Theme 275; By the light of a million stars.
It was a night that, although cold in its velvety embrace, was peppered with silver splendour and the glow of a full moon come to dance in the gardens of the Baskerville estate. And with it came the quiet and the peace, curtains drawn and candles dimming, dark sheets and still corridors.
Oswald, much like the eve creeping through the last cracks of day, is all dark, sharp lines with black velvet on his voice and he stands serene against the moonlight he basks in upon the balcony tonight; stern and silent even in his ease.
Jack, on the other hand, is quite the contrary, all bottled sunlight and bright, summer-day colours with bells ringing in his laughter, soft in his lines and jovial all over and everything Oswald isn't.
They go hand in hand however tonight, one bright and one dark, both with eyes stitched to the skies swept across with black and blue.
"I see a swan," Jack points out with a grin, pointing a gloved finger to the corner of the sky embellished with the cluster of stars having caught his eye. "Do you see it?"
Oswald, having been tight lipped and quiet for the majority of their union, flits his sights across to where the blonde pointed so eagerly.
"Yes," He utters out simply. "I see it."
Jack is far from surprised at his aphoristic and succinct reply at this point.
"What do you see, Oswald?" He prompts, giving him a brief nudge of the elbow. "Do you see anything?"
The look Oswald gives him is quizzical in all its silence and intensity-perhaps he finds Jack's pursuits childish and unnecessary (Oswald rarely ever does things that he sees unnecessary these days) and yet Jack nods eagerly and expectantly, mouth turned up in a smile and green eyes bright.
But the Baskerville heir humours him and his whims-doesn't he always forgive and humour Jack and his ways?-and settles his gaze upon the glittering skies with a rather serious frown of concentration. And Jack chuckles, because Oswald is always so serious and straight laced, analytical in all that he does.
A brief silence.
"I don't see anything."
That too, doesn't surprise him much.
"You must see something," Jack prods again, giving the other man a clapped hand on the shoulder and pointing at another cluster of stars he spots elsewhere against the sky. "Look harder, Oswald, you're bound to spot something!"
Oswald sighs.
"Jack,"
Jack insists.
"Look-that cluster right there; what do you see in it? I see something in it."
Oswald is no more amused than before, attempting to sweep the clutching hand off his shoulder. Jack doesn't relent and instead squeezes tighter. "Look."
And Oswald looks, lips parted to reiterate his insistence of seeing nothing among other things. Though the words don't quite roll off his tongue, and instead he breathes in hastily as he suddenly spots what Jack was trying to bring to light.
"...I see...I see a rabbit."
And Jack laughs triumphantly.