notes: a little sendoh b-day fic that doesn't include a cake nor an instance of someone saying "happy birthday". not even "i love you"! pure senkosh fun.
Inspiration notes: think a star map from the manila observatory, walking home at night and the universe made up of billions of stars.
disclaimer: slam dunk -- not mine.
[you are my star]
Black. Yellow. Blue. White. Red.
"That's our star."
Koshino Hiroaki looked up at the sky above the harbor; eyes squinted as he tried follow where his companion's finger pointed at in the vast expanse of the night sky. "Which one? There are a gazillion stars here, Akira. Could you at least give me some details?"
"That big one besides Draco." Sendoh Akira scratched his head good-naturedly. "Or is it Orion…?"
"Akira!"
"Okay, okay, I got lost in my junior Astronomy. Let me find it in the star map, okay?"
"This is silly, Sendoh! It's just February and it's still freezing out here!" Koshino shook his head in exasperation as he took a sip from his already lukewarm cappuccino canteen. "Why did we have to this again? Aside from your birthday being two weeks from now, so we mere mortals must slave to please you?"
Sendoh smiled. "Oh, Hiro-kun, you're being your charming but extremely sarcastic self again."
"Ha. Ha."
Sendoh plopped down a folding chair as he slowly scanned the star map in his hand, nodding at a few lines and sported a glaze-eyed expression that scared the other. After a few moments of tense silence, Sendoh turned to the smaller boy. "You okay?"
"Akira, my ass is freezing out here. Is this your idea of a perfect night-out?" Koshino shivered slightly as another small gust of cold air hit their position by the harbor. He shifted his jacket closer to his body and motioned for Sendoh to close his. (Successfully, with the expert application of the "Evil Koshino Eye".)
A suppressed smirk, but a smirk all the same. "Oh, would you like a motel better then?"
"HENTAI!"
Sendoh raised his hands in pleasant surrender. "Okay, okay. I was just joking." He scanned the map one again, then suddenly pointed again at the sky. "Oh, there it is."
"What?"
"Our star."
"What our star?"
"Our star. Our. You. Me. Star."
Koshino sighed in disbelief. "Akira, the universe contains billions of stars. How could you possibly know?"
"Oh, you just…know it when you finally see it." Sendoh looked thoughtfully at the other boy. "You just know it's your star."
Koshino harrumphed. "Oh, that's just silly."
"Probably."
"Then why?" Koshino mumbled softly as he drank another sip from his canteen. "Why bother?"
A long moment of silence choked the night air as another cold blast of salty breeze blew into the almost tangible space between them. The star map on Sendoh's hand fluttered violently against the breeze, but none of them moved. An alien numbness paralyzed them in their positions, the coldness seeping a little into their chests.
And then, the moment crystallized into a fragile web of glass and the shards were sharp enough to cut. Paralyzed with fear of losing the balance of the delicate intricate, designs of their apprehensions, they sat silent for a long moment staring across the shadowed sea until Koshino finally regained his ability to speak, gathering the courage to crack his safe-hold.
"Akira…why?"
Another moment of contemplative silence and then a gentle hand placed itself on the smaller man's face. "So that when we look up the sky, we will always know…"
"Always know what…?" Koshino's hand grasped the loving hand on his cheek, heart lurching as Sendoh gave him a small gentle smile.
Shattered glass twinkles like stars.
Billions of stars. Like the Universe.
"Akira?"
"That that…" The spike-haired young man pointed at the sky again. "…Is our star."
Koshino looked up in the sky to a sea of stars, then looked down at Sendoh slowly scanning the map in his hand again. "Akira?"
"Hmmm…?"
"You're reading the map wrong again."
A small chuckle escaped from Sendoh's lips as he turned to look at the sky again. "Well…We still have forever, ne?"
~owari~
[Finished: Feb. 4, 2003. 9 PM. Manila Standard Time] --- Happy Birthday, Ryonan Ace! : February 14, 2003