"…It's like a goddamn tragedy, because you look at him and see the stars, and he looks at you and sees the sun. And you both think the other is just looking at the ground." –I couldn't find who said it first
Author's Note: May contain spoilers! This is a one-shot of Kyle/Ricky. I wish the show hadn't taken this route as a filler and really explored the possibility of them together a bit better.
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xFumblingThroughTheGray
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Stars and the Sun
A Home & Away One-shot
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Deep into the darkened depths of night, Ricky had been battling mountains of paper work that'd piled up in the past couple weeks and was just moments from the sleep her body desperately craved. But first things first, she had to check to make sure Case wasn't driving Kyle up the wall. Casey had been teething and quite the little handful as of late which was why she was surprised to not be bombarded with dissatisfied wailing the moment he walked into the door of the house. In fact, not a creature was stirring. Not even a Braxton.
After doubling back to check the flat, she found the pair in Kyle's room. Kyle was laying on the left side of the bed with an arm extended out to encompass his nephew so Casey couldn't get far if the little rugrat woke up in the night. It wasn't how he normally slept but after all those days in a hospital bed, he rarely slept any other way. Other than that, Kyle was all Braxton with his sleeping habits. All the boys snored, but I low snore, an occasional snort with a few little bursts of breath. They slept cool too, if they had to sleep with a blanket, it was never pulled past their waist. It was adorable, even more so when she realized Casey mimicked a majority of Uncle Kyle's mannerisms.
But the smile on her lips didn't last, she could see the incision scar from his kidney transplant, the little angry-red reminder of how close she had been to losing him. It reminded her of a saying her mother constantly recited to her in her youth: it's only in the black of night you see the stars. And those stars will lead you back home. She was right. It wasn't that she ever didn't appreciate Kyle. She did. It's just she didn't realize that Kyle'd turn into her guiding light, her shining star that would show through the darkness and it took her almost losing him to see just how important he truly was to her.
Shaking herself from her musings, the exhausted mother gently nudged Kyle to wake him.
xXx
He blinks the antagonizing weight on his eyelids away, navigates his way through the murky haze of sleep, to emerge from it with a grumbling sound that vaguely resembles an animal's growl. Immediately eyes still glazed with sleep flicker down to his nephew, checking on the infant to make sure the little guy wasn't trying to wiggle away, but the baby boy was sleeping just as soundly as Kyle had been moments before. A sleepy smile slips onto his features as Kyle examines his nephew oblivious to another presence in the room. It was moments like this where he didn't feel so broken, so lost adrift a sea of sadness and mourning. Looking at the beautiful baby boy, all Kyle Braxton's troubles simply melted away.
"Kyle," Ricky whispered, a soft hand gently nudging at his shoulder once more and pulling his attention from the slumbering infant towards her.
Slants of illumination crept in from the blinds highlighting the blonde's features just enough for him to be able to know it was her.
"Ric, hey," Kyle grumbles, the gravely baritones of his voice still thick with sleep. A thick arm strategically slips itself out from under the tiny tot, while his other hand presses into the mattress to push himself into sitting upright. "Sorry, I must've dozed off."
"Don't worry about it," she quickly dismissed. She knew that past few days had weighed heavily on him and he was long overdue for some rest. "Hope Casey wasn't too much trouble."
"No trouble at all," Kyle declares. "Actually, hanging with Case was exactly what I needed."
Kyle'd been put through the ringer in the past year, first the Casey his nephew was named for, then Brax, then Phoebe, and the twins. Loss had weighed heavily on him and almost swallowed him whole and it would have if he didn't decide to focus on what he had instead.
"Good," Ricky said with a smile laced with relief.
"He went down about an hour ago, but probably not a good idea to try and move the little guy," Kyle assessed, kicking his feet over the edge of the bed and planting them on the floor. "Why don't you two stay in here tonight and I'll go sleep on the couch."
"Don't be silly. We're not going to kick you out of your bed," Ricky responded, the objection almost as instantaneous as what followed. "There's plenty of room."
Kyle's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he nodded and scooted back down into the comfort of his mattress before he could make up his mind on whether this was crossing some sort of barrier he'd tried to set for himself. Ricky was, well Ricky. He never defined her as anything but, never even thought about thinking of her in any particular way… but lately his mind had been beginning to wander whether he wanted it to or not. But there's no turning back now. Ricky had already moved around to the other side of the bed and nestled in comfortably next to her beautiful baby boy, the small smile on her features a ray of sunshine.
"Goodnight, Ric," Kyle whispers, her contagious smile slipping onto his lips as his eyes close.
Her eyes wander up from baby Case back to Kyle for one last look before closing her eyes too.
"G'night, mate."
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