"Well, what do stars do, genius?"
The first time Rin asks, his tone is deeply sarcastic and not exactly conducive to extracting an amiable, least of all serious, reply out of Ai. The slighter of the two shrugs, rubbing his eyes tiredly as they trudge onward through the night.
"I don't know. Can you leave the riddles for when I'm not about to try and re-define the meaning of sleepwalking?" Ai says instead of trying to answer Rin's ridiculously ill-timed riddle, his tone snappish. Being this exhausted is doing his already foul mood no favours, though Rin The Star doesn't seem to be doing much better. That thought almost lifts Ai's spirits. Almost. "This is all your fault, you know. If you would have just stayed quiet we could have gotten some sleep –"
"Oh, now you're trying to be funny." Rin interrupts, sounding about as unamused as can be. Instead of whirling around in sleep deprivation-fuelled courage to express just how insane the supposed star is driving him, Ai sighs. "Go on then, crack another joke. I could use the distraction; my feet are killing me."
A few moments filled with the noise of crunching steps and rustling leaves stirred by the wind follow; it's not silence but it's still too close to it. Or, at least it is for a country boy like Ai, who is used to fields being filled with the buzzing of bees during the day and the whirring and chirping of cicadas at night. Here, there is nothing.
"What do stars do?" he rushes to ask, suddenly growing uneasy in the same instant he recognises the silence. He hears a soft snort from behind him. It's not exactly a dignified sound for someone calling himself a Grand Star Fallen From The Heavens Above.
"You're the genius; you figure it out."
No other response is forthcoming and Ai sighs again. He resigns himself to the fact that this particular walk in the moonlight (or perhaps lack thereof; A Walk In The Deep, Dark And Probably Dangerous Forest would be a more apt name) will stay as unpleasant as he suspected it would be. Ai is almost glad that he isn't alone, even if the only company he has consists of an ill-tempered star with anger issues.
"Oi, do you even have any idea where we're going? I can't see for shit, it's too fucking dark here." Rin barks out a short laugh. "Ah, the irony."
Almost.
The second time Rin asks, his voice is concentrated and absentminded at the same time. They're aboard a flying ship after narrowly escaping death – not something Ai would have ever dreamed of happening to him. To be exact, not something he thought of as being possible in actual reality. His life has become one of the fairy tales he loved as a child faster than he can comprehend.
He idly wonders if a fairy godmother will come to rescue them from the evil witch; after all, the villain seems to have already set their sights on them. Then Ai remembers Rin asked a question and glances to the side. The star is leaning against the ship's railing in a show of nonchalance, a guise too easily torn apart by his fascinated watching of the captain engaging in playful combat with his crew.
What role does a star have in a fairy tale? And which part does a farm boy, Ai himself, have to play?
"I have no clue, but I'll wager a guess and say it's not practising swordplay in their free time." Ai says, a little teasingly. His innocent smile pulls into an amused grin when Rin turns his attention on him, red eyes flashing indignantly before his expression turns smug. Ai has to suppress a shiver at the sight of razor sharp, pointy teeth.
"I bet I could still beat you." Rin taunts playfully, one hand already resting atop the hilt of the sword by his side. Luckily for them, Captain Mikoshiba was as kind to them as the witch was not and has not only taken them in but also supplied them with weapons as well as lessons on how to use them. "What do you say, genius?"
Ai doesn't answer and merely lifts his staff, pushing a nearly hidden depression carved into it and blades spring from each end. It's a surprisingly lightweight weapon and easier to handle than it looks. He meets Rin's challenging eyebrow with a nod and a glint in his eyes.
Ai is as of yet unaware that he has already begun to change from someone who is lost and doesn't know where to start looking to someone who is already searching.
As their tentative strikes at each other become a little more fluid with each movement, they start to gain an audience, encouraging shouts spurring them on. Rin and Ai are on equal footing, each balancing the other's weaknesses out. Where Rin is strong, Ai is fast, light on his feet and with surprisingly fast reflexes he is only now discovering to use to his advantage.
As the nights Rin spends away from home grow in number, star and farmboy are both surprised to find that they don't harbour as much dislike for the other as they thought. A stranger's kindness after much lost sleep and a run in with a star-collecting witch do wonders to see things in a different light. Rin laughs as Ai voices that thought and he can't even muster up the pretense of being offended because that laugh is honest and not at all biting sarcasm or jarring anger. So Ai smiles, even if he doesn't understand the humour, as he can feel the tension caused by bad luck and misunderstandings melt between them.
And once again, he muses over which roles they've been allocated; Ai has a silent wish to, for once in his life, be the hero.
The third time Rin asks, the riddle, which Rin assures him is not a riddle but in fact a very logical question indeed, is posed in a tone much different than it has been before. Rin's voice is calm and genuinely questioning but with underlying humour which won't begrudge Ai should he get the answer wrong.
Ai has begun keeping a list in his head for his own answers to the tricky question which he is sure has more meaning than simple words imply.
There's a hidden shyness and tentative trust underneath the glittering, easy-as-breathing banter that follows; a subtle development cultivated while up in the air and removed from the dangers of being chased which are now fast catching up to them. It's a fact they are unaware of but a coincidental encounter reminds them of it in the most unpleasant way possible.
A witch, not the first who tried to cut out Rin's heart (she doesn't even seem to see him), but another, stops them and it is with no small amount of shock and confusion that Ai finds himself spending the day in a daze. The witch assures him in not even mildly suppressed delight that those are the normal aftereffects of being turned into a rodent. At least, that is was Ai believes she said. His memory is very hazy after all and maybe those kind of transformations also cause hallucinations because Rin's voice echoes in his head as he recalls yelled and ignored obscenities directed at the witch and soft, vulnerable words of wisdom and perhaps something more whispered to him.
It stays soft and hazy in Ai's head, even after he has regained his human form. Ai says nothing, because he feels that if he does it will be like a dream, like attempting to hold on to water in a tightly clenched fist and also because maybe he isn't quite ready to know. He doesn't want whatever it is between Rin and him to break; it feels too fragile, quite like the dream-like not-memory full of hallucinations, and he already values it too much.
The fourth, and last, time Rin asks, it's neither degrading nor angry, not absentminded or concentrated, not shy and curious, but inappropriately happy and patient, as if there is all the time in the world.
Which, in fact, there is not.
Instead, there's the witch, considerably slowed down by old age but undoubtedly about to finally claim what she wants. Ai can't help staring at Rin, not due to his freshly-realised fascination and great personal fondness for the overemotional star, but because of the quite literally blinding smile on his face. The warm swelling his chest he has come to associate with Rin is currently completely overloaded with panic and screeching disbelief.
"You pick now of all times to ask me that stupid question?!" he shrieks, not even caring about how it reflects on his appearance of dignity or maybe lack thereof. Ai's arms flail in helpless fury as the witch draws ever closer, a menacing presence overshadowing the whole of the decrepit palace they are standing in. "We should be running!"
But Ai can't move which is only partially due to Rin catching him in an unexpected hug. Just before his arms close around Ai's back, he can see the star's eyes – soft and warm, vulnerable and wise, a little bit exasperated but, most of all, filled with love. Ai's heart goes still the same moment his head goes blank, the sudden realisation of what he's seeing slowing everything down so he can experience it all with startling clarity. Rin's mouth is next to Ai's ear, breath warm and safe as Rin finally gives him the single correct answer to his question.
"They shine."
Ai closes his eyes as Rin begins to do just that, burying his face in Rin's shoulder as his arms come up to tentatively wind around the star's waist. It takes no longer than a few moments for the witch's darkness to be obliterated and powerful starlight to sweep through the ruin Ai thought sure death awaited them, but they feel agonisingly long.
Still, Rin is warm around him and it feels completely natural when the star's grip around him loosens but Ai's arms tighten. It feels natural when he tilts his head upward and meets Rin's surprised lips halfway with his own. It feels natural when he can see a soft golden glow from behind closed eyelids and smiles into the kiss as Rin responds, soft and warm, vulnerable and a little impatient.
They don't need words to solve a not-riddle because it really was all that it seemed, as Rin keeps insisting. There was an unsaid meaning they discovered and revealed to each other in not-words, Ai thinks quietly to himself. He doesn't wonder anymore and he doesn't wish; somehow, he knows, naturally and instinctively, that he really is the hero of his own fairy tale come true.