Prompt: Day 4—Stars

Summary: Maybe he hadn't been so fond of the stars at first, but he thinks he can change his mind when it comes to a certain blonde haired girl.

Warning/s: Reference from Dragon Cry so there may be a possible spoiler if you haven't watched it.

The Stars

He had never been fond of stars growing up. They were just little dots in the sky that held no significance to him. He had other things to care about, such as how he would win a fight with his adoptive father. Or where he would get his next meal from with Happy.

So no, he never found the stars to be important to him.

Till he had met her.

When they had first met, he had found her interest in star-gazing to be quite fitting, though lackluster in nature. Not that he was judging her, it was actually cool how she could pick out and name them when he excitedly asked, but it had never really been something he could ever get into. What was so fun about looking at little dots in the sky? But he only shrugged it off as typical weirdo behavior and would continue on to his fishing trips with his blue-furred companion.

Though slowly, as the years had passed and he grew to know her more, her love from the stars had also affected him. By the time he had known her for almost half a year was when he had actually indulged in going gazing with her. He couldn't remember a single constellation but for some reason, he found himself enjoying the experience. When he had first said yes, he had dreaded that it would be a snore-fest but currently couldn't stop choking on his spit as he laughed when the blue exceed had angered the blonde into doing something stupid.

It was then a year or so later when he had dragged a screaming blonde mage from her window and onto the roof that they established their little ritual, unknowingly at first. Much to the dismay of the celestial mage, he ended up dragging her up a couple of times more, her eventually giving in. It was only the next week when the blue exceed had found out and proceeded to ball his eyes out for being left out. It had taken them a promise of a whole week's worth of fish to appease him, the blonde nervously glancing around to see if her landlord caught on to them. It was then that they established a new little tradition where, if they weren't on a mission and had the time, would spend every Saturday night star-gazing from the top of her roof.

It was rare that it would only last for a couple of hours, as they would end up goofing around an hour in. Even occasionally almost spending the whole night playing games after trying to make shapes out of the stars. Ever rarer, they would just sit in a comfortable silence and enjoy the cool summer night. He looked forward to these nights, even though he and the exceed practically spent the whole time with her anyway. He couldn't quite place why his heart shifted weirdly whenever he saw her face watching the stars, eyes wide with wonder and lips slightly parted in awe. He only shrugged it off and justified it was due to her weirdness, still finding it fascinating to look at. Her face would somehow soften, if that was possible, which he didn't know how since she was already so squishy to begin with, but somewhere in the back of his mind recognized this to be a different type of soft. Her eyes would close a little and her heartbeat would calm into slow thumps. A small smile gracing her face as her shoulders would drop from their tense posture.

He had seen this countless times whenever they were on missions where they had to camp out. If there was a sliver of the sky visible, she would often look towards the sky and fall into a gentle sleep. Breathing out in even breaths. Or when in the midst of battle, she would place her hands on her keys and breath in deeply. Heart beat slowing down a little from it's panicked frenzy.

So when they had set up camp again after escaping the kingdom with the weapon, he was quick to notice the loud thumps of her heart among everyone's quiet inhales and exhales. Listening attentively to her shuffling before hearing her footsteps walk off as she took her turn to take watch. He couldn't help but frown as he sat up and followed her through the trees. When he saw her face contorted into a frown and her shoulder's hunched, breathing coming out in heavy sighs, he paused before beckoning her to follow him up the tree, regardless of her protest. When he reached the top, he couldn't help but feel a little giddy inside as he looked towards the sky then back down to the girl complaining. Taking her hand and pulling her up once she reached the top.

He couldn't help but give a small smile as he stared with her towards Stella's stars. The clouds from the previous night have disappeared and leaving the celestial mage awe-struck with wide eyes. Her heart beat now accelerating with excitement. Her face was now beaming and when she had fallen asleep, her heart beat rang out in calm bumps.

For once he was glad he listened as she was a little happier the next day. Though somehow, he knew he didn't need to really be consciously attentive when listening to her. When it came to her, everything was a no brainer for him when it came to what to do.

Because she was Lucy.

Note: Happy 4th of July! This is just a short one-shot. I honestly didn't have any good ideas (or inspiration) on what to write so I just ended up writing this.

~writingamongstars