The Autumnal Equinox presented the most beautiful natural show of the year; the Orion constellation was brightly shining in the night sky. The summertime was fading into autumn. Soon the vibrant clorophyll of the leaves would yellow, as the pages of an old book.
Lucas ran triumpthfully out the Smash Mansion door. The lukewarm breeze washed over him as his inner child climbed up into a nearby tree, then onto the roof of the Smash Mansion.
Twenty feet off the ground, he stared up at the black velvet sky and the sparkling diamonds etched into it. The sparkling warrior in the sky stared back down at him, beaming its heavenly lights.
Years ago, he and his brother would stare at the breathtaking sight. Claus and Lucas would smile as their parents would tell them stories of fireflies which lit up in a dark blanket. He could not bear the image of Claus' smiling face in his mind, nor remember Hinawa and Flint's caring voices, caressing his senses with a feeling of comfort. Tears gathered in Lucas' eyes like a paintbrush, blurring and blending the light of the stars in one.
"It's amazing, isn't it?"
Lucas snapped back into reality, where a raven-haired psychic stared him in the face with light violet eyes.
"Oh," Lucas tried to inconspicuously wipe his eyes. "Yeah."
Ness stared back into the sky. The two boys were on the rooftop alone, staring into the galaxy. Just as Lucas dreaded, Ness stared back at him.
"Why does it upset you?"
A trillion thoughts flew through Lucas' mind. How was he to reply? Fearfully and tearfully, he managed to squeak out an explanation:
"It reminds me of home."
Ness looked back to the sky. "You've been here for almost two years now."
"Um, yes." Lucas replied to his statement a bit easier, considering his damp eyes were now dry.
"I understand." Ness said, tilting his head over his shoulder to gaze back at Lucas. Cloudy blue and violet eyes stared into one another, as if meeting for the first time.
A long pause filled between them, which let the frogs and the crickets make their existence known to nature by harmonizing their sounds.
"I desperately miss my home too."
Lucas' eyes welled up in tears once more. Before he knew it, Ness felt fluffy gold hair under his chin, constricting arms around his back and tears staining his striped shirt. He put his hand on Lucas' head, stroking it lightly as an attempt of comfort.
Images of Gigyas and Porky Minch plagued Ness' memory until tears fell into Lucas' hair. The stars seemed to lean down to them. Ness removed his red baseball cap, setting it on a ledge. Inevitably it fell to the ground. Carefully, Ness lay on the rigid rooftop, Lucas still wrapped around him. Finally, the two fell asleep like that, under the stars, both agonizingly missing home.
It wasn't often that the two had enough alone time to share such an emotional experience under the stars.