Sunrise
Within the deep blanket of darkness that had fallen over Hadreon, both suns long since leaving their watch over the skies to the waning moon, Julius finds it excruciatingly difficult to rest despite how desperately he wishes for it to take him. After what had felt like an eternity of walking, made to feel even longer by the near constant bickering with one of his (mostly) unwanted companions, sleep should have come easily. Yet here he was, glaring irritably up at the canopy of leaves above him.
As for the reason why? He wasn’t exactly sure, although there were many possibilities. It could be due to constant worries he couldn’t shake in regards to the mission that never seemed to come any closer to completion, like a road without a destination no matter how far it was walked. Maybe it was the fact that no one was on watch currently due to Aislinn’s insistence that they rely on his use of an alarm spell instead, so now anyone could potentially sneak up on them and kill them in their sleep. Perhaps it was Aislinn’s presence in general that made it impossible to rest. Whatever the cause may be, it was proving to be a nuisance.
He hums angrily to himself. There is clearly no point in trying any longer for what was evidently impossible, and eventually he resigns himself to the fact that rest will not be meeting with him anytime soon that night. As he pushes himself upright, Julius gives a cursory glance around their camp. Aislinn was laying flat on the ground a few feet away in a trance-like state, clearly not having the same problem Julius was currently having, much to his eternal annoyance. Naoise on the other hand was not immediately in view, sending an almost frantic jolt through the winter sidhe as he realizes they’re not actually in the camp at all.
Suddenly on his feet, Julius’ first instinct tells him to prepare for a fight, and in an instant his ring of armor is activated, covering his tall form with crystal plating. The next was to shout for Naoise in hopes of a reply, but before he can act on this second inclination he finally spots a very pink figure through the trees, well outside the charmed area of the alarm spell. He freezes in place, words stuck in his throat and uncertainty making him wonder if he should remain on guard. After watching closely for a moment, it becomes clear that not only is Naoise alone, he looks completely fine.
By the graces of the damned Court, Naoise, why the fuck are you over there at this time of night?
More than a little on edge and still not satisfied despite now knowing that Naoise was safe, Julius silently crosses the invisible barrier Aislinn had places and approaches the summer sidhe, taking a little more care not to wake the sleeping sidhe despite how much he wanted to kick him as he passed by; dealing with Aislinn was at the bottom of the list of things he wanted to deal with right now, even if taking out some of his frustration on a deserving target sounded extremely appealing right now.
Illuminated by the faint light of the moon that shone within the clearing, sitting a fair distance away from the trees, Naoise was currently staring up at the night sky with a strange thoughtfulness evident in his soft expression. They don’t immediately notice their approaching friend, but whether it was movement in the edge of their vision or the sound of Julius’ footsteps against the damp grass, they eventually turn to look with a bright smile breaking across their face like a ray of sunshine in the darkness.
“Oh!” they whisper, but barely so. “Were you wanting to look at the stars too?”
“Actually, I was coming over to see why you weren’t sleeping,” comes Julius’ quietly exasperated response, earning a slight pout from Naoise.
“I dunno. I just can’t,” the pink sidhe replies with a nonchalant shrug. “The stars are pretty tonight, though, so I figured I would look at them for a while since I was gonna be awake anyways. But now we could both look at them together!”
“Why would I do a thing like that?”
“Because,” Naoise says, a teasing hint to their tone, “it seems you can’t sleep anyways, since you aren’t resting right now either. Right?”
Julius narrows his eyes at the perceptive sidhe, who only smiles with unrestrained satisfaction in response. With an annoyed hum as his own reply, the winter sidhe begrudgingly gives in to the other’s wants and finds himself sitting down on the grass, muttering curses to himself as he tries to ignore the quiet but mirthful laughter at his side.
The air soon grows quiet once more as Naoise goes back to staring upwards, far more silent than his typically talkative self. Normally, silence would be an uncommon but welcome companion to Julius, but there’s something about it when he’s around Naoise that makes him uneasy. It felt strange. He didn’t like it at all.
He buries a hand in the grass, grasping and releasing his fingers repeatedly through it absently. “What are you… thinking about?” he asks, breaking the stillness between them.
Naoise frowns a bit, as though caught off guard by the question, but quickly masks that with another smile as he counters with an inquiry of his own, “Have you ever noticed the stars are different here?”
Julius’ frown deepens, but he does look to the sky above the two of them. He’d never taken the time to pay much mind to the skies of Tír na nÓg in neither the Winterlands, nor within Summer. It all looked like normal stars to him.
Taking Julius’ lack of answer as its own answer, Naoise continues, pointing up at a small cluster of stars that were slightly brighter than the others that surrounded them, “Those aren’t in the Winterland’s skies. And that one,” he points to another spot in the darkness, Julius’ eyes following along, “has an odd color to it that none of ours have, or at least, not so vibrantly.”
“I see,” Julius lies, completely lost.
“I don’t see any of the stars I know from home,” Naoise says quietly, and Julius is slightly taken aback by the sense of melancholy that laces the summer sidhe’s words. “I don’t know any of their names. Do you think they even have names here?” they ask, turning expectantly to their winter friend.
“I… don’t know,” he replies, but seeing the beginnings of disappointment crossing over Naoise’s face, he quickly pivots, “but I don’t see why they… wouldn’t. Probably. It makes sense, I suppose.”
“Well, I hope I can learn them all someday!” they say with a nod, seemingly happy with Julius’ response, much to the winter sidhe’s relief. They turn skyward again, eyes containing a sparkle that rivals that of the stars they were gazing up at as they continue rambling on, “I couldn’t really do that before, since I had a hard enough time even talking about… well, anything at all to the family who helped me when I first came here until the very, very end, and by that time I had to leave. And then I was far too busy helping my new friends with all the things we were doing as we traveled around Tomra, especially since I was still looking for you at that point.”
“I see.”
“But that’s okay!” They smile brightly, a sight that Julius can’t help but let his usually hard expression soften to, but it’s a moment that fades quickly with what Naoise says next, “Maybe now I can find out with you and Aislinn!”
“....... Yeah. Me and… Aislinn,” he grumbles irritably, trying in vain to hold back the venom as Aislinn’s name is forcefully cast from him.
If Naoise notices his friend’s disdain, they don't immediately comment on it. Instead, they fall into complete silence once again, casting what feels to Julius in that moment to be an uncomfortable net over him that felt like a punishment. He’d never been one for keeping a conversation going; what his specialty lied in was ending discussions rather than prolonging them indefinitely. Talking a lot was what Naoise was good at. Julius found himself wanting for that right now, just as he had wanted for sleep a while earlier. It seemed he would receive neither, though.
Neither sidhe says anything for a long time. In the quiet, surrounded by the small sounds of the night in the dew-stained grass, Julius eventually feels a faint presence encompass one of his hands. It catches him so off guard that he can’t help but jerk his hand nearly entirely away from the source but stops himself just short, and he can’t help but feel glad he did stop himself when he sees Naoise’s gloved hand next to his own, their fingertips just barely brushing against his. He turns to stare up at the sky, mimicking his only friend. He does not dare move closer but is also unable to bring himself to pull away completely, remaining so still as though any movement would chase Naoise away, never to be seen again.
“I’m glad you’re my friend, Julius,” he hears Naoise say, so quiet it barely cuts through the tension currently gripping the winter sidhe. He feels frozen in place, afraid of breaking through the spell over him lest he ruin everything, but can’t help but allow himself to melt the slightest bit as Naoise’s fingers softly intertwine with his. “Getting to experience these things with you makes me happy.”
“I suppose it’s… acceptable,” he finally forces out.
“I’m glad,” Naoise repeats with a twinkling laugh, and leans lightly against Julius’ shoulder, hands still interlocked together. “I could do this forever, I think.”
Whatever tranquility that had taken hold within Naoise before finally fell away as he began to chatter away like his typical self, reminiscing about the friends he’s made that he wants Julius to meet someday, the adventures he’s been on, and ones he hoped to encounter in the future. It’s all almost so perfect now that Julius doesn’t want to trust it, like an illusion that he hasn’t managed to figure out yet. Naoise does not pull away, however, seemingly perfectly content. The illusion remains intact.
Naoise talks for so long that the glittering stars had begun to fade, making way for the soft warmth of Hadreon’s suns that would now be readying themselves to peak over the horizon. Inky darkness soon gives way to the first subtle colors of sunrise as the earliest hours of morning draw to a close.
"Hey, Julius," Naoise says excitedly, pointing with his free hand up to the skies, "it looks a lot like both sides of Tír na nÓg now! Winter stars and Summer colors. Don't you think so?"
As the summer sidhe turns to see his friend's reaction, however, they quickly realize that Julius is not looking at the sky. In fact, his eyes are closed completely, and Naoise realizes why he’d been so quiet and still for such a long time now: sleep had finally come to claim him.
Naoise's disappointment at being unable to share in this moment with his very best friend lasts for only a moment before amused giggles overtake him, although he is careful not to disturb his exhausted friend. "I guess you found your own way to enjoy the stars."