and the seemingly more personal ones hidden far from sight.

When Rita had first joined him on the roof of the cabin, looking morose and slightly lost as he offered down a hand to pull her up, he hadn't wondered if there wasn't a reason she looked as indisposed as she did, flustered and strangely weary despite the tight grip he kept on her. But now, thinking about it seemed silly, when his perch was cool against his back and even more so against hers, the sky was alight in lamps and dry pastel shades and tufts of shredded cotton clouds, and her breathing was soft and slow beside him... there was no weight or sense of importance on his shoulders tonight.

It was how he liked the evenings, when they moved like molasses and the moments didn't pass by in the usual vivacious blurs that they typically were. He could still recall the afternoon's events, and the dry, hot air that had rushed by his ears when Ba'ul had lifted off the ground, and the view below that had suddenly become quite grand when the earth had been abruptly swallowed up from sight.

Right now, the earth was still invisible, but considering his gaze was directed upward, and land was below, it an obvious distinction he lightly chided himself for. On a night like this, it was easier on the eyes to simply trace the constellations anyway. If he ran his fingertips in a straight line, west to east, and twisted the tanner side of his thumb just so, and pulled down his sleeves so she could get a better view...

“...Camelopardalis.”

...It only made everything that much more tranquil.

To the right several inches, and a sigh in his ear. “...Cassiopeia.”

North-east, arms shifting, sleeves dragging, a whisper. “...Cepheus.”

And then, the inevitable; lips twitching as he calmly pointed out something that wasn't a constellation, and her head bumped his shoulder as she leaned against it to get a better look–

“Okay... You're truly an idiot if you don't know that one.” He kissed her hair then, smiling softly against the crown of her head.

“Brightest star in the night sky, Brave Vesperia...” He whispered slowly, and he felt Rita's arms light up in goose bumps against his arm as he let out a lazy breath against her cheek . “See, I do know some things about astronomy...”

“Yeah, the minority bit and pieces,” she replied dryly, and Raven nudged her in half-hearted denial.

“Ya never know. I could be extremely knowledgeable and ya may not even know it.”

“The last time I saw you read a book, you were clutching your head and moaning for hours about it afterwords.”

He didn't dare correct her on the fact that it hadn't been the book he had been moaning about.

“Remind again me what brought me up here?” she prompted then, and Raven exhaled, allowing his arms to collapse on his stomach, tucking his hands comfortably into the infinite folds of cloth of his jacket. He considered her words for a moment, the silly technical jargon he could slyly remark back with. Instead, because the night was young and grand—he went for the lesser evil.

“Do the facts really even matter that much?”

It was a stupid thing to say, an even sillier thing to have asked—but surprisingly, even after he realized the weight of his words, she didn't refute it.

He considered it a blessing that she was even willing to listen in the first place.