U – Unknown
The night was humid and warm. August got like that, sometimes. It made you far too hot in your bed, which ultimately kept you up most of the night as you tried to cool down enough to sleep comfortably. When you couldn't, you kept changing positions in order to stop your skin from sticking to the sheets from your sweat.
It was on a night like this that Lavi couldn't take it any longer. He leapt out of bed (he hadn't even been using the covers; they were kicked onto the floor at the foot of the mattress) and donned a pair of pants so not to walk around in solely his undergarments. He tossed on his eye patch, too, in case he ran into someone. He wouldn't want them to see his bad eye, now, would he?
It felt as though the corridors of the Black Order's tower were much cooler than his bedroom. As he walked down them, some of the dampness started to life from his skin. It was refreshing, although Lavi knew it would be better if he was in front of a cooling refrigerator. Maybe he should pop into the kitchen for a while…
A noise struck his ears. The redhead paused and stood silent for a moment to see if he could catch it again.
There it was. Behind him.
Lavi whirled around and spotted Allen coming around a corner. The white-haired boy paused in his tracks. A smile touched his lips. "Lavi."
The redhead offered a short wave and a small grin. "Yo. What are you doing up at this ungodly hour?"
"I'm headed for a little late-night snack; it helps me sleep," Allen answered as he caught up with Lavi. "And you?"
Lavi shrugged as he wiped a bit of oily sweat from his brow. "I was too hot. I needed move around and hopefully cool off."
Allen nodded sympathetically. "It is really humid tonight, isn't it?" He sighed. "To tell you the truth, I'm not hungry. I was going to go into the kitchen not for food, but for the cold air from the refrigerator."
Lavi chuckled softly. He laced his hands behind his head. "I was thinking of doing the same thing, actually. What, do you have mind reading powers or something, bean sprout?"
"My name is Allen," he reminded the other in an irritated tone. "And no, I don't, but it's a funny coincidence, huh?"
Lavi had to agree to that.
After a while, they came across the kitchen. Luckily, Jerry wasn't there yet to start making any of the breakfast pastries that they usually have on Sunday mornings. The kitchen was empty and dark, like a ghost town. The two boys crept in and tip-toed over to the freezer. "Let's see if we can't find any popsicles in here," Allen suggested.
"Good idea," Lavi smiled. They opened the door, a delicious wave of frosty air caressing them. "Ahh, that feels nice."
"But this will be nicer: look, popsicles!" Allen whispered excitedly. "I call the lime one!"
"That's fine, because I wanted the orange one," the redhead replied. They scrambled to grab their treats and tear them open. The icy, fruity treat stuck to Lavi's tongue temporarily, but it tasted and felt so wonderfully refreshing that he hardly minded.
They tossed out their wrappers and walked together out of the kitchen, the warmth of the night already seeming less stifling. "Want to go out on one of the balconies?" Allen asked.
Around a suck at his popsicle, Lavi replied, "Sure."
Outside, the breeze helped tame the humid August heat, and the crescent moon lit some of the scenery below them. Lavi leaned forward on the ledge, and beside him, Allen leant back on it. "Aside from the insomnia and heat, it's actually a nice night tonight."
Lavi nodded as he bit at his frozen orange treat. "It is. On nights like this, I usually stargaze."
"Stargaze, really? I never had time to stop and look at the stars. What kinds of things do you see when you look at the stars? Constellations?" the younger teen questioned.
The future Bookman stared at him in disbelief. "You mean… you never lain out and studied the stars? Why not?"
"Like I said, I never had the time. On the nice, clear nights, I was either too exhausted or wounded or busy with battle to look. Or too deep in thought," he added sheepishly. "I, uh, think about quite a few things on nights like this."
Before Lavi could ask what sorts of things, he decided to answer one of Allen's earlier questions. "Yes, I see constellations. The old man made me memorize over half of them." An idea sparked in his mind as he finished off his popsicle. "Ne, Allen… do you want me to show some of them to you?"
Caught with the remaining bite of his popsicle in his mouth, Allen glanced over at his friend. "You'd do that?" he murmured hopefully.
Lavi smiled. "Of 'course I would. I think everyone should appreciate astronomy at least once in their lives. So what d'ya say? Shall we head to the roof and stargaze for a while?"
The cursed Exorcist looked nervous. "The r-roof?" he stuttered. "But isn't that, you know, a little too high?"
"Don't tell me you get vertigo, Allen," the redhead chuckled. "Admittedly, the Black Order's headquarters is unbelievably high, but isn't it worth it to get the best view you can of the vast unknown above our heads?"
Allen sighed as he tossed his popsicle stick over the ledge and stood to his full height. "You have a point there."
Still smiling, Lavi offered one hand as the other withdrew his hammer. Being able to grow and extend to just about any side, he's always able to make it small enough to carry at all times and large enough to take them straight to the roof. "Shall we, then?"
Allen hated traveling with Lavi's hammer. His landings weren't the best, and it was such a terrifying rush to be shot up into the air the way he was when Lavi took him with. But he accepted the offered hand and stepped onto the mallet end as he slung to both Lavi's chest and the extending pole of the anti-Akuma weapon.
"Here we go!"
They oared through the air and ended up right beside the edge of the roof. Allen stepped off and sat somewhere in the middle of the roof as Lavi stepped onto the shingles and shrunk his hammer again. He joined the other within seconds, only he stretched out immediately. Putting his hands behind his head, he relaxed. "Which one do you want to know about?" he asked the younger boy.
Allen pointed upwards at a chain of horizontal stars. "That one."
Lavi leaned over slightly so that his head was near Allen's. Unknown to the redhead, Allen blushed and peered at him form the corner of his eye.
"That one? That's Orion. The chain you see is his belt," he explained.
"And that one over there? The one with the North Star?"
"That's Ursa Minor; y'know, the Little Dipper? It looks like a soup ladle," he explained as he traced the stars with his finger. Beside him, Allen followed the shape and nodded. He scooted a little bit closer to his friend, hoping the redhead wouldn't notice.
"What about that one? I can almost make a square and a tail out of it," he said.
"Ah, that one's Draco the dragon," Lavi informed him. "Personally, he's my favorite. But I bet you'd like that one way over there," he said as he pointed to a large collection of stars.
"Which one's that one?"
"Sagittarius," Lavi replied with a chuckle. "It's best seen now, in August."
Allen smiled. "You're right, I do like that one. It's oddly shaped, but it reminds me of my Clown Crown."
"How so?" the redhead inquired as he, too, absentmindedly scooted closer. If he wanted to, he could casually lower his hand to hold Allen's demented left hand, but he wasn't sure how the white-haired boy would react.
"See the way it spikes a little at the top and stretches across? It's like what my Clown Crown does when it wraps around me," he replied. He turned his head to look at Lavi, although he could only see his messy red hair, eye patch, and profile. "What others are there, Lavi?"
"Well, you can't see them at this time of year, but some of the best constellations are Pegasus and Aquarius. The next time they're out, I'll show them to you."
"Is that a promise?" Allen asked softly. The thought of doing this again with his friend made him oddly happy.
The other nodded. "Yup, it's a promise. I like sharing the unknown with you, Allen; if I can do it again, I will."
Allen smiled warmly as dared to grip Lavi's hand, which was at his side so close to Allen's own. He hoped that the redhead wasn't disgusted by the awfully strange texture of the skin on his left hand. But it seemed that he wasn't, because Lavi grinned and gave Allen's hand a small squeeze.
"I'm glad that I couldn't sleep tonight," Allen murmured.
"Me too," Lavi replied.