I don't own Darker Than Black but please enjoy the one-shot. This isn't Yaoi.

The Wish under the Stars

Hei didn't hesitate to scale the metal mesh which surrounded an abandoned observatory. It was out of the way of all the chaos which went on in Tokyo along with his busy life. He was acting like Li but even when he does act like Li, the drive to break the rules was always fun to do. This time was no different. He had already looked around to see if anyone was following him. He was met by the darkness of the night. The black sky only gave off a few glows from the contractor stars. The moon had long since been taken from them. He did learn one thing from Nick (even if it wasn't true) from their time stargazing. If he thought hard enough and only on that thought, there was the chance that he could see past the sky of the fake stars and see the real stars.

That's what he did every Sunday night, the only night he had off from being a contractor. He didn't hate acting like a contractor as that was the way he was 'brought up to be' but it was really annoying.

He hopped down from the top of the fence and landed with a soft thud, he quickly ran towards the observatory doors and started to pick the lock as quietly as he could. It was best if he wasn't out for long with what he was wearing. He always took his Black Reaper work coat and a few blades and his mask for safety reasons. He could easily slip away from the attacker and then come back as the Black Reaper another night and just kill them. He never did though.

The click of the lock undoing brought a smile to Hei's face. Hei pushed the door open, the creaking sound of the doors echoed through the empty building. Hei slipped inside and slowly closed the door, pulling out a flashlight from his pocket he flicked it on. Shining the torch around him he moved deeper into the building. He made sure that he didn't touch anything he continued to walk towards the main room where the large telescope was located. It was always pointed up at the stars and it was easy to figure out how to use even without the instruction manual.

Hei gently pushed open another door which revealed the telescope in the observatory. Breathing a sigh of relief he slipped inside and went to check the telescope like he did trip here. Everything looked to be in order with the telescope which brought a rare genuine smile to his face.

"Wonder how long you've got left?" Hei asked as he gently put his hand on the telescope. He knew that he wasn't going to get a response from it but it was strangely satisfying. Feeling the cold metal of the telescope was something soothing to him. Hei made sure that he positioned the telescope perfectly up at the night sky and moved to look through it at the fake stars.

Darker Than Black – The Wish under the Stars

November 11 scooped up the papers which scattered the table. Misaki and he had witnessed a contractor trying to take down Li (who had incredible good luck) for no good reason. There was something which didn't quite add up, he already knew that BK-201 and Amber (AKA February) had some sort of connection. It wasn't clear what sort of connection it was but there was something there. When he mentioned Amber to BK-201, he felt something different about BK-201 at the mention of Amber. November 11 felt the rage radiating off him, the aura of the Black Reaper became fierce. He kept thinking of what happened, the actions between the Reaper and Li's 'lucky actions' were similar to the Reaper's movements.

It wasn't easy; it was like trying to put two positive sides of a magnet together. There was a connection but the two sides repelled each other. It made it impossible for people to suspect that the two repelling sides were possibly the same person. That's what November 11 spent the whole night piecing together. It was only going to be possible if he met Li himself.

He could easily go and take advantage over Li's personality. Sooth the young male so that he would drop his guard of untrustworthiness and extract the information he was looking for out of the younger male. It wasn't going to be hard as Misaki 'accidentally' let November 11 learn a lot of information about Li as possible. He already knew that Li had a soft spot for ramen and free food. Although it wasn't what November 11 normally did as he was a contractor but he needed information, Li had it.

Putting the papers in a safe spot in his apartment he reached for his car keys and headed to the door. He stopped and looked at the window. July's spectre was sticking out from the glass. November 11's ice blue eyes were fixed on the spectre. "I'm looking for a man named Li Shengshun; he's in apartment 201 somewhere in Tokyo. If you can find him, I'll make sure to repay you." With that, July's spectre faded. November 11 could only hope that July could find him, he didn't exactly have a picture of Li to show him but if Li was in his apartment, then July would have a good look at him then. November 11 opened the front door and left.

Darker Than Black – The Wish under the Stars

July's spectre was locating apartment 201, November 11 had asked him to do a task so he was going to do it. November 11 had recently taken it on himself to dig deeper into the Reaper with Misaki and into the new male known as Li. July had noticed that Li had been talking to a doll named Yin, he had only met her once and that was only for a brief moment but they had still met.

Yin was pretty nice and she was quiet like him. One of the differences between the two of them was the fact that Yin was more advanced than he was. She was BK-201's doll and it was because of him that she was evolving quicker than him. He had November 11 and April while Yin felt like she only had BK-201. He had wanted to ask her something before but he never did. He wanted to ask her a lot of questions. Most questions naturally fell onto BK-201 as November 11 was starting to become obsessed with BK-201 just like his friend Misaki was.

July left his hand on the glass while trying to find apartment 201 in Tokyo. It wasn't easy. It was hard. November 11 must have known this and sent him on a wild goose chase while he was off doing who knows what? There wasn't something he could change though; November 11 wasn't a contractor who always stayed under control. Once November 11's mind picked up on something he made sure that he had completely depleted the source of information he had or his interest has shifted.

July's spectre came up on an apartment window; inside the room were the small group of people. All of them seemed to be holding cans of beer, a guitar. July could only guess that they were the other humans who shared the apartment building. July couldn't pick up anything special from them. All of them were humans and didn't share a care for the world they lived in.

Humans never did, they never knew anything that was going on. They weren't aware that he was watching them. None of them had the growing feeling that they were being watched. Humans were...strange creatures. He was once one...he was once human. He couldn't remember his human life but he was once as carefree as these humans were. Figuring that Li wasn't one of them, he left the humans to gossip about what they were. His search continued.

Darker Than Black – The Wish under the Stars

November 11 stopped at the abandoned observatory. His eyes scanned the building trying to see if there were any clues that someone had been here. That's when he noticed the dirt on the metal mesh of the fence. A smile appeared on his face. Someone was in there and he was going to find out. He was going to hate himself for doing this but he wasn't going to get caught by the police or something so far out of town. Whoever was in here had an idea on how to keep their presence a secret.

Scaling the metal fencing he landed on the other side of the fence. A building like this would have been demolished by now. He could see the telescope but nothing more than that. He had a feeling that he was going to see his target inside. Misaki commented countless times that Li loved watching the stars, when she had asked him to hang out with her as her friends were busy she would often call Li out to keep her from working hard. Li was just being used by Misaki as a stopper to working so much.

He slowly pushed open the door to the observatory and slipped inside. It wasn't hard to find where the visitor of the building was. The light from the torch was his only light in the building. His only source of light which lit up the corridors, he could walk down the corridors without tripping over his own feet. November 11 did the best he could to be as silent as possible. He wasn't sure what the best method of action was going to be to tame the younger male and slowly extract the information he wanted. He wasn't to hurt the younger male on any form as that'll hurt Misaki's feeling and break her trust in him. If she found out that November 11 had caused Li any pain then he was sure that she'll keep Li safe.

He reached the main room and watched the young male who he knew was Li staring through the eyepiece of the telescope. November 11 made sure that he didn't make any sound as he looked around the room. He noticed the torch was pointed up at the ceiling which lit up the room slightly. It was enough light to see around the room and for November 11 to look at Li. For someone who was attacked by a contractor, he didn't seem to have much worry about being attacked once more. November 11 couldn't help but smirk. Li's shirt wasn't the white he saw before and it was replaced by a black shirt and his black hair was just as messy as it was before. His blue jeans were replaced with a pair of dark black tight trousers. Li was completely oblivious to his presence. Any contractor would have picked up the potential threat in the room.

"You do realise that this place is off limits, right?" November 11 asked Hei in his calm and emotionless tone of voice. Hei jumped and tore his attention away from the stars and turned to face November 11. He paled and backed up.

"I'm sorry," Hei quickly apologised as he stumbled backwards. Tripping over his feet, Hei fell backwards and landed on his butt. November 11 couldn't help but chuckle at Li's actions. He was well aware that he was very clumsy and often landing on his behind when startled. That's how he escaped from the contractor attack. Being clumsy had saved his life.

"I'm not going to turn you in. This place is abandoned anyway," November 11 said as he as advanced towards the younger male. Hei looked up at him confused, if November 11 wasn't going to turn him to the police then why was he here? "I can tell you're confused for not reporting something like this but this place is abandoned."

"So then...why are you here?" Hei asked staying in character. He could easily just kill November 11 and not have a care in the world about it. He couldn't even care if he killed November 11 in the observatory. Like he said before, it is abandoned. Thanks to it being out of the city way, not many people come here.

The flicker of the torch alerted Hei that the batteries were starting to die in his torch. November 11 noticed too and looked over at the dying torch. Hei had brought spare batteries and also a wind-up torch but he didn't really need the light for long, he cursed himself for not turning off the torch when he found the stars. The two contractors in the room were silent as they watched the torch flicker on and off as the batteries tried their hardest to keep it going. It was a losing battle and the batteries eventually gave up. Both contractors were put in total darkness.

"To answer your question, I saw a light and came fluttering like a moth to the source. I just happened to see you here," November 11 lied to Li. He couldn't see the younger male but he knew that he was still here. In the darkness Li was only going to stumble around more and fall over. "Why are you here?"

"Stars," Hei replied. November 11 was probably looking for a more in-depth answer but that was really his reason. Day off and November 11 finds him in the one place he thought he wouldn't be found at. What rotten luck. Hei hardly ever had luck in the first place so this was to be expected.

"Kirihara did say you enjoyed the stars."

"You're friends with Kirihara?" Hei asked in a confused voice.

"Yes...I can't see a thing though," November 11 said with a small growl of annoyance from lack of light. Hei couldn't disagree with November 11, he couldn't see anything either. Not even with the fact that he was trained in the dark or called the Black Reaper. He still didn't have night vision.

November 11 soon patted down his blazer before his fingers detected something solid in his pocket. A smile appeared on his face before he rummaged around in the pocket. Grasping hold of the lighter he made a few sparks before the flame was lit. Light filled up some parts of the observatory. The light from the lighter wasn't bright enough to fill the whole room with light as the torch did but November 11 could see and that was really all that mattered. He wasn't too fussed on Li. His hearing had picked up that he had already moved back to the telescope. November 11 walked towards the telescope, he had to keep an eye on Li.

Hei didn't really care from the fact that November 11 was there with him. He wasn't on duty so he could go and see the stars the best way how. Remembering what Nick had told him, to look at the real stars all you'll have to do is believe. That's just what he was going to do. He knew that when it happened at Pandora, it was the meteor shard doing so but now his own imagination can fill in what he desires. The moon was out of the question but the stars weren't. Looking through the eyepiece of the telescope once more he saw the fake contractor stars. Preparing himself mentally, he imagined the sky he observed in the past. He mentally smiled as his mind placed a memory of the real stars where Hell's Gate stars were. That was all he wanted, the real stars back. He was getting used to the fake contractor stars in the sky. He always went by stars were stars...no matter how you looked at them. Countless times he had found his star in the sky and then the many other contractor stars he picked up along the way.

Hei picked up the heat from the lighter along with the light. November 11 was standing near him but he wasn't going to jump, not this time. The warmth from the lighter was pretty comforting. To Hei, it was just right. The gentle wave of the flame made the shadows wave in sync. The silence between himself and November 11 was unsettling but he had his stars and that was all that he needed.

"When are you going to head home?" Hei asked November 11.

"When you do," November 11 responded.

"Fetch a candle. You'll drain your lighter if you keep using it."

"You have a point. I'll go find one," November 11 left Li's side, taking the light away from him as he went to search for a candle.

Darker Than Black – The Wish under the Stars

Hei watched the candle flicker. He had left the stars as they no longer held any interest in the small path of stars that hid mind had given him. That illusion faded a while ago so he saw the fake stars once more. Hei still had November 11 to deal with. The taller British contractor was with him felt human while looking into the flame of the candle. It wasn't something Hei was used to seeing, the simple fact that the light of the candle had managed to bring out a more human side of the stone cold contractor. Hei looked at the pale blue eyes and noted that the male was deep in thought.

"Why did those men attack you?" November 11 asked after breaking the silence. Hei froze slightly.

"They wanted something only I had," Hei told him. It wasn't a lie, they were after him for his power but it wasn't really explained to why. He was guessing that they needed the electricity he could do to get something in an electric lock safe or something. It was weird how they figured out that he was BK-201 when he was acting as Li. If November 11 couldn't figure it out then he was surprised that other contractors knew that he was BK-201 when he was out of uniform. Was it because of Yin? That they figured out who his two faces were?

"Which was?"

"That...I don't know. I only know the stars. I don't have anything valuable."

November 11 grew puzzled on why contractors would just randomly attack an innocent man on the street. What use is information on the stars? Most contractors aren't even interested in the stars so information on them is pretty useless.

"You do realise that the stars aren't real?" November 11 questioned Li. He smiled sadly and shook his head.

"Yes, I'm aware that the night sky has changed. Even though they are fake stars if the real stars returned...I'll miss the fake stars just as much as I miss the real stars now."

"To you the stars are just stars."

"No, the fake stars are signs of life. Each contractor is tied to a star so if the star falls then a contractor has taken their last breath. I don't know a lot about contractors...but don't think that all contractors are bad." Hei looked up at the observatory roof; the split in the room to allow the telescope through revealed the night sky. The fake sky filled with the fake stars. The sky owned by the contractors.

November 11 wasn't even sure what was going through Li's mind. All contractors were bad. No matter whom they worked for. If the Tokyo police had a contractor, they would be wary of them and abuse them just like the MI-6 were. Many organisations who were involved with contractors normally abused them in some form. The companies made them do all the dirty work so that they could keep their hands clean. Any humans who did know about contractors are always wary of them and would hate to be near them.

"You don't believe that contractors are all bad?" November 11 asked Li. He shook his head.

"Like I said, I don't know much about contractors. So I can't really say much."

"If you could meet a contractor...would you?" November 11 asked him.

"I don't know."

"Because contractors are mainly owned by companies and do the dirty work?"

"I don't have anything valuable to a contractor. I'm nothing special."

"I've never met someone who holds an opinion like you have when it comes to contractors." Hei smiled. So far he was managing to fool November 11 into thinking that he was just a human. Nothing like the Black Reaper he was. It was safer that way, his little secret. Did he really believe that not all contractors are bad? Just the companies which used them? He wasn't anything different to November 11 or the many other contractors in the past. All of them walked the path of destruction, all killing because they were told to.

"I guess...what scares most people I find interesting?" Hei said barley above a whisper. November 11 looked away from the candle and looked at Hei. His face was sad; his eyes were blank as his mind was busy working away at something.

"You're a strange man Li." November 11 smiled. Li was pretty interesting; it reminded him on how the Black Reaper interested him. Both were unpredictable and interesting to observe.

Hei soon felt very drowsy, the he felt his mind slowly switching off. Hei mentally cursed himself; he wasn't going to fall asleep near an enemy. November 11 seemed to pick up the fact that he was getting tired and slowly shuffled towards the younger male. There wasn't much he could do. The younger male looked ready to collapse. Now that November 11 looked closer he could see that Li was tired. His eyes were dull and that should have been the main key to see how tired he was.

"You're not overworking yourself, are you?" November 11 asked Li.

"Just 6 days a week starting at 8 in the morning up until 11 at night." Hei said. He wasn't going to tell November 11 that he didn't stop working until very early in the morning. Due to the contractor duty that he had he felt like he didn't stop working. Since it was his day off...he could rest now and sleep when he was supposed to. November 11 was with him so he couldn't sleep but...he wasn't sure that he wanted to resist sleeping too. He felt November 11 really close to him, a strong arm was soon around Hei's body. Hei mentally tensed up, he was so close to the British contractor that he could just kill him on the spot. No, this felt surprisingly warm. Hei couldn't help but gently lean on November 11, feeling the warmth from the contractor was weird. He wasn't expecting the contractor to freeze liquids to feel so warm.

"You work just as much as Kirihara," November 11 joked slightly. Misaki had the excuse to how much work she did but Li didn't really have that excuse unless he needed the money.

"Thanks..." Hei said before he shuffled slightly to make himself more comfortable. November 11 waited for Li to get comfortable before he gently ran his hand down Li's arm. The younger male flinched slightly from the touch but soon adapted to what happened and relaxed under his touch.

'I can see why Misaki liked you very much. Sweet, innocent and you've got the cute look around you. So carefree and just have the aura of innocents.' November 11 smiled as he held Li close to him. The younger male was soon sound asleep resting against him. November 11 didn't want to move, not without pulling Li from his sleep, the candle flame just made Li look so peaceful, so oblivious to the rest of the world. Just like every other human. But he knew about contractors so it was possible that he knew about dolls too?

"If only more humans thought like you did Li." He said softly, gently stroking Li's face, feeling how smooth his face was felt like a charm. It wasn't something November 11 was used to feeling. November 11 stayed with Li for the whole night, doing his best to stay awake.

The following morning, November 11 gently stirred from his sleep. He felt weird. Looking around he found the remains of the candle which was left burning through the night and Li was gone. November 11 gently pushed himself up from the ground; his hand was covering a piece of paper. Taking the paper off the ground he flipped it over.

Are you free same time next week?

Thank you for reading this.