The last chapter. It's longer than I anticipated. My apologies.

0o0o0o

Ivan didn't want to answer the person calling Yao's device. Because everyone knew he was at a speech, because he knew the number, because he could pick up and speak to them with a dead man's voice.

He picked up.

'Ivan.' Her voice was soft and hesitant and weary. 'Ivan, is it you?'

'Yes,' he whispered. 'Hello, Natalya.'

'Yao...hinted you might be…'

'Alive. Well, even.' Ivan tugged at his scarf. 'I am.'

'I thought you might like to know. Yao won't die from it.' A soft noise. 'The drug.'

'Oh.' Ivan couldn't force himself to feel it as more than a dull weight off his chest. 'But I will?'

'No. The drug itself isn't fatal. It was just to get you out of the way.'

'And what about Yao?'

'To make sure it worked.' Natalya sighed. 'We tapped your device, made sure the drug worked.'

'And in quarantine?'

'You were supposed to have caught the virus.'

'I'm immune.'

'So you are.' Natalya's feed crackled, and Ivan heard rustling before it was abruptly silenced.

'Why are you telling me?'

'Because you're supposed to be dead. And you take secrets to the grave.' Natalya chuckled flatly. 'Or to the ash.'

'Natalya, why are you really calling me?' Ivan asked.

'I'm not commander anymore. After you escaped, I was returned to my previous position.'

'Is this out of spite?'

'No.' Natalya's voice lightened just a touch. 'I simply want to, I guess. We used to be better friends.'

'You continued to go to war while I went to other fleets,' Ivan pointed out. 'We're not the twin colonels anymore.'

'I guess we aren't.' Natalya hummed absentmindedly. 'Tell me, Ivan. How is Nobleman Yao going to cover this up?'

'I don't know,' he admitted.

'Well, good luck. In life and in everything else,' she said.

'To you as well. Stay safe,' he replied.

He pressed the off button and set the device carefully, precisely back on the desk. He wanted to call her back again.

The door slammed open, and Ivan turned to shout or hide. Kiku stared at him.

'I-I apologize. Where does Yao keep the medicines?'

'In the cupboard.'

'No.' Kiku waved aggravatedly, tearing through the drawers. 'Not the old herbal ones. The strong kind, for bad conditions.'

'Kiku, what happened?'

'Yao is-he's having heart palpitations, nearly passed out after the speech, breathing all wrong, the drug must be getting worse-'

'The drug won't kill him!' Ivan shouted, too panicked to say anything else.

Kiku turned to him. 'How do you know?'

'Please, Kiku. Trust me.'

Kiku's eyes flashed furious for a second before he fixed his gaze on the ground. 'No matter. Please help me find the medicines.'

They found the pills stuffed into a tiny drawer. Kiku grabbed the pack and stopped for a second.

'Are you coming?'

Ivan looked away. His throat felt thick. 'I would.'

'Oh.' Kiku sighed, harsh and angry. 'I'm sorry.' He looked down at the pills. 'I will trust your word that the drug will not kill him. For your sake and his, I hope you do not lie.'

He left. Ivan gazed at the device. He no longer had any desire to call Natalya back.

0o0o0o

Kiku ran back to him as people began to talk about moving him to the medical ward.

'Take these,' he said, pressing two small, chalky pills into his hand. 'Don't chew them.'

Yao swallowed them and grimaced. 'What were they?'

'Shh. For your heart.' A cool pair of fingers pressed against his pulse. 'Stay still and do what they tell you.'

'I don't want to go to the medical ward,' he said. Even to him, the words sounded petulant, but he couldn't stand the white sterility and the knowledge any longer. Kiku shushed him again, fingers moving to track his traitorous heart's beat before they withdrew.

'Your heart is at a steady rhythm again. I think it was just…'

'The excitement?' Yao finished.

Kiku stared at him, his mouth twisting into a half-smile.

'Is that what you will say?'

'When I can breathe again,' Yao said. 'For now, I'm going to handle other things.'

'What other things?' Kiku asked. Yao sat up.

'Don't tell me you haven't heard. Ivan escaping and then dying is all anyone can talk about. Even in death, whether or not he's breathing is highly debated.' Yao winked, but his face fell. 'I don't know how I'm going to...do it.'

'I have faith in you,' Kiku assured him. Yao let his head fall back.

'At least someone does.'

0o0o0o

'I won't be your ambassador for much longer,' Natalya told him.

'Why?'

'Someone new is coming in.' She looked up. 'My term is almost up.'

'Farewell, then.' He paused and looked at her. 'Have you heard anything else about Ivan?'

'Nothing,' she said easily. Someone called for order, and they sat.

'Has anyone found anything else about Ivan Braginsky?' he asked as soon as everyone was seated. Beside him, Natalya smiled barely, and he let himself relax.

'Braginsky isn't dead,' someone said. Yao looked towards the person and his blood ran cold. 'Hello,' the Russian fleet leader said.

'Sorry?' Yao said. The fleet leader stood.

'I have reason to believe Braginsky escaped and lived.'

'What reason?'

'His body was never found. It was assumed that he had found some way off the island, but he's been wiped from all existence.' He strode forward. 'Someone or someones helped him escape and is sheltering him.'

Yao kept down his panic, shoved away the thoughts of being found out and what the consequences would be for both of them. 'Why would someone help him escape? Why would someone be sheltering him?'

'Political reasons spring to mind. A former ambassador has many secrets. Personal matters, even.' He threw out the last words carelessly.

'Any ideas on who?' Yao asked. Each word scraped like sandpaper in his throat. The fleet leader met his eyes.

'None.'

If the drug were to kill him, it would be now, and a poetic sort of justice that would be, Yao thought. He could hear his heart in his ears. They seemed to be teetering at the edge of a precipice, half a step away from asking, were you involved with Ivan Braginsky's life?

'Meeting adjourned,' the fleet leader called eventually. People filed out. Kiku tapped his shoulder and Yao started.

'Time to go, yes,' he said distractedly.

'Not quite. Please, could I talk to you for a second?' the man called. Kiku hesitated. 'No, just Nobleman Yao,' he said, and Kiku gave him a look before leaving and closing the door behind him.

'About Braginsky,' he started.

'Ivan.'

'Sorry?'

'Ivan,' Yao repeated. In that moment it seemed ridiculously important, some small act of defiance in the face of what might happen.

'Ivan, then.' He paused, eyes searching. 'You know nothing about him?'

'Nothing,' Yao breathed. The man stared at him, silently judging.

'Are you sheltering Ivan?' he asked quietly. 'Did you help him escape?'

Yao closed his eyes, a slow blink, and thought, ridiculously, of what he could do if he said yes, if he took command like he was supposed to for once.

'No.'

The man said nothing. He stood and nodded politely. 'Thank you.'

Yao stood as well. The apprehension and terror welling up in his throat was all too much, but he couldn't let that be seen. 'Thank you as well.'

The man left, and Yao followed on his heels, rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet between the hall to his rooms and the gallery to his observatory. He needed to go check on Ivan, make sure he was okay, tell him to be more careful. But he couldn't, he couldn't do anything but long for Earth right now, long for utter, cold silence.

The stars, the stars when he threw open the door and it was blessedly silent and the sky was huge, so huge, was it really a stretch to think he could he looking at Leon's ashes somewhere, reflected in the stars and the nebulae.

He stood and drank in the stars and the space and felt himself and all his feelings and thoughts drain away, spun dizzy on his feet and stared until there was no difference between up or down or side against side, there was only him and space and faraway Earth.

Slowly, he stopped spinning and slept, slept until nothing else mattered.

0o0o0o

Ivan could hear them before he ever saw them. Not shouting, but voices deep and commanding. He knew some of the voices, they'd been under his command when he was a colonel. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Were they looking for him?

On and on it went, with the quiet, deep voices just out of hearing, indistinguishable. He was helpless to do anything about it.

0o0o0o

Yao didn't know how long it was until he woke up and found his way back to his rooms, but he remembered clearly the people standing in his way.

'Excuse me, sir. We need to see your rooms.'

His blood ran cold and sluggish and he couldn't process what he thought for a long second.

'What?'

'We have reason to think you took Ivan Braginsky from quarantine and are harbouring him.'

Cold, cold, and Yao closed his eyes. Of course they thought so. He could not tell them no, could not disgrace the fleet.

'Of course,' he said. It was like he listened to someone else say the words. 'I will unlock the door.'

Every step took a lifetime of remembering, of begging silent apologies to Ivan, wishing they'd done things differently. Click, the sound of his key in the door and it opened and Ivan looked at him, his eyes violet and sad and longing. They were not surprised. They were regretful.

For a long second, they met eyes, a second given by the people behind them who must have been too shocked to think that the infamous Ivan Braginsky was saved, being here, being alive.

Then the second broke and the people surged forward, shouting, and Yao stood there, trying to say sorry.

Ivan closed his eyes when they touched him and dragged him out, but when they dragged him past Yao, still standing in the door, they touched, silk on scarf, and his eyes shone blue.

0o0o0o

Yao examined the podium. It was almost like the one he used for speeches, dark wood with gilded inlay.

'Nobleman Yao, did you help Ivan Braginsky escape quarantine?'

He did not look up. 'I did.'

'And you sheltered him?'

'I did.'

'Were there any other members in the operation?'

Kiku stared at him from the witness box, silent, posture horribly broken. Yao did not look at him. 'No.'

'And do you plead guilty?'

'I do.'

The gavel banged. 'Nobleman Yao is guilty.'

It was five charges. Sheltering a patient, denying a patient care, helping a patient leave quarantine, exposing others to the virus, and corruption. Ivan did not look at him.

Yao walked out of the room. He was tired. He was tired of everything. And something in him felt relief that he would never be allowed to lead again, because he was tired of it all, because he wanted to sleep and dream of nebulae. Something else felt guilty, breaking his promise to Gilbert about placing burdens on Kiku's shoulders.

Kiku stood against the wall, head bowed. Yao stopped by him. He slowly lifted his head, as if in a haze.

'I'm sorry,' Yao said. Kiku turned away. Yao stood there and waited.

'Please, Yao.' Kiku's voice was hoarse.

'They're letting me stay in my fleet. Because I need to train you.'

'It's my fleet.' Kiku met his eyes. The whites were bloodshot. 'I'm your prodigy. You are now-' his voice cracked, '-unfit to lead. I must take authority.'

'You already have the training,' Yao said humourlessly.

'I'm the fleet leader,' Kiku whispered, voice breaking. 'I'm the fleet leader, Yao.'

'You'll do better of it than I had,' Yao said. He looked off down the hallway, feeling every bone in his body seep full of the sorrow suffusing him. It was too heavy to bear. 'One last lesson.'

'Yao,' Kiku begged, sob catching in his throat. 'Please.'

'Meet me in the observatory,' Yao said. 'Please.'

0o0o0o

Ivan had said that him as a subject of conversation had died out eventually, but not for him, not yet. Yao sat alone, tried not to think of anything, least if all the whispers.

The door opened, closed. 'Yao.'

'Kiku.' Yao looked up. Kiku looked strange dressed in the red silks. 'Nobleman Kiku.'

'Please do not call me that.' Kiku looked away. 'You've always called me Kiku.'

Yao almost wanted to argue, tell him about rank and status, but he didn't. 'I'm only allowed an hour here. I will go back to my rooms afterwards.' He looked down at his own plainer robes. White, blank. 'Guarded arrest.'

'Yao,' Kiku started. Yao shook his head.

'Come over here. I need to teach you how to handle the observatory.'

'I know how to use it,' Kiku said. Yao smiled, eyes stinging.

'You already know everything about the system. I know. But since I always handled it myself, think of this as a last gift to you.' He powered on the interface. 'I'm going to switch ownership of the master controls to you.'

Kiku took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded. 'Thank you.'

'It's a gift.' Yao keyed in the commands and spoke his name.

'Here.' Yao felt strangely calm, precise, as poised as the old kings. 'Place your hand here.'

Kiku did, spreading his palm flat against the glass. Yao did the same, closing his eyes and remembering all the hours he'd spent with the stars underneath the glass. The interface lit up. Ready.

'Say your name,' he murmured. Kiku finally, finally met his eyes.

'Kiku Honda.'

'Yao Wang.' Yao nodded to the camera at one end of the glass. Kiku let it scan his eye, and Yao leaned forward to scan his as well. He took a deep breath and recited. 'I, Yao Wang, switch ownership of the master observatory controls and the entire electronic system of the Middle fleet to Kiku Honda.'

Kiku looked up at him, shocked.

'Yao?'

Yao smiled. 'Say you accept ownership.'

'I, Kiku Honda, accept ownership,' he said hesitantly. The interface glowed brightly and then faded all at once.

'Welcome, Kiku Honda,' a familiar voice said. Kiku stared at the machine in shock. Yao laughed, and it felt raw and good.

'I programmed my voice into the controls.' He embraced Kiku suddenly, and Kiku held him tightly.

'Yao…'

'It's a gift,' he repeated, smiling and crying and holding his prodigy, his ally, his best friend underneath the stars.

0o0o0o

Yao read books because there was nothing else to do. They couldn't give him death penalty for the crimes, they couldn't send him away because of what he knew. They had to keep him alive because Kiku commanded it.

He had found a book about flowers, a simple children's thing, old and faded. The page to sunflowers was dog-eared, and he unbent it because it reminded him of Ivan, and he didn't want to think of Ivan. But he found himself flipping through the old, heavy book often, tracing the pictures. He wondered if Ivan was dead.

He probably was. The death of a fleet leader would cause ripples. A missing ambassador caused none, except to those who cared to look.

'Ivan is alive,' Kiku told him, closing the door behind him. The guards that normally flanked him were left outside. Yao closed the flower book.

'How do you know?'

'Natalya called for him and asked how you were.' Kiku came and sat by him. 'What should I tell her?'

'That I'm well.' It was the truth. Yao had nothing to do, nothing to worry about. It was simple and passive and he didn't have to do anything.

'Is that all?'

'That may the stars come together for him.' He paused. 'Even if the sentiment is late.'

'Perhaps.'

Kiku frowned at the teacups scattered on the table.

'How much tea have you drank?'

'It's nothing,' he said, fighting off a tickle in the back of his throat, gathering the cups and placing them in the sink. 'Don't worry.' He dusted off his hands.

'Yao…'

'Kiku. I'm fine.' He smiled. 'Go. Lead them.'

'I'm scared,' Kiku said. Yao felt his mouth twist into a grimace, a sob.

'It's okay. You will be a good leader.'

Kiku turned to leave. He stopped. 'My ceremony is next week. I've arranged to have you there. If you'll accept.'

'I wouldn't miss it for the world,' Yao said, and meant it.

When Kiku left, he sat down and picked up the flower book again. But the tickle in his throat grew ragged and he coughed, harsh and wracking, bent over. When he brought the tissue away, it was bloody.

His vision swam.

'Kiku,' he said weakly. No answer. 'Kiku. Please.' No answer, and Yao dragged himself to the door dizzy and pounded on it until it opened and the guards looked at him lie he was mad.

'Nobleman-'

'I need a doctor,' he said, and then the world swooped sideways and he collapsed.

0o0o0o

Kiku looked haggard when he woke up. Yao looked around. Medical ward. He closed his eyes again, wanted it all to go back to yesterday, or to the beginning.

'Sorry,' he whispered. Kiku made a soft sound.

'Don't be.'

'At least it wasn't you,' he said. 'It was my ide-' He broke off coughing.

'Shh, shh.' Kiku rubbed his back. He was wearing a medical mask. Yao raised a hand and tapped it.

'Do you think the masks were faulty?' he asked.

'I thought they were as well. I had them checked. They weren't.' The lines around and under his eyes were far too pronounced. 'Did you take yours off?'

Talking with Lukas, the thought of Leon and he could think of nothing but needing to breathe-

'It was an accident.'

Kiku closed his eyes. 'I know,' he said softly. 'It was for Leon, too.'

'Leon took off his mask?' Yao asked.

'To shout to me. He thought it was safe since we were in the airlock.'

'That wasn't your fault.'

Kiku turned away. 'I know.'

They sat there in silence. Yao was too drained to be sad or worried or angry.

'I have it, then. They checked.'

'Please, Yao.' Kiku dug his fingernails into his palms.

'But I do. The coughing virus,' he said softly.

'Yes,' Kiku said. He touched Yao's hair gently. 'Sleep.'

'Kiku-'

'Sleep. Please.' His hand shook. 'Sleep well.'

0o0o0o

'He's sick.'

Two simple words in Kiku's broken voice and Ivan found himself bribing the guards and sneaking away to the medical ward. Tino let him in but wouldn't look him in the eye.

The ashen skin, the shallow breaths, the pain in every inhale. He knew the symptoms and he knew the signs and yet his brain said no, no, no and he knelt and shook Yao's shoulder until he woke up and Berwald cane running.

'Ivan? What are you doing here? How did you get here?'

'It doesn't matter. Are you-do you-' He can't finish the sentence. Yao's amber eyes are soft and terribly sad.

'I have the coughing virus, Ivan.' He shook his head. His eyes were bloodshot.

'No,' he said.

'I do.' Yao almost smiled, showing a flash of reddened teeth. 'They decided to let me stay here instead of go to the quarantine.'

'No. You can't,' be repeated. Yao couldn't, he couldn't.

'Ivan.' Yao reached out and grabbed him. His grip was weak. 'Ivan, what does it matter?'

'It matters the world,' he whispered. Yao let go of him.

'You shouldn't come back, Ivan.' His eyes were coppery with tears. 'Please.'

He left and the guards didn't ask where he'd been when he slipped back inside and wrapped himself in his scarf and stayed awake too late.

0o0o0o

The days passed quietly. Yao watched his own hands waste away. Kiku called him, looking worn thin, and Yao ached to be there, to take the work off his shoulders like Kiku had done so often for him, but he couldn't because he was in the sick bay in a bed, coughing, dying of the coughing virus-

He bent over and heaved, coughing out more scarlet drops of blood. Is this what Leon must have been feeling? The sheer helplessness, the frustration, the unfinished work and the rage that something could cut a life so short.

But at least he'd lived somewhat. Leon hadn't.

Leon, who died of impulsive urges and his own childish needs. Once the question took, it wouldn't let him go.

Kiku called again later and Yao said his question before he could stop himself.

'Kiku, at the funeral. Did you-did you tell Emil how Leon got the virus? When you talked to him in the airlock?'

Kiku said nothing and then breathed out, long and shuddering. 'I did.'

'Sorry.'

'Don't be.'

Yao tried to memorize every detail of his prodigy's face, his voice, to try to take it beyond the grave, but his eyesight blurred and he couldn't breathe and the idea of dying, of all of it was unfair, childishly unfair, and it took the sedative before he could stop crying.

When he woke up, he lay there and tried to come to terms with the fact that soon there would be no waking up anymore soon, just a long sleep.

'Did I wake you?' Ivan asked. Yao's eyes barely focused in the dark.

'I'm not going to wake up soon,' he confessed. His voice was a rasp. 'Ivan, I'm scared.'

And Ivan was familiar and warm and on his side and Yao loved him even now, and he held him when Yao reached out and whispered soothing words in Russian until he could speak again.

'I'm sorry for telling you to not come back.'

'It's okay.' Ivan held him close, let Yao hear the whirring of his chest, let them fade back into some sort of normalcy. Yao held onto him and wrapped himself in the sunflower metal smell of his scarf and prayed he'd never have to let go.

'Waking up,' he repeated. 'Underneath stars or with someone or even alone in the dark. It's still waking up,' he mumbled. He tugged Ivan closer, panic suddenly setting into his hands, clumsy and hot. 'Does it matter? Ivan, tell me it matters.'

'It matters,' he promised, 'it matters so much-if it matters to you then it does to me, I give myself to you, does that matter?'

'It does,' Yao said, fiercely, quietly. Ivan looked at him, at his hair and always, always his amber eyes.

'Спасибо, любовь моя.'

'You've said that,' Yao told him. He repeated it and smiled slightly. 'You said it means 'thank you'.'

'I said 'thank you, my love',' Ivan said. His eyes were violet and blue, swirled like nebulae when he leaned in and his mouth was warm, warm and Yao's fear of the coldness of sleep was gone for a wonderful second.

'Again,' he said when Ivan pulled away. 'Ivan.'

'Yao.' Ivan smiled and kissed him and Yao was warm, warm and together with Ivan, fusing into a star.

0o0o0o

Kiku was there when Yao woke up for the last time, and Ivan was not.

'Kiku.'

'Shh.' Yao's voice was barely a whisper. 'It's okay.'

'You were a good prodigy.' Yao turned and coughed, and Kiku saw red teeth. 'The best. I'm sorry.'

'Save your breath, Yao.' His hands were cold.

'I'm sorry.' Yao shook his head. 'Forgive me.'

'I...I forgive you,' Kiku whispered, and Yao's head fell back to the pillow.

'Thank you.'

'Save your breath,' he repeated uselessly. Yao struggled up.

'Kiku,' Yao whispered. The words came out as bloody gasps, teeth stained crimson. 'Be careful of nebulae. Don't let the fleet fall like I did.'

'You never did,' Kiku whispered. Yao closed his eyes and the sound from his lips was as close to laughter as he could have managed.

'You'll be a good leader.' He reached out and Kiku embraced him without hesitating, gasped into his shoulder as the reality of a world without his mentor settled into him. Alone. Alone. 'The best the fleet will ever see,' Yao promised. 'The best leader for...our people. You'll be good, Kiku. Promise me-' gasping, blood like red silks, 'promise me you'll...lead them well. As best...you can.'

'I promise,' Kiku told him, swore by it with every part of his being to his dying mentor in the sick bay, to the virus.

'Good,' Yao gasped. His amber eyes were cloudy. 'May the stars...come together for you...Kiku Honda.'

And then he lay back, looking serene, peaceful, like he really was just going to sleep. He breathed in, and then out.

'And may the stars come together for you, Yao Wang,' Kiku said softly.

0o0o0o

The new fleet leader promised things. He promised to cure the virus. He promised a better future. He promised to be better than the old leader, Yao Wang.

When he ascended to the throne, he wore red silks and the crown like procedure, but insisted on holding the reception in the observatory.

The last act he did before becoming leader was to arrange the funeral. It was private, and Nobleman Kiku did not speak of it.

Ivan Braginsky waited outside after the ceremony. The fleet leader looked up at him. Though the red silks were the same, nothing else was.

'Hello, Ivan,' Kiku said. 'Thank you for being a carrier at the funeral.'

'It was my honour.'

Kiku smiled, but his eyes were broken. 'Yao would have wanted it.'

Yao's name made his throat thicken. 'So you're dissolving the alliance.'

Kiku nodded. 'It's for the best.'

'I know.'

Kiku looked strange with a crown. 'We will likely never see each other again after today.'

'I know,' Ivan said. Kiku bowed to him.

'Goodbye, Ivan Braginsky.'

'Goodbye, Kiku Honda.'

0o0o0o

Ninety years later

Kiku had held true to his promises. He had become the best fleet leader. Ivan had been a carrier at his funeral as well, just a few years ago. His successor, a young boy who grew his hair long after the stories he'd been told, had landed the fleet.

The virus had been cured. Kiku had remembered his promise to Emil. The Nordic fleet boy was old now, settled on the new planet.

Ivan never saw Kiku again. He never set foot in the Middle fleet again. He remembered Yao.

Ivan knelt down. The yellow petals brushed his cheeks, swaying as he breathed. It had taken so long for these to bloom. He would not set these by the honorary plaque they had set up. Yao did not rest there. His body did not slumber beneath the soil, and it should never. He was up there right now, one with all the nebulae he had loved to stare at.

'Hello, Yao.' Ivan moistened his lips. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. 'How is it up there? Do you see all the things you wanted? Do you see Earth?'

His head throbbed, and Ivan's knees gave out. Nobody had bothered to fix him here. Nobody had found the need to. He was too old, hands too shaky to do it himself. The ground here smelled of the chemicals they used to terraform. It did not smell like Earth, of dying things, of living things. Ivan had a feeling the smell would never truly release from this planet. Yao would hate that.

'Do you see, Yao?' he asked. The sky was very bright. Yao did not answer. Ivan closed his eyes. The sunflowers no longer swayed.

0o0o0o

It's done, then. I'll miss it. I fall in love with anything I write.

:: The warmth of going back to bed at three AM