"I don't understand why we can't eat at your place," Dredd grunted, fingers wrapped tightly around a bag of takeout as he trudged up the stairs after Anderson, "You aren't even allowed up here."
"But you are," she corrected, bumping him with her elbow as he palmed the hand scanner on the door. It slid open and a gust of cool night air swept through. The roof of the Hall of Justice towered over the nearest buildings, leaving the sky unobstructed. Anderson picked around until she found a suitable spot to sit, patting the open space next to her until the senior Judge finally settled down alongside her with a sigh of resignation. Comfortable silence stretched between them as they ate. The seconds turned into minutes, and when Anderson said nothing further Dredd cast her a curious glance.
"You're quiet." It was a statement more than it was a question, and her eyes flickered to him as if he had caught her doing something she shouldn't have been.
"I thought…" she paused, drawing her lower lip between her teeth briefly before turning her gaze back up to the sky above them. "I thought it'd be high enough to see past all the light pollution." A childish notion now that she thought about it. Dredd followed her line of sight back to the dismal skyline.
"The stars," he stated after a moment, "You wanted to see the stars." Anderson's shoulders slumped and Dredd knew he had hit the nail on the head. He seemed to regard her quietly for a moment before he placed the half-empty container of takeout to the side and lifted his helmet off his head. She stared blankly at him for a moment. When his eyes glanced upwards again she finally seemed to understand; she reached out and gently touched her fingers to his temple.
She picked up a flash from his mind, pieces of a memory long since passed. Endless expanses of dirt and red earth, jagged outcroppings and sheer cliff faces ran for miles. Above, a hundred-thousand tiny pricks of light lay scattered in aimless patterns amid an ink black sky. Perhaps at one point they had held meaning to someone. She was overwhelmed with a feeling of being very small, a blip in a vast universe that could swallow her whole. A person could disappear forever out there. There was some other kind of emotion lingering in this memory, but she was too engrossed in the stars to pay it any mind. It wasn't her place to pry.
Anderson lamented slipping back into her own head, watching the desolate sky in the present with a frown of disdain. Despite all its horrors, the Cursed Earth held a staggering amount of beauty.
"Thank you," she murmured quietly, letting her outstretched arm fall back into her lap. Dredd shrugged, retrieving the container of food from beside him. They lapsed back into comfortable quiet. If he thought she was silly for wanting to know what was out there, he did not show it.