A/N: Inspired by a chapter of Th' Lady Shadow's fic Dreams Come True.
The eclipse is a rare sight. Often many people believe it to be a sign from the cosmos foretelling a great event, or marking the end or beginning of something remarkable.
But to the Moon, it marked the start of something that would seem small to others. No, only to her would this eclipse be something truly important. In her heart she would always remember the very first time the Sun shone on her.
When she emerged from the great chamber she was dizzy with success. She succeeded in doing as those before her had done and she was terribly proud of herself. Had she any natural light of her own, she would have given the Sun a run for his money.
But there was no light within her. She was small and plain, a little body in space that only those closest to her would recognize. One could hardly call her celestial. She stood her course as any of those other bodies would, traveling that path set before her, doggedly keeping at it until she reached her end. She knew where her orbit would take her. Only in death would she finally gain light and glow with brilliance.
A fiery end, an end that didn't quite befit the unnoticeable. The Moon would then become a star.
For now, however, she was simply Moon in the darkness. Certainly she had her friends to guide her---including one very special one, who was as close to her as her dear father had been---but they weren't stars. Sometimes the Moon wondered if she'd ever feel what it was like to be in the presence of one of those fiery orbs, to be able to reflect what they shone proudly as if it were her own. She longed for her eclipse, when the rest of the world would blacken and she would see only her sun.
And when she found him, it was a bolt from the blue.
He nearly blinded her when he made his entrance. He was brighter than anything she had ever seen! His eyes were fire and his hair was gold and he just stood there, gaping at her, like he was amazed at how something could be so small and dark in the presence of his great light.
When the Moon recovered, she saw only darkness around her, and in the center was this Sun. It was the beginning of a love affair with his light: to her happiness she realized that she was glowing too, just like he was.
Her eclipse had come, and now there was nothing else but the Sun.
She didn't want to leave him then. Though she'd barely spent any time bathing in his rays, she had already become addicted. Something had happened then, something that seemed to go beyond this display of light and strength. The orbit she'd been so familiar with had suddenly changed.
She parted from him briefly to recover from her accomplishment that day. She met him again when the sky was dark velvet and there were other stars among her. She'd gained a little light then, the lonely Moon, and now all the other bodies in space were crowding around her, eager to be near her as if her very presence was magic itself. She saw the Sun far behind her then, his light now a softly glowing fire in the corner of her eye. At the same time she left the others for him, he was leaving everyone else for her.
So Sun and Moon met again. This time there was no brilliance, no great flash, no blinding rays. The night did not belong to the Sun, the Moon realized. Night was her time to shine.
And shine she did, reflecting everything he felt for her in her fathomless eyes.
It was a small eclipse, nothing anyone else noticed, but the Moon knew that it was the beginning of a much different path. That quickly, space was no longer a cold and empty place.