A/N:

Uhh, this is my first time writing something like this, so if it feels a bit rusty or lacking in terms of vocabulary, kindly blame the dog who had been eating up my cookies.

Welp, let's start!

Stargazing

Nerina was bored. Really bored.

And she wanted to do something.

But the others seemed to have other plans.

"Lalalalalalala~ sing a happy song~"

Iseult was cleaning up the room -again- humming a song as she did so. Nerina wondered for a while how she brought all those cleaning materials to Beacon. As far as she knew, Iseult was just carrying a simple case of clothes the first night they were together.

Mei was at the pantry, cooking up something for dinner. She knew for a fact that Mei makes the best food she had ever tasted, and she didn't want to disturb the lavender-haired girl in cooking. It might affect the taste.

Dante, on the other hand...

Was not on his bed. Weird. He should be sleeping and snoring loudly by now.

She had been wondering where their grey-haired leader went off during this time of night, partly because she hadn't had the time to ask him, and partly because the curiosity still nags her.

She went over to Iseult as the latter was already fixing up her cleaning materials.

"Hey Issy, you know where Dante went?"

Iseult placed down her white apron on a nearby chair and pulled back some strands of hair from her face.

"I don't really know, but if I remember corectly, he went outside around..."

Her dark brown eyes darted around and settled in a small desk clock by the door that read '08:46 PM'.

"An hour ago. He told me to not tell anybody where he's going. He said it was a secret. I wonder why he said it to me, though..."

"That means you do know where he went, right?"

Iseult's face turned slightly pink as she realized what she just said. She nervously looked at all parts in the room before settling on staring at her feet and finally at Nerina's face, keeping up a shaky smile as she did so, nodding like a bobblehead figurine on a bumpy road.

"Oh, nonononono, wait.. Uhh, I don't. Yep, I do not know where Dante went at this time of night, I swear. Yessiree. You can be sure of that. Iiiiyep."

Nerise narrowed her eyes as she kept staring at Iseult, one eyebrow raised.

"...Iseult? Can we talk over this?"

"Eep."

'I'm so sorry, Dante!', Iseult apologized in her mind as the girl with red hair slowly walked towards her with the latter's green eyes looking darker than ever.

Meanwhile, at the dormitory rooftop...

Dante was just lying on his back, staring up at the night sky. He enjoyed the quiet that came with it. Ever since he was a kid, after training sessions, he would lie on his back and look up at the sky, looking for patterns within the stars. It became his place of escape after the long, boring days of training. Unlike other kids, he was brought up in a family of proud Hunters and Huntresses, so it's expected for him to do the same. And in order for him to do that, his parents and relatives decided to train him since he was a wee five year-old. Even so, he wanted to live his childhood like a normal boy. He had even wanted to buy a telescope just for that little hobby of his, but his parents won't allow it. It'd be a distraction from your Hunter training, they said. It didn't stop him from climbing up trees or their rooftop at night just to do so. It proved a great way to enhance the Aura-based stealth skills his uncle Virgil taught him, unexpectedly. Eventually, as the years went by, it became somewhat of a ritual of his to go out once every few nights, especially if he notices that the night sky looks just perfect to lay down, and enjoy the peace and quiet he so dearly loves.

He closed his eyes and listened in to everything around him. He applied a bit of his Aura onto his ears, enhancing his hearing to a better extent but not to the level of a Faunus. He could hear the gentle breeze of the wind, the light chatter and laughter of his fellow classmates, and even the loud if not obnoxious snoring of some, unwanted, people in the school. Not like he can do anything about it.

After a few minutes of auditory voyeurism, he decided it was too much and stopped the flow of Aura into his ears.

Which was why he wasn't able to hear a certain red-head's footsteps towards the rooftop.

It's a good thing I found out about this place from Jaune. It's a pretty good spot for stargazing. I hope nobody knows that I'm doing this alone here. Although, I feel sorry for Iseult for telling her the wrong thing about where I'm going. I think she'll forgive me though, he thought to himself, oblivious of the person climbing up the staircase.

To his surprise and shock, the door behind him opened with a sudden force, and the person behind it was his partner and co-annoyer, Nerina.

"Nerina? What are you doing here?"

The red-head looked at him with one eye twitching from anger. Well, that was how it looked from his position, still lying on his back and tilting his head backwards to get a better view of his partner wearing light pink pajamas with cherry prints. He smiled at her lightly. She gave him a frown.

"Do you have any idea how long I have been looking for you?"

"Uhh, no. Why would you, Oh Great Master Huntress and World Champion in Sassiness and Snark, be even doing wasting her free time just to look for poor, lowly me?"

Nerina sighed heavily and put one hand on her waist, as if a kid had just made a mess of his room. From her standpoint, there wasn't much of a difference between that and the grey-haired lad right before him, lying down without any care in the world.

"What are you even doing here at this time of night? There's a curfew, if you even remember."

"Yes, I'm well aware of it, Mom."

Dante sat up but had his gaze locked upon Beacon Tower at a distance. He used his hands to prop himself up, patting his hair for any sign of dirt.

"It's just a time for me to rewind and look back at all the times we've had in the past, like how we romantically met in the Forest of Emerald-"

"I nearly hit you with my Aegis when I fell down. You were also-"

"-and we fought together, side-by-side, bodies interlocked-"

Nerina raised both her hands in surrender. "Ugh. Please stop. You're making this weird for us both."

To her comfort, Dante stopped. But he still continued talking.

"I was actually waiting for you to start gagging up and leave, but it seems my plan has failed. Oh, woe is me, woe is me!"

By now, Dante had his arms flailing around, giving emphasis to his flowery words, laughing as he was doing so. The girl in the pink pajamas had this nagging feeling of chucking the nearest pipe to the young man's face. As soon as he stopped laughing, he sat down once more.

"But really. Why don't you take a seat with me?"

Dante pats the space beside him, as if inviting the red-head to sit there. Nerina knew better than to follow his lead. She crossed her arms in defense.

"Give me a valid reason why."

"Hmm... I'd tell you why I'm this intent on breaking dorm rules if you just take this time and sit with me for a while."

She was about to say something in retort, but seeing as the grey-haired teen has no intent on doing otherwise, she decided to play along and made herself comfortable beside him. He was grinning widely when she looked at his face.

"Well? I'm waiting."

Dante mock-cleared his throat and looked up at the sky once again.

"Look up there. You see that star?"

Nerina tilted her head up and looked at the bright expanse of stars right above them. The broken moon was in full tonight, but some clouds were covering some spots in the Vale skyline.

"There are a lot of stars. Are you making fun of me again?"

Dante pointed up to a particular star that was noticeably shining brighter amongst the others. Maybe that, or because it was alone in its vicinity, lest for a stray cloud. No other stars were right beside it.

"That star, Nerina. You see that?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"That star is considered one of the brightest stars in the night sky. You know why?"

Other than because it looks brighter than the rest of them, Nerina decided to keep quiet to elicit the answer from the guy directly.

"That's because it has nobody to compare to. It sits all alone on the empty sky. And it's been like that for a long time now."

Nerina looked back at Dante's face as he was speaking. There is some sort of look in his eyes, a familiar look, maybe a look of sadness and longingness. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she had a feeling that something happened to Dante in the past.

"That star just doesn't feel lonely, it is lonely. No companions, nobody to share its brightness with. Just like us, we need a companion. A shoulder to lean on. Somebody to take comfort in, somebody to watch their backs-"

A gentle but cold breeze blew which made Nerina shiver in her seat, but Dante still looked up, unfazed by the sudden drop in temperature. When she looked up as well, the cloud that was near the bright star was also blown away: revealing another smaller but equally bright star just beside it. She noticed from the corner of her eye Dante looking at her with another of his "goofy" (as she wanted to call it) smiles. She instinctively looked right at her grey-haired partner.

"-somebody to be with for the rest of their life."

Nerina did a double take. She didn't know how to react to this kind of situations; in fact, this was the first time she ever experienced something like this. In her seventeen years of living, this was one of those situations she had never seen happen to her before. She could feel her heartbeat steadily getting faster by the second, and her face heating up. Wait, is this what those prissy girls were talking about a while ago? Something about a guy's confess-

"Wow, that sounded kinda cheesy, but here's my point. Not all of us has to be alone all the time. You might say you can do it alone, but as the saying goes, 'no man is a island'. And before you say something, it also applies to the opposite gender."

Nerina was taken aback. Of course. The idiot hadn't it in him to make a confession of sorts. They had only met some-odd days ago, for Oum's sake. She mentally face-palmed herself for thinking too much. Despite that, Dante continued talking.

"You know, there's nothing wrong with talking with your partner about things. That's why we're here, after all. It's our duty and responsibility to look out for our partners, and you are also expected to do the same. So no worries, okay?"

Nerina looked away and into the night sky. It looked different from the night sky back at her home in Vacuo. Here, because of the high altitude of the school, the sky looks closer, and not much light pollution to affect the brightness of the stars. For somebody who grew up in a secluded home, it was a breath of fresh air for Nerina. She unconsciously let out a wide and happy smile, unaware that somebody was beside her.

Blissfully unaware of her companion, Dante noticed the cherry-haired girl smiling at the night sky. It was like seeing his younger self again, marvelling at the vast expanse of the twinkling stars and the moon. She looked so much like a kid, with her wide-open eyes and open-toothed smile. Maybe she really did need some time to relax. The girl was so strung-up most of the times he was with her. It always looked like she had a problem on her shoulders. (Or maybe she just looked like that.) But whatever the case may be, he still got the normally stoic girl to smile outside of battle. It was, as much as Dante wanted to deny it, cute.

Unable to resist himself, he slowly raised his right hand and gently patted his partner's cherry-red hair. It was soft and bouncy, unlike his hair that was messy and spiky at some points. Nerina jumped a bit when he patted her head, and instinctively reached for her Romanus but she only grabbed air. Instead, she glared daggers at him and (if his eyes weren't lying to him) made a small pout.

"Stop patting my head like a kid."

Dante continued patting her soft red hair and released his hundred-watt smile. "Nope."

Her little pout (he was sure this time that she was pouting) and furrowed eyebrows just made him ruffle her hair more. When he was content, he lied down once again on the floor, hands behind the head.

"See, this is why I go out at times like these. To enjoy the unbound starry sky that only Beacon can provide to a stargazer like me."

She looked away at him for a moment, eventually got herself together, and looked at the grey-haired teen with inquisitive eyes. "That's your reason?"

"Hmm, I think that's the only reason, yes."

Nerina blinked once.

...

Twice.

...

And thrice.

A deep sigh escaped the cherryhead's lips.

"Until now, I still don't understand what runs in your head."

"The feeling is mutual. Both for your head and mine."

Dante finally stood up and patted off the dust in his pants. He offered his hand to Nerina like a gentleman, topped off with a characteristic bow.

"Milady?"

"I can stand perfectly fine on my own, thanks."

Nerina stood up as well and directed her eyes at Dante who was curiously staring at his scroll. A look of confusion was plastered on his face.

"Uh, what time is it, if I may ask?"

Nerina was first confused, and looked at her small wristwatch that read, "09:58 pm".

"I think...it's time for us to run back before Goodwitch sees us! Come on!"

Nerina took off as soon as the last word came out of her mouth, leaving a shocked Dante behind.

"Wait, what? Nerina, wait up!"

Back at Team DNIM's dormroom...

Iseult was happily enjoying the late-night mac-'n-cheese Mei had made. The whole platter was placed on the common table, and two plates were untouched. She and Mei had already taken their own share. She savored every bite as if it was her last, and even licked off the sauce off her spoon everytime it left her mouth. The quiet chef just sat on her bed while eating the same dish.

"Mmmm~ I wish I could cook like you do, Mei. You make stuff like this delicious!"

Mei just shrugged as she picked up a spoonful of macaroni and placed it in her mouth.

"It's nothing, really. It's just what I make for my siblings back in Mistral. They told me they loved it the first time I made it, so I just remembered the recipe and cooked it up from time to time. Just for practice."

Iseult was now squirming in delight as she took another spoonful of the pasta.

"Your siblings must be so lucky to have an elder sister just like you... I kinda envy them..."

"Don't even think about it, Iseult. I don't want another little sister to handle."

"But Meii~"

Both girls stopped in their tracks as their dorm room suddenly opened, revealing their grey-haired leader and his red-haired partner catching their breaths while leaning against the doorframe.

"Whoo~ that was good exercise."

"You want to run from the other side of the Academy again?"

"Only if you'll run with me."

Nerina looked more pissed off than before she went out to look for her partner. Dante was still grinning like a madman, which was how their leader looked whenever there's some sort of trouble.

Iseult called out the pair's attention by lightly tapping her fork on her plate and showing them the food.

"You guys want some pasta?"

A/N: So, yeah. This is more like a test, to see if I can write something decent. I'm not sure if I'll include this onto the main series (if there is gonna be one), but I think I will. Probably. Meh.

(I was wondering if i'd call this "The Brotherhood of the DNIM Pants" but then again it can be called a 'brotherhood' if 75% of the team are girls, if you hdan't realized by now. Like what Lord Master Pyrrha once said, 'let the chips fall where they may'.)

Constructive reviews will be greatly appreciated. Ciao peeps~