Theme song:Saturn by Sleeping at Last "
"Some nights, the sky knows how to hold things we can't."
— Mira
---
Elian had a habit of showing up without warning, always when I was too lost in my own thoughts to notice the bell above the café door.
That night, it wasn't at the café. It was at my apartment.
And I don't know how long he'd been standing at my door before I opened it.
"I need to see the stars," he said.
There was something hollow and trembling in his voice.
So I didn't ask questions. I just grabbed my jacket and keys.
We drove in silence. I didn't even know where we were going until I saw the horizon open up—the city lights softening in the distance and giving way to the dark velvet of the countryside.
We pulled over at a lonely patch of grass beside a hill, where the sky looked untouched.
"I used to come here as a kid," he said, getting out. "Before everything got… complicated."
The air was cool. Quiet. Sacred.
I laid down beside him on the grass without a word.
We stared up.
I didn't know what to say, so I said the truth:
"I used to wish on stars. Every single night."
"What did you wish for?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper.
I turned to look at him. His profile was silvered by moonlight.
"You," I said.
He looked at me like it hurt to breathe. "Mira…"
"I know it doesn't make sense," I said quickly, trying to swallow my heart back down. "I didn't even know you existed then. But I think a part of me always knew you were coming."
The sky above us seemed to exhale—quiet, steady, endless.
"I don't want to die," he said suddenly.
It knocked the breath from my lungs.
"I know," I whispered.
"I'm scared. I don't know how to be anything else lately."
I turned on my side to face him fully. "You're allowed to be scared. You're also allowed to be alive while you're still here."
His eyes met mine. "What if I forget how?"
"Then I'll remind you. Every day, if I have to."
And then, for the first time since we met, he leaned in.
It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't desperate.
It was soft. Earnest. Two broken pieces trying to find shape again.
His lips brushed mine like a promise and a plea, like he wasn't sure if he deserved this or if it would last.
But in that moment, under a sky swollen with stars, I didn't care about time or fate or sickness or endings.
I kissed him back.
And the world, for one perfect second, felt infinite.
---
When we got back to the city, he walked me to my door. Neither of us spoke.
He didn't come inside.
Before he turned to leave, I touched his hand.
"Elian?"
He looked at me.
"You're still here. That counts for something."
He smiled, just a little.
"I hope it counts for everything."