*** A/N ***
"You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them..." -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Another flashback look at young John and William. Just for fun.
"Do you see it?"
William sat up with a huff. "You said you were gonna teach me contha... constellations, John. Everyone knows the big dipper. Even my stupid brother knows that one!"
"But if you find that one, you can find all the others. Have you seen Ursa Major? And Ursa Minor?" John was still lying on his back in the sand with his left arm under his head. He was tracing the outline of the constellations in the air above him with his right index finger.
"Ursa Major?" William turned to look at his friend, and leaned over him. His face was right above John's, which made John giggle. "What does that mean?"
"It means Great Bear. In Latin, I think. Ursa Minor is Smaller Bear." John grinned at the confused look on William's face.
"It doesn't look like a bear! What's so great about it if it doesn't look like a bear?"
"Not that kind of great. The big kind of great." John couldn't help giggling again. William was still staring down at him with a very serious expression. "And it does look like a bear."
"Are you trying to trick me?" William frowned, and his expression became pinched. He sat back on his heels.
John sat up quickly, eyes wide with worry. "I'm not!" He chewed on his lower lip as he thought about what to say to his friend. William watched him suspiciously.
"Sometimes, if you look at something more than once, you can see it a different way." John offered tentatively.
"Explain." William narrowed his eyes.
Looking slightly embarrassed, John pulled his knees up to his chest. "I use to be afraid of the ocean. I was too scared to get in the water."
The hard, distrustful look on William's face softened. "But, you love the water. You're the fastest swimmer. You taught me..."
"I use to think it was too big and loud. One day, when I was little, my papa took me to the edge of the water. We just put our toes in and then our feet. He showed me how pretty and fun the ocean is." John's smile was bashful. "I had to look at it in a different kind of way before I liked it."
William nodded slowly, and then looked up at the night sky for several moments. He squinted his eyes. He opened them wide. He stretched up tall on his tippiest-tippy-toes. And then he flopped down so he was laying next to John and pouted. "I can't see a bear. Why can you see it, and I can't?"
"It's okay, William. I know what it looks like, I'll help you see it." John laid down so that his head was right next his friend's, and pointed up at the stars. "You have to look past what you already know, and see what else is there. The tip of the handle on the dipper is the bear's nose." He traced out the other stars in the formation with his finger.
With a gasp, William sat up and clapped his hands. "John, I can see it!" He threw his arms around John and hugged him. "That was brilliant! Will you show me more? Can you show me the little bear too?"
John laughed and hugged William back. "I can show you more than that!"
William scrambled to lay back down. John showed him how to find the outline of the little bear. Then the big lion and the little one too. Jupiter and Mars were both visible, and William was astounded by the sight of actual planets. They found Pegasus, and John told William about the big white horse with wings, and how he thought that it was probably just made up, but one day he was going to go on an adventure and he would find out for sure. "And you can come too, William."
"Where will you go?"
"Everywhere. We can go anywhere we want. We can try everything. Even the scary things, because we won't be scared if we're together." John smiled up at the sky.