Deathshipping one shots

Sleeping under a blanket of stars

The summer air was warm, but as night would continue the temperature would drop. That didn't stop Ryou from getting his sleeping bag out from the closet and rushing up the nearest hill to stargaze.

Ryou became a dark blue caterpillar and curled up under his sleeping bag, but let his face out to breathe and to look up at the twinkling stars.

His arms cradled himself as he looked above, letting the cosmos sparkle in his eyes. Constellations spread throughout the atmosphere, making patterns and letting the dots be the only thing seen for miles.

Melvin finally caught up with him, taking a moment to catch his breath at the top of the hill. "Ryou..." he pouted, and held out a plastic bag with a snack on the inside. "You forgot your s'more."

"Sh!" He hushed him. Of course he took the s'more and munched on it, but he pointed to the sky above. "Look."

So Melvin obeyed and craned his neck upward to view the sky. Unimpressed, he uttered, "What the hell am I even looking at?"

"What do you see?" Ryou's hushed voice asked him, hoping that he could be as mesmerized with the cosmos as he was.

"I see...a bunch of dots."

"Oh?" You could hear his smile. "I see angels, blinking right back at us from above."

Melvin plopped down on the grass beside him, setting up another sleeping bag. "Aren't angels not supposed to blink?"

"Where'd you hear that?"

"I don't know--- you were talking about angels once and said something about not blinking."

Ryou laughed. "No, that was just me being British."

"I don't see what being British has to do with it."

"Oh, never mind." He scooted as close to him as he could in his caterpillar form. "Want to stargaze with me?"

"No." Before Ryou could protest, Melvin continued, "I'm just going to watch your face while you look at stars. I'll see your smile and your twinkling eyes and I'll be perfectly content."

Ryou blushed. "But the stars are prettier."

"Debatable." Then he let Ryou curl up beside him. Both of them lay their heads back and looked up.

Melvin was in awe; Ryou was right about the stars being pretty. They seemed to light up in the darkness, despite how small they looked to him. His imaginative eyes made out pictures as he connected the dots.

Ryou wriggled his arm out of his sleeping bag and pointed. "That's the Big Dipper. See how it connects..." he guided his hand to point his finger, as if he were drawing it out. "And over there..."

"What? Little Dipper?" He teased and was shocked to see Ryou nodding.

"Yes, actually."

"Who named these?"

"Some have cooler names." He pointed. "That's Ursa Major, which is 'the Great Bear'. And there's Ursa Minor—"

"The Ok Bear?"

Ryou laughed. "The little bear."

"The Mediocre Bear?"

"The smaller bear."

"Ok, Creampuff." He scooted closer to him and grabbed his hand to hold. "Ok."
Melvin searched the sky for a considerable amount of time until he asked, "Where are you?"

"I'm here."

"No, in the sky. If there's room for some bears, there's room for you."

Ryou squeezed his hand tight. "Astronomers named these a long time ago, based on what they saw. They didn't pick it out; there's no way I'm up there."

Melvin picked up their entangled fingers and got Ryou to make his finger draw out a person in the stars. "Look...there are your eyes...and..." he guided his arm. "There's your hair...and your smile..."

He felt Ryou move his arm, and this time his own arm was being directed to make a shape. "I think that's your poofy hair...and your nose..."

"Hell no." He moved and held Ryou's arm tighter, guiding it. "That's your face—!"

"That's your eyes!" Ryou's arm was trapped, so he rolled to one side to get his other to help out.

Melvin gained on him, snatching his other arm with his other hand. They weren't drawing pictures, anymore, by now they were play-fighting.

Ryou plopped into Melvin's tummy and lay there, tight in his hug and warm on his chest.

"Did you know..." he said quietly, rolling over to lean on his chest and still see the sky. "...for every star in the sky, astronomers think there might be another solar system?"

"That's dumb."

"Not completely." He pointed up. "Space is a big place, it's not impossible."

Melvin moved his arm and scooped it under Ryou's head. "So, every star is a potential sun?"

"Yeah, technically. The sun is just the closest."

The air grew quiet as they gazed up in wonder, thinking of the very existence they've ever known, the possibilities beyond the atmosphere— and their tired eyes.

"Ryou?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that theres something else out there, looking right back at us?"

"They might only see our Sun, but maybe as a tiny speck in the distance."

"So not us?"

Ryou scrunched his nose. "What do you mean?"

"I keep feeling like we're being watched."

Both Ryou and Melvin looked at the reader, wondering if their entire existence was a lie.