Characters: Gaius, m!Robin

"Can't sleep, bubbles?"

The sudden noise startled the tactician. Before he'd heard the voice of the redhead, he'd been staring at the crackling flames of the fire; he'd been outside long enough to grow used to the ambient sounds of insect life and the crackling of the fire pit. Now, brought out of his trance, he straightened his back up and groaned quietly, having no idea how long he had been hunched over. "Hello, Gaius."

"We've been traveling together for months and all I get is a 'Hello, Gaius'?" The thief pouted as he took a seat on the fallen log next to the albino, popping a red-colored lollipop back into his mouth; he'd only taken it out long enough to talk. Unlike Robin, he was still fully dressed—not even his boots were off. The tactician was without his coat and shoes, keeping the cold at bay by sitting next to the warm fire.

"That's right. Dare I ask why you're out so late?" Robin responded with a question of his own, the ghost of a smile pulling at the corner his lips.

"Would you believe me if the answer was anything but making trouble?"

"Not a chance."

"Well," Gaius laughed, "there you have it, then." He'd finished his treat, and he chewed on the remains of the stick for a moment longer, eager to suck every last drop of flavor from it before he tossed it into the fire pit where it burned up in an instant.

The silence was filled with the sounds of the night and the crackling fire; the latter of the two noises was slowly growing dimmer, much like the light that it gave off. A few small flames clung to life, but with no fresh wood on the pile, it was quickly losing heat. Regardless, Robin squinted at it anyway, his brow furrowed as if he was thinking hard; it wasn't an unusual expression for him, but it still made Gaius laugh.

"You think if you stare at the fire long enough, you'll get an epiphany?"

Robin jumped again, having forgotten that he was in the presence of company. A soft sigh escaped his lips, and he rubbed his forehead. "It would certainly help."

This caused Gaius to laugh again, finding amusement in the tactician's pout. "You're looking in the wrong direction, bubbles." With that, he kicked his heel into the dirt, spraying the brown sod over the flickering flame and quelling the tiny spark of life that it was clinging to.

"Hey!" Robin watched helplessly as the spark disappeared under the small mound of dirt, making the light of the campsite go from dim to completely black. He waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the complete darkness, finally able to make out the shape of Gaius who was now sitting much closer than he had been before, taking advantage of the darkness to sneak nearer to the tactician. "Why did you—"

Robin's sentence was stopped short by the feeling of lips on his, the sweet tang of cherry still present on the mouth of the thief whom had kissed him without warning. It wasn't the first time this had happened—Gaius had a habit of shutting him up when he was stressed, giving him a few blissful moments to be carefree, lost in a world where there was nothing but the darkness beneath his eyelids and the faintest taste of sugar on his lips.

As always, the bliss ended as quickly as it arrived, but Robin lingered in the feeling of euphoria, imagining the taste of sweetness—the taste of Gaius—was still on his lips. The thief's hand cupped his face, and Robin's half-closed eyes stared at the other with silent longing for another kiss.

"Look up," Gaius whispered, lifting the tactician's chin which he held in a gentle grasp, letting go once he felt the other moving on his own.

Robin, with eyes full of confusion and slight disappointment, obeyed the instruction, and his hazel eyes flooded with wonder and amazement. The spark of the fire was gone, no stray soldier carried a candle, and no town was near enough for the light to seep out, and yet the sky was not dark. Millions of stars dotted the pitch-black sky, their shine spreading across the entire horizon. Some shimmered brighter than others, sparkling in the wide net of the sky, with dimmer orbs dotting the spaces in between the closest stars.

"It's beautiful…" Robin's murmur was so quiet, he almost didn't realize that he had said the words. When he didn't have his nose buried in a book, he was fixated on something such as the campfire, but he rarely thought to look upwards. On such a clear night, the waxing crescent moon was visible as well, the brightest symbol among the speckled stardust that littered the sky.

"It almost makes you forget about the chill, doesn't it?" The redhead's tease came when he noticed Robin shivering; the tactician himself, with his head craned backwards, hadn't seemed to even notice how cold it was until the thief's words brought his mind down back where it belonged.

Robin was without his coat, and the cold night had settled in quickly without the fire to keep it at bay. He wasn't ready to return to his tent for the night just yet, so he nudged his shoulder against Gaius; the latter seemed to get the hint, and angled his body so that the tactician could lean against him.

"When I told you I loved you, I meant it," Gaius murmured, his nimble fingers trailing along the tactician's bare arms, rubbing them gently to keep away the cold. "I didn't think you'd be the one to forget, bubbles."

"I didn't forget… I love you too." A soft mumble came from Robin, who was conflicted in the decision of whether or not to keep his eyes open for the stars, or to let himself fall asleep in the comfort of Gaius's embrace. Eventually the latter of the two wishes won, and the shimmering stars faded into the black of night, and then it was only him and Gaius, together, safe from the troubles of the world for at least one more night.