Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"Let's go on a trip."

That was a sentence Vir has not uttered since highschool. Much too many things happened after that, from his service in the Land Race to his residency and now his job and…hassle-filled family. And yet, here he was, declaring to his new roommates that he was dragging everyone in the apartment out for a short trip after a 7 hour surgery, 50 missed calls from his mother (likely pamphlets for another church service to stop him from using his antidepressants or more conspiracy theories on the sudden destruction of EdEN Corp) and helping Riley with an extremely violent parent of a patient, causing him to be nursing a bad bruise on his arm. He would much rather just give up and go to sleep another 14 hours without showering or eating anything, but Aster would complain, and both he and Kiwi would drag him half-dead from the mattress to do all of the above. 

Since Vir didn't feel like stewing in his sorrows today (and having to read whatever his mom sent him again), he'll muster up the remains of his will to provide something in return for his roommates' patience (or tolerance, Vir can't tell) for him, as a decent friend should, even if he didn't feel like it.

Aster and Kiwi seem to be utterly astonished by such a sudden proposal, with Aster shooting up from his seat, nearly hitting the ceiling in his trajectory, and Kiwi dropping to the ground like a rock as if something shot her out of her previously afloat position. Both whipped their heads around to look at him with a collective shout of "WHAT?!", as if Vir had said something so outlandish that even the outlanders were absolutely flabbergasted at his words.

Silence permeated the room, and Vir fidgeted with the hem of his brown shirt nervously, hanging loosely from his lean frame, then his nails found purchase in the strap of his watch. Perhaps they had something else they needed to do in a bit? Did he overstep? He has seldom seen Aster act that way, and even less Kiwi. His posture stiffens, returning the bewildered gazes that turned his way with an anxious smile. "S-so?"

"Kiwi." Aster gently floats back down from the ceiling back to his horizontally splayed position on the couch, eyes now tinted a light yellow, still firmly locked onto him. "I think Vir's sick; he never says or even implies he wants to go somewhere on a holiday."

"He probably is." Kiwi nods gravely in agreement. "Is that even Vir, or are we just looking at an impostor? The Vir we know will never even think about leaving his workdesk unattended at all, not even for an hour."

Vir huffs in indignation. He took breaks! Aster just thought he was nuts because he procrastinates and lazes off on practically everything, and Kiwi was raised by that same lazybone. Nevertheless, as a travelling doctor with a point to prove, he just had to take less because of his job. Still, he sighs with a smile edging at the corner of his lips as the siblings hop up from their previous positions, circling him with curious expressions as if observing a strange specimen that had just appeared in their apartment living room, hawks in the air above their prey. "I really mean what I said. Let's all go take a break and go somewhere."

When Vir still observes a doubtful expression on Kiwi's tiny face, he reassures her. "Relax. I got a holiday from the hospital after that 24-hour shift days before, remember?"

At the mention of that grueling shift and his reward for completing it alive, Kiwi eases back into her normal expressionless stare, though now her black beady eyes seem rather more eager than usual.

"Whoa… Vir resting, properly? Being all positive and enthusiastic after work? This news is going to make headlines!" Aster blinks rapidly, as if still a little disbelieving, before his expression morphs into a teasing smirk, and a hand drifts to intrude on his personal space once again, this time resting on his shoulder, but Vir doesn't flinch as he usually would with just about anyone else. "I'm rubbing off on you, ain't I?" His brow quirks slightly upwards to convey his wish for Vir to grace him with a response. How Vir knew Aster was right, and vice-versa, even if it was only slightly nearing a year since the shadow and his bird sister barged their way into his life.

Vir felt his smile soften at that, a fond feeling glowing brightly in his chest, like a patch of ruined flowers clamoring for sunlight after a torrent of rain. "Maybe." He replies. "Maybe you are."

"Where are we going?" Kiwi asked once the three were outside. The bird swiftly transforms with a glow of light into her human form as they stepped out of the dark alleyway that connected the main road with his apartment, with Aster right behind them, morphing with a poof, going from a small shadow that barely reached the midsection of his ribcage to a lanky man that towered over him and Kiwi, cane now lengthened and supporting his delicate balance. While the other two didn't change their clothes from their defaults, Vir had quickly thrown his shirt into the wash and swapped it out for a comfortable hoodie, a strong enough defense against the year-round cool climate the Core Cities had, and got some mosquito repellent on any exposed part of his skin, at Aster's insistence. Vir didn't get why Aster cared, but it was a nice feeling, one he intended to hopefully return an adequate favor for by being a little less uptight for once.

"You'll know soon enough." Vir makes a left turn into Callisto Road, Aster and Kiwi following him like ducklings. It's a little hard to tell, but he could see how much his friends looked forward to the trip. Perhaps it's because they were travellers? After all, they still haven't gotten back on the road since Vir offered his apartment for them to stay for the night. Was it because they felt too awkward to tell him they wanted to continue their journey? At that, a spark of guilt twisted in his stomach; he had kept them in one place for far too long, hadn't he?

But Vir is going to make up for that today. He took a right, reaching a busier street, the hustle and bustle of commuters and tourists alike filled up every side of the road with a lively chatter, each to their own for the day. It was a little too early for the neon signs and streetlights to flicker on, but the city was fine as it was, entertaining and dazzling the photographers that flanked the sides of the street. Vir had to practically fight his way through the crowd to even cross the street into another as the leading man in the group, with Kiwi interlocking her wing with Aster's free hand right behind him in case something or someone tries to trip Aster and he falls. And yet, the shadow had continued to engage everyone by talking never-endingly about everything they came across, as if their brief trip needed a live narrator to commentate on their movements. Kiwi exasperatedly tries to follow the conversation as Aster trails off from street signs to Core Cities fashion, and Vir almost playfully elbows Aster to shut up until he pauses at one point to presumably contemplate and seek his next point of interest, allowing silence to briefly permeate the air.

That silence was more awkward than anything if you asked Vir, so even if Kiwi begged for mercy, tears in her eyes, Vir let Aster continue with boisterous bouts of laughter in between some words, his hands motioning animatedly at some unseen visage he had going on in his head. Besides, it was kind of reassuring that Vir didn't have to worry about starting a conversation and holding it up now with Aster and Kiwi debating on why the Cities should make a whole separate road for tourists after one unceremoniously bumped into the trio and screamed at them to watch the road even if it was them who was neck-deep into the fluorescence of their phone screen when Vir crashed shoulders with them.

It felt nice, even if the company of those two had chipped away at the mask he built up all those years for the sake of his life, at least his facial muscles didn't feel like they were strained all the time, his apartment had become somewhat more of a home than something that just housed his bed that he spends less than 6 hours in. In addition, even if his skin crawled unpleasantly at touching and grazing past practically every stranger walking beside him, having Aster and Kiwi's bickering distracted him enough to not feel the need to claw out the sensations from all that touch.

Aster and Kiwi didn't need to discuss how sometimes Vir would reply blandly or bluntly to something or act like he got a pole up his ass. Still, they did care in their own way, even if it was at first more irritating and frustrating than helpful; they adapted like fish against a strong current, and Vir tried his best to adapt to them. These days, all of it culminated in a smooth routine that would get Vir half an hour early into bed and fall asleep in a wink, waking up hours later not feeling like absolute trash without the meds or therapy, and even better, without the endless spiralling.

And best of all? Even if it was probably just his imagination, he felt like he was improving, somehow. His stomach tingled at the thought. Somehow, he achieved something. That was good, superb, wonderful even.

It felt as if he had something to live for again.

The battle to get to their destination continued through crowds and detours, through smaller streets, until they reached Lamp Street Station. The station entrance led deep down underground to the subway network through a series of escalators and stairs interwoven with each other like an elaborate game of snakes and ladders. Eventually, Vir successfully shepherds Aster and Kiwi to the station gates and steps through, with his friends following close behind, their previous chatter quieting down.

Lamp Street Station wasn't any particularly outstanding metro station. It was outfitted with a unique wall color like other stations of the Core Transit Railway, but was commonly outshone (literally) by Holo-screens and, very rarely, an LED screen tunnel designed to be a torture device for able-visioned humans flashing him with ads as they passed. Ticketing machines lined one side, where a line snaking towards Customer Service stood, and the entry gates adjacent to it. Vir activates his transit pass on his watch and quickly gets through the gates once they let him pass.

"Very busy today." Aster remarks as they follow him through the deactivated metal detectors that sat in the way of the escalators to the platform, just shy of limping along with the speed of the crowd he failed to catch up to.

Vir falls back to walk with the duo side by side. "Welcome to Friday afternoon in City 5." Vir's sarcasm earns a look of amusement from behind shaded glasses, Aster's eyes easing into his usual vibrant purple from sustained amber.

"We're lucky they didn't just install the lift and the escalator a billion meters away from the station entrance and called it 'accessibility'." Kiwi makes a face from the shadow of Aster's rather towering frame. "It's barely accessible if the access is missing."

"Capiche." Aster laughs. "Let's get moving before more folks flood our path."

They crowd onto the nearest escalator, squished chest to back with Vir in the front. A stream of passersby rushed on their left as they steadily descended deeper into the subway on the right. He felt Kiwi shift uncomfortably when some particularly odd passengers carrying baggage bump into everyone in their wake as if wanting to bring about a crashing wave of destruction, leaving a bunch of surprised yelps and furious glares thrown their way. Vir simply threw them an aggravated glance and minded his own business.

But other than a few light grazes and the blasted ventilation system of the Core Cities subway system making the air smell of nothing except dust and stale oxygen, the trio make it to the bottom safely, where Vir turns to guide the others to the line directed towards City 1's only station, Kiwi trotting eagerly behind him like a baby duckling and Aster not too far behind, hobbling slowly to a halt as Vir stops in front of the gates. He can feel the weight of Kiwi's tilted look and Aster's unvoiced queries on the back of his head, but neither sibling makes any more moves to ask about their destination.

It makes something anxious curl in his gut, but Kiwi and Aster make no move to leave his side, so he temporarily quells his fears.

However, before Vir could even attempt to relax, a familiar shape rushes to his side giddily, one he didn't notice but now regretted, the other recognizing him, as if she was hoping and looking for him before the events that followed, to his absolute detest.

Aster seems to recognize Nurse Sanders with furrowed brows as she prances to his side with a disturbingly wide smile, hand instantly ushering Kiwi to his side as the avian girl slips to brace one of her wings around his jacket sleeve. Was that a hint of tangerine annoyance flashing behind his shades? Did Aster recognize her?

Vir searches Aster's look for help, but he could only helplessly return it with the new arrival putting distance between them.

"Oh my god, is that Mr Persimmons?" Her highly pitched, feminine voice assaults his ears the second it starts, bringing his attention to the chocolate-haired lady, how her dark, glossy heels that complemented her auburn, low-cut dress clicked against the floor. "Good afternoon! Didn't expect to see you here." Sanders winks at him, brown eyes filled with lasciviousness impossible to not notice, and Vir has to stop himself from visibly flinching at the hints. "Where are you going tonight?"

The physical proximity was suffocatingly uncomfortable. Her eyes seem to trace his figure all too intimately, desiring something he never craved back. His heart hammered a mile a minute, and together with how his mouth felt dry as sweat built up behind the collar of his hoodie, it felt like being in highschool all over again, surrounded by people whom he didn't want to be around and didn't want him around for good intentions but were forced to be for three whole years.

This also meant that whenever he was the sole focus, it bore no good news. He supposes it applies to his current dilemma.

He couldn't help but attempt to stutter out his words with great difficulty as he also worried about his almost impenetrable composure at work with his colleagues, which was currently getting absolutely shagged by his fight or flight— though at this rate, it was flight and flight, and he was on the razor edge of deciding to just give up and jump onto the rail tracks.

"Well, uh-" He attempted to steady himself, even if his voice sounded thick and shaky, but the nurse swiftly cut him off with a giggle.

"Mr Persimmons, if you don't mind…" Sanders trails off, voice dripping with poisoned honey. And just as Vir had thought of a valid excuse, her arm brushes against his, shifting his sleeve up just an inch, and oh god, his limb felt so disgusting. "…Let's go grab dinner together, just you and me. My treat." Her chestnut-shaded eyes try to lock onto Vir's with her wholly one-sided invitation, but he hastily averts his vision to look anywhere but at one of the nurses who was trying to court him for the past half a year, or any other doctor in the neighboring departments, for that matter. Eugh, can he just… leave and run back home now? He didn't want to be here anymore, not if he was stuck talking to a person who was known to stalk him around, even if he had made it clear he would prefer to stay professional.

"I'm sorry." Aster thankfully cuts into their conversation before Sanders could continue, tone clipped with irritation. "We are out to an important meeting with our folks, do you mind, missus?"

Said mistress swerves her stare at Aster, and Vir takes this small break to step back just a little to create some distance between the source of his discomfort and his physical shell. "Excuse me?" She spoke offendedly, as if Aster had personally insulted her entire bloodline in front of millions. "And who might you be?"

"A friend of Persimmons, miss." Aster's ahoge twitches, easily missable, but a strong sign of his ever-moody temper. It sways like a cat's tail, sharpened as if the tiny emotion indicator could stab a person with its pointed curve. "Now, we must depart for our scheduled plans. Please excuse us." He places his tone as pointedly as he could— Vir recognizes the already short but waning patience Aster had, now seemingly on an even shorter fuse as his grin pulls wider than genuine. He really appreciated it when Aster took center stage for him, but Sanders doesn't seem too pleased with Aster's conveying of his rejection.

"Oh? I've never heard Vin talk about you." Sanders turns to Vir with a sneer directed at Aster, as if expecting Vir to agree. "Never knew you had such oddly shaped friends, Mr Persimmons."

A different type of fire blazed to life within him at that, and for how emotionally repressed Vir was, it didn't take long for him to recognize that it wasn't the crawling heat of anxiety and nervousness, but the gentle boil of anger. An old, very unwanted friend of his.

"Sanders—"

Vir attempts to start his explanation again, hoping to quickly and silently solve the miscommunication to get on with his drastically worsening day, but Aster cuts in with a growl, environmental brightness abruptly dropping a few luxes as energy coursed through the air. Vir could vaguely hear Kiwi wince in the back. "Excuse me?" He hisses, his death grip on his cane trembling.

Sanders shrugs noncommittally, a taunting glint in her eye. "Now now, that's just the truth, sir. It's just astonishing how Mr Persimmons has gotten chummy with magic-wielding aliens."

Something cracks, and he could vaguely spot Kiwi fluffing up with phone in wing, eyes dark, and Vir isn't sure if the sudden rise in tension was his doing too or not, but when Aster opens his lips with a snarl, he forces his own voice out from behind his clenched teeth to interrupt, against the growing pit of anxiety in his stomach with an equally growing fury. "Miss Sanders. Please leave."

"But-"

"Do not insult my friend because of his race," Vir says, tone as stone cold as he can manage being calm instead of making a colleague catch his or Aster's fists in public or have a nervous breakdown right then and there, a warning shot from him if Sanders was observant enough. "I have to apologize— I'm not interested. However, I value yours and my time, and I have matters to tend to right now, so we'll be going if there aren't any issues at the hospital I must be informed to take care of."

Aster winces at his razor-clad tone, and everything returns to its original brightness within a snap, the incandescent light of the subway station blinking rapidly until it returns to a steady glow, as if the shadows were just choking their light out and they were finally allowed to breathe. The intercom fizzles on to loudly announce the train's arrival, accompanying the distinct rumble of a train rushing along the tracks, with passersby seemingly chalking it up to a brief loss in electrical pressure and going on with their day as usual. Sanders seems to blink disbelievingly, still comprehending what Vir said before she grimaces. "Right! I'll see you later then." She moves to leave, and Aster backs off accordingly. Vir almost lets out an audible sigh until she reels back to talk again. "But still, would you want to-"

"Nurse Sanders?" Vir snaps.

"Yes, Dr. Persimmons?"

"Get out." He grits out, flames of ire only held back by his own dignity. She speedily shrinks away at the venom in his tone, and shockingly, doesn't torture him with another goodbye as she trots back to the other side of the platform, where she must have been heading to before. Good riddance.

Vir finally releases a breath he didn't notice he held as the figure disappears into the crowd, hastily rubbing his arm in hopes of chasing away the feeling of fingers brushing over his skin as quickly as possible. Kiwi jumps from Aster's side to stick to his, the feathers of her wings that were mostly obscured by her cloak brushing his side, worry mirrored in her look and even more magnified in Aster's. He avoids their sympathy, only gritting out a quiet apology for the untimely interruption, and digs his fingers into his forearm to hopefully erase the excruciating experience that was…that. The touch was all too skin-crawling, and the doctor vaguely wished for a peeler to scrape every inch of contact off of his flesh and bones.

"The train is about to arrive, please let passengers alight first, and mind the gap when boarding…"

The chime of the train station once again reminds him of today's goal, so Vir swallows down the raging sea of emotions that bubbled dangerously in his throat with a blank face — he was in public after all. But it probably translated as a barely hidden scowl.

"This train terminates at Central New Town Station. Please be mindful that the last train running on City 1 Line will depart from Central New Town Station and terminate at Terminal Station at 10pm…"

The train rushes into the station in a whirlwind, its speed almost like lightning, very much like the thunderclap of noise from when the wind bangs against the reinforced glass gates as the train skids to a halt, arriving at the station.

Aster attempts to talk. "Vir, I-"

"Don't talk." Vir turns away to move into the train car, already feeling the shame burn and crawl, like needles in his skin, poking at the seams of healed cuts incised into his skin. "Just— quiet for a moment, please?" He pleads.

Aster pauses, seemingly wanting to interpose with something, but with a huff, he complies, leaving everything unsaid. "Okay."

The journey goes on in silence. Aster decides to sit next to Vir, and Kiwi next to Aster. No one— or rather, only a minuscule number of people were in the car, after all, not many people wanted to go to City 1, nor did it house as many citizens. So after a while, the trio just relaxed into their seats and took some comfort in the tense stillness, as much as they could, anyway. Aster was vastly antsy amidst the silence, and Kiwi simply sat there, seemingly slightly more relaxed than her brother.

Vir sucks in a breath, nearly groans audibly, but silences himself. He wasn't about to get caught up in something so trivial; it's normal for him. He can handle it like any normal adult could, he reassures himself, and yet those words seem to fall short the more he loops those meaningless phrases in his head. So much for military-mandated therapy.

Aster and Kiwi were no strangers to the odd popularity of his in the hospital. During many of his constant changes in hospitals as a travelling doctor, he had inevitably caught the eyes of some women and, very rarely, a man. Gender and romance didn't matter to Vir, but personality sure did, and the rather obsessive (and very lonely) medical staff of the City 5 Main Hospital wasn't really his type, platonic or otherwise. Well, except Riley, but they have known each other since university, and he only considers her his best friend, or the general surgeon he keeps meeting. Dr. Lee, was it? Decent guy, but they barely meet outside the hospital. Director Morrison really has cultivated an absolute social hellscape, so much so that even the rather friendship-averse Vir could feel the suppressed need for social interaction eat away at his sanity even more than the few months he was transferred over to the City 1 Hospital to deal with a surge in cases needing his profession.

He misses City 7 a lot, longs to be transferred back to their hospital. If only life could be fair...

He notices that out of everything, other than Riley, Aster and Kiwi, he really had no friends. A sad, lonely reality to comprehend for sure, but Vir didn't care. In fact, he would much rather it stay that way. No one would want to be friends with a mentally disabled anesthesiologist who works almost around the clock with no time or energy to spend on upkeeping a relationship, and he can spare himself any heartbreak while he pays off his student debt.

It was fine. He can live like this.

Fuck, he should apologize to Aster and Kiwi, he shouldn't have sounded as peeved as he did.

At some point, around the moment as the train neared its final station on City 5, Vir felt his eyelids droop. Train rides were awfully boring when there was a lack of anyone around, no crying babies to complain about, no scenery yet to marvel at, nor was the City 1 Line particularly interesting in its history, and his head was at the mercy of spiralling into an endless abyss of guilt. As the doors shuttered closed again with another announcement and the train's holo-system displays the next stop in a floating hologram on every screen and glass surface, he turned his head blearily towards the others, finding Kiwi had already buried her face in Aster's shoulder, fast asleep and snoring birdlike peeps out of her lips.

The man whose shoulder was occupied, however, was not. His gaze seemed to look far away into the distance, peering at something that was a mystery to Vir, lost in thought. The dim illumination of the train car had still managed to cast the shades that perched on the bridge of his nose, arms— or lack thereof folded where the elbows should be, though the darkness seemed to be to the shadow incarnate's liking, so Vir didn't really spot anything for Aster to be uncomfortable about. Though he notices that he too had folded his arms and Aster's face was severely lacking in the tension that would usually appear when his friend was stressed about something, yet without the visual cue of splashes of color in his void eyes and his ahoge curved as normal as ever, he assumes Aster really was just thinking about something mildly troubling.

Was he…mimicking him? Vir entertains the idea. It made sense, but didn't explain how Aster insisted on keeping one part of him always in motion, which, if it's not his mouth, it's his foot, the left one tapping on the floor of the train compartment rhythmically, in tandem with his right hand that pinched at the fabric of his coat.

Seemingly though, the doctor had stared longer than he thought, as before he could tear his eyes away, Aster rapidly blinked, snapping out of his thoughts, and turned to lock onto the person whose attention was on him.

Vir swiftly averts his gaze with a flustered cough. Aster chuckles at his reaction as he quickly settles back into his seat. He did seem like he had something to say, though, even if he seemed to be bound back by trepidation.

Yet again, temptation wins.

"I've never been to City 1." Aster blurts out awkwardly, relieving them of the lack of noise once again like the saint he is. "You know what it's like over there?"

"City of Nature." Vir scoffs good-naturedly at that name, and Aster gives him a questioning look. "Honestly, it's more like an abandoned city."

"Why is that?" Aster spoke with great interest. He leans over, careful to not wake the sleeping bird leaning on his right, chiffon-feathered wings in place of her arms and hands braced by his lap.

"The government hasn't bothered to redevelop the place yet outside of New Town." Vir explains. "Mostly due to the amount of work and money it'd take to transport so many materials at a time; they only have roads and buses to get around. Also, the natives there don't like the urbanization plan—" He pauses to mull. When had he last heard from the City 1 Urbanization Plan anyway? So he quickly adds. "— or last I remembered."

Aster hums, his cane twirls between his gloved fingers. "To be fair, if you moved there because you wanted to live in a place away from the city, they wouldn't want a city on their doorstep. They certainly do need more transport options, though."

"Like what?" Vir enquiries.

"Trains." Aster answers resolutely, as if he was waiting for Vir to ask. "I get carsick. The jolting makes me queasy."

Aster gets carsick? Vir finds that oddly surprising. Out of all things he was immune to, one of the only ones he isn't is that he gets carsick. Crazy! But unsurprisingly, this is Aster after all, natural defier of societal standards and the laws of reality. How does he do that anyway?

Vir lets out an "ohh" of acknowledgement, and dwells back to silence when his mind inevitably blanks out on topics for smalltalk. Aster also quiets, seemingly continuing to ponder something right out of his reach, and Kiwi twitters away in her sleep.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting about the subways in the Cities. After the train dips from the underground of City 5, it goes deep into the Unknown Sea, only resurfacing upon hitting the City 1 borders to pass through the security checkpoint tower and to switch to operating on City 1's more primitive railways. Maybe Aster would find that interesting.

However, before Vir could restart their conversation, Aster switched the topic. "Humans seem to have great contempt for the Starfallen."

Vir's mind blanks, he blinks. "…Huh?"

"Ever since I got here, City 5 has been very unfriendly to anyone even slightly magical." Aster mumbles, his gaze still far away, lethargic, an emotion so displaced from his energetic disposition that it almost stuns Vir for him to mention it. "I remember when Kiwi hadn't learned how to form human anatomy yet. In our first few days here, I had been asked many times whether she was some magical mutant or a plushie. I am glad she does pass off as an oddly realistic plush, but a while ago, I remember when we were out looking for you again, she kept getting weird looks for her wings and ears, even when they're well hidden. And all the magic detectors around the city, they make me antsy." He levied his look back to him, and only now did Vir finally see his eyes were tinted indigo. "Why is that?"

Why, truly? Vir gives the question some time to steep in his head, before tentatively providing a response. "Humans fear what they can't control." He mutters. "Starfallen were always seen as a danger for their great power. Whether it is that they look up to them as gods or them as the lowest of beings, they're always something that aren't human. Something to be scared of." He hisses with contempt. "Never understood that, but that's how society thinks. And I get that feeling."

Something unsaid hung in the air, but Aster only regards him with a friendly smile. "What do you think about us, then?"

Vir looks at him again, nothing about that grin changes in the slightest. It wasn't a mask for deeply-rooted suspicion, no. That slight quirk of the lips was just an innocuous invitation to speak, a hand outstretched to propose trust. Trust Vir had already given him a long time ago.

"You're human to me, if you're wondering." Vir replies. " Can't be scared of the dark when you've lived in it too for your entire life, right?"

Aster's grin shines brighter, azure shifting into a vibrant violet. He doesn't talk, doesn't go on another tangent about how they're going to overthrow another government, doesn't stubbornly argue with him about his self-worth again. He simply leans his head fully onto the soft curve of his rigid shoulder, rests there a tad hesitantly, and Vir accepts him, a bit startled by the sudden motion but doesn't move to escape, allowing the unfamiliar tickle of a short stubble and wild raven hair to flow down to his shoulder blades. Aster relaxes.

"Sappy." Aster comments. "Didn't know you had it in you."

Vir laughs freely.

The peace of being at rest in silence lasts until the train breaks the darkness of the abyssal waters, casting a bright, warm glow upon the dreary interior of the train. The sun slips down in the far distance, sinking into the horizon where the Unknown Sea stretched endlessly forward, casting strokes of gold into the deep cerulean above and below, painting the skies and the clouds a dark orange, as if the fire and flame of the setting sun could set the earth ablaze, and the clouds lay witness to the burn of fire, leaving nothing but singe marks on their fluffy whites. The sky overlooked the City in the distance, a darker shape that loomed closer as the train rumbled to its destination. It was a marvelous sight, one that marked the end of an exhausting day and led to the next, but Vir finds that he couldn't even begin to imagine the terrors of tomorrow, the sights and the presence of both of his friends have seemed to leave his mind blissfully blank.

The air around them lifts, and the world feels less daunting in an instant. Endorphins, maybe. Or is this oxytocin? Vir could care less this time, why should he? Everything about this worked better than any antidepressant could. Even if all of this was temporary.

Aster seems to be admiring the view too, his barely-noticeable breathing shifts and hitches at the sight, and he breathes out with a huff of amusement. Vir looks down at the figure lying on his side. The bright glow of the sun obscures his eyes, but his ahoge drifts in a lovely, relaxed pace, and it paints his dark skin a liquid caramel gold. All of it doesn't make him miss how Aster's fingers fidgeted with the handle of his cane. Upon the other's realization Vir was staring again, his sharp ear playfully flicks him in the face, and he snorts in laughter, but quickly ends with a wince when Aster's side brushes just a little harshly against his bruised arm. Vir quickly recovers from it and just continues to bask in the bliss of the golden hour, as if nothing happened.

"To think this is a Friday." Aster mumbles, and Vir is content to leave the talking back to him once more, his day now saved against all odds and possibly more positive than before.

It seemed like a flash until the distinct jolt of changing rails came, the shape of a security tower a blur with the speed of the train, and the trio arrived in City 1. Aster pats and shakes Kiwi awake, and she stifles a yawn as Vir leads them out of the train. A check of his phone reveals the time of 6 p.m., and Aster continues to ramble about various topics as they exit the station, Kiwi as usual, commenting or amending every statement Aster puts out, to which her brother accepts with gratitude and adoration Vir envied as a middle child with two more siblings long estranged but on good terms, to which he had found back a similar more conventional and healthy relationship with Riley and Karisu. Still, it couldn't mend or fill any longing he had for a much more normal family life.

Maybe he should call his sisters again. Catch up perhaps when he has time. Before he could plan any further, Vir gets jolted out of his train of thought when Aster's voice raises a pitch and in volume, accentuating a voice crack he fumbles over for a moment, followed by Kiwi's jovial and teasing giggle.

"Can't believe the writer then killed off the main love interest just so their favorite character could go from the side character to the new main love interest." Aster groans. "Despicable to the writing, I say! Then suddenly the main character's bestie becomes the twist villain."

Recollecting himself, Vir leads them to the off-path that leads into the Eastern Forest area. Intrigued by the topic at hand, he asks. "Then what?"

"She kills herself because she felt bad for the main character despite having stated she hated them." Kiwi interjects. "Honestly? When I read that, I thought that was the end of an emotional character arc, but that was just because I read the entire series backwards…"

"Maybe you could read it to me next time." Vir comments, and both siblings immediately pull a sour face.

"I'd rather have to read it again than to read the romance subplot aloud." Aster replies.

"I would rather forfeit my spot on Vir's head than to read that garbagefire of literature again." Kiwi adds.

"Really?" Vir turns to look at the shorter, and she squints, discontent.

"I'm not giving up my spot on your head." She pouts. "Not in a million years, over my deep-fried chicken carcass."

"It's fine. You're less squirmy than Aster." He looks to the directions marked down on his notes app and quickly changes the trajectory of the conversation before Aster could begin lamenting in dissonance. "By the way, our destination should be up ahead." He points deeper into the forest, the small suburban architecture melting away into dark khaki and emerald foliage with every step they took. Aster squinted into the increasing darkness of the path up ahead, as if suspicious of the looming shadows of the night itself, before shrugging as he continued to follow along in his cane-assisted hobble. Kiwi trots behind as usual, as interested in sightseeing as she was earlier.

Quaint homes vanished behind the treeline as they continued on into the forest. As far as Vir could see, the trees were getting increasingly tall and unkempt, a thick branch sluggishly leaned across the path up ahead, with draping vines overlooking it and hanging from the thick canopy above their heads. Kiwi cautions everyone with a chirp, and both she and Vir hold out their hands to guide Aster over the branch, only for him to step over it himself with a cheeky smirk.

Both helpers were thoroughly red in the face as Aster laughed at their misery.

Vir looked towards the sky, a swiftly dimming dark ultramarine canvas, with only a few dark russet streaks to tell the tale of an absent sun. The weather was not particularly bad, not too cold but not overwhelmingly hot. His ears were still slightly heated from bashfulness, yet he wondered with a different thought in mind. "Kiwi?" He calls out for his target of interest, and she answers, confusion written across her face.

"Yes?" Vir gazes back upwards and motions to the tip-top of the treeline. Kiwi follows his gaze inquisitively.

"Can you possibly fly up there?" He asks, intending to simply start a conversation to pass the time. Kiwi narrows his eyes at the treetop before sighing.

"Probably not." She answers. "I've never learnt how to fly with wings, my bird form doesn't have that. But I can hover up there with magic." She adds.

"Maybe you can learn to do that some other time." Vir suggests. Kiwi tilts her head ruminatively and ends up simply responding with an affirming nod.

As time went on, the trees slowly became less dense, and the path they trodden on went from slick gray concrete to cracked red brick to a barely visible rocky dirt path that scuffed his sneakers with stains of earthen brown. Upon spotting the overgrown metal sign only marked with a splatter of yellow paint to tell its location, Vir points towards the opening in the trees, a distance away. He watched as both siblings' eyes lit up as if Vir was a flame they caught onto, before racing each other to meet up ahead. He vaguely remembers himself yelling after them with amusement in his voice, his sore feet somehow finding the energy to muster, catching up to the other two even if his joints protested.

But the slick sweat that clung to the back of his soaked hoodie and neck wasn't in mind when he finally got to where Aster and Kiwi were, both standing motionless where the treeline broke to unravel the location Vir had painstakingly sought out, like stage curtains unveiling a new scene in a play.

An open field of purple flowers, just as he was promised by the connections that brought him here. The color stretched out for metres, only ending at the far side of the clearing, where the trees picked up to grow once again, as if nature itself wanted to obscure the field from civilization with the trees as their only defense, guarding the colors of the field from the outside world, only revealing itself to ones who know the City's unknown and lesser-explored terrain well. The deep lavender-violet flowers ranged from an iris purple to a lovely mauve, such royal colors surrounding a bright lemon yellow bud, an idiosyncratic combination that formed every single flower that bloomed in the field. In tandem with the mostly clear sky showing a glimpse of the swirling Milky Way and its sparkling stars with no sign of civilization or artificial light in the distance, leaving only a bright full moon and their phone flashlights to illuminate their path, bathing the field of flowers in a haze of soft pure moonlight, it created the one sight that looked so ethereal Vir would probably have mistaken it for a dream if his ankles didn't ache from all the walking.

Aster seems to snap out of his mesmerization a moment later than Kiwi does, as his sister bounds over to the flowers to inspect them a tad closer, eyes filled with a rare look of pure childlike wonder in the midst of the bright vividness of the flowers. They were quite small, taking the form of something quite close to a daisy, but not quite. Its shape was different, more slender, sharper, bearing a range of colors that sat comfortably in the spectrum of violet colors, but edged a little closer to indigo and periwinkle with the patch the trio was now kneeling over with great curiosity.

"What…flowers are these?" Kiwi whispers out, as if too busy comprehending the plant that fragilely drifted and bobbed along with the gentle evening breeze, brushing a cooling caress across her feathers and any patch of Vir's exposed skin.

"Asters." Vir replied with a mischievous lilt of the mouth. "Looks just like the stars, apparently. That's why they're named that way."

Kiwi scrunches up her nose, one snowy-white wing poking at the sprigs that sprouted from the grass. "They don't look too much like stars." She comments.

Vir chortles."I think so too. Maybe the ones from the Old Age were blind when they named these things."

Kiwi smiles.

Aster looks at him, and when Vir returns his attention, he finds it charged with something so complex he didn't know how to begin to ask the other about it. So, he diverts the topic again. "This is the only large patch in the entirety of the Core Cities, or so I've heard. It had grown out of one small one a farmer had set free here a long time ago, and since the lack of maintenance, had spread mostly all around here unrestrained and unfettered."

Kiwi nods along absentmindedly, seemingly a bit too far away into the new sights and senses to comprehend what Vir spoke right then. She brushes across the asters again with the tip of her wing, watching as they spring back up from where she tousles them. "They are purple though, as in the periwinkle shade, but slightly darker." She turns to Aster with bright eyes. "It looks like your shade of purple."

"Really?" Aster squints at the plant, scrutinising the shade of lilac. "Oh yeah, you're right. How have we never come across these before?"

"They went extinct like most Old Age plants." Vir replies, noting how the asters had grown so much that it nearly reached his shoulders, and stepping further into the overgrown dirt path that cut through the flower field felt like walking into a sea of lavender, with small specks of the yellow bud poking out amidst it. "By some chance, someone saved one of these things, and it was enough to grow all of this." He gestures all around them.

"An ecological miracle." Aster reaches up to poke at one. It springs off his gloved finger. "Quite the plant these are. They don't look as fragile as they seem, it is autumn after all, and they don't look like they're withering away at all."

"Tiny flowers can be deceiving." Vir agrees. "You know those daisies that keep growing out of the concrete back on the concrete path? Yeah."

"I wanna go over there." Kiwi points over to a patch of empty grass amid all the asters, one that inclines up to be a small hill overlooking the field, like a veiled earthen giant that kneeled within the field, a guardian bound to the ground amidst an expanse of orchid, marigold and chartreuse. "Looks like a good sitting spot."

"Right you are." Aster leans on his cane. "Let's move, yeah?"

Vir nods in consensus, and the trio proceeds through the field. Kiwi skips up the slope to the top. Vir helps Aster get a grip on the slow but uneven ground as they inch up to their target, seeing Kiwi, normally less expressive and shy, dance and twirl with the zephyr with a bright beam on her pale-skinned face, also visibly brighter with the moon's effulgence on her silver hair.

Vir knows Aster is looking, his movements were stuttery, slower, as if trying not to break a still image reflected on the face of a lake. So he simply mumbles. "Rare, isn't it?"

He could audibly hear Aster pause, before he murmured in return, a rare melancholy gracing his expression. "Rare, but precious for my dear sister."

Vir didn't have time to continue before a voice interrupted them, Aster quickly jolting out of his previous state with a smirk that urged him on.

"Guys, over here!" Kiwi calls out to them, waving a wing enthusiastically in the air. "It looks very pretty all the way up here…"

Vir has to agree. While the verdant tall grass and trees were all obscured in the dark, turning their greens into a shade of dark navy that melded nature all together in the shade, the asters seem to revel in the graceful presence of the moonlight instead, light perse and tiny pricks of saffron accented by the azulene shadows to appear even more saturated in color, moonbeams casted onto their petals just enough to shine in the night. An otherworldly thing, Vir could only describe as when he moved along the path, observing as every sprig of aster floated with the wind in its own rhythm while he made his spot atop the large bump of grass and dirt. He brushes past a particularly tall patch of grass and sits next to Kiwi, feeling the prickly sensation of wildgrass under his skin as he makes room for Aster to sit next to them, to which the man makes an appreciative sound before clumsily kneeling down to adjust to the floor, setting his cane down next to him.

Kiwi seems to look both ways before in a blinding flash, she shrinks back into her tiny bird form and dives onto Vir's lap. The doctor yelps with the feathery body now loafed atop his thigh, but huffs when Aster begins to giggle.

"You know, you can detransform." Kiwi points out out of the blue. "No one sane would be out here this late."

Aster rolls his eyes. "No one sane. Isn't that even more dangerous? We can't convince them not to start going berserk on sight. Like, what if that happened right now?"

Vir notices how Kiwi allows silence to hang in the air for a moment before she continues. "And it didn't. In addition, I don't see any people close enough around here. Right, Vir?" She asks, hopeful.

Vir swiveled his gaze around the field, lingering on the darker corners of the treeline, but found nothing of note. "No one visible, that's for sure."

Kiwi seems to lighten from the affirmation, and raises her brows at Aster in the manner that can only mean 'I told you so' between the siblings. "Your honor, I rest my case."

Aster scrunches up his nose, giving the surrounding terrain a once-over, before he grumbles and melds into the shadows, appearing back in his smaller base look a moment later and flops into the grass.

Kiwi contentedly fluffs up on his lap, melting flatter atop the meat of his thigh. The temperature was just right— a little cooler than usual, but that was why Vir liked the weather tonight as much as he did, and the toasty lump of feathers on his lap wasn't scorchingly hot on his skin as it would be if the temperature was higher. He leans back, and lays in the ground, allowing the blades of grass to swallow up the sides of his vision, mind fixated on the asters below and above, too. They sparkled and shimmered to a tune unknown by mortals and anything below the skies, twinkled behind the gaseous clouds of nebulas that brought with it color in more light while rotating around the invisible axis of the dimmed aether, now in a truly black color, devoid of any light.

None of the colors painted above, however, were quite as violaceous as the asters or Aster himself, whom the shadow seemed an ocean away with how he also admired the starry canvas in the sky. Now without the shades and just those big cartoonish eyes, it was much easier to see the light sapphire Aster's eyes seemed to rest in for an abnormally long period today, brows crinkled in focus of something way beyond what was actually there, ahoge drifting and twisting into itself in a way that isn't normal for the autumnal breeze that brushes the contours of his face and the grass around him.

Even with a strand of hair and eye color as a mood indicator, he was extraordinarily hard to read.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Vir breaks Aster out of his daze once again, and his friend seems to give him a look of confusion before he realizes what Vir was referring to.

Aster puffs out a breathful of air with a laugh. "Just thinkin'. Nothing much to worry over."

"Quiet air is kinda awkward." Vir states."Was wondering if you wanted to speak your verse, you have that one look where you are contemplating whether you want to say something."

That was true to what Vir thought. To his knowledge, his friend wasn't great at not talking about anything that goes by in his head, and seemingly, he tries to keep it down most of the time— something he likely learnt to consciously do. It was a certain uncomfortable rigidity to the outwardly open and flexible Aster, one that would strike anyone as odd and forced, and people like Kiwi and Vir as his self-consciousness finally kicking in.

It added to the elusivity of him, how he's so willing to reveal and act on his enthusiasm and emotion, even if it is to an impulsive degree, and yet he keeps so many cards to his chest. Sure, Vir could tell it wasn't particularly an important thing Aster was withholding, nothing of the magnitude of the secrets and mystery the traveller still shrouds himself in, but something rather big he would like to express, yet is hesitant to.

And Vir might not seem of the sort, but he's an inquisitive man.

"Oh?" Aster shuffles and stiffens next to him, sheepish in how the corners of his eyes and brows downturn just a little. "Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much." Vir confirms. "You fidget a lot when you're anything but calm. But today you seem a little…restless, instead of stressed." He internally cringes at his feeble attempt to get Aster to open up. "Is something the matter?"

Aster stares at him, as if pondering something before yanking his hand up and abruptly poking him in the arm, and Vir flinches sharply, a shooting pain coursing throughout his nervous system as if his fingertips touched electricity, audibly hissing at the sudden sensation. He glares accusingly at Aster, but the perpetrator simply whistles smugly.

"Maybe I should be asking you that." The corners of Aster's eyes crinkle without an ounce of regret, to Vir's disappointment. "It seems like we're at an impasse." He wiggles his eyebrows. "You know what that means, Vi~"

Yeah, he could guess what Aster meant. Vir grumbles exasperatedly. "…An answer for an answer. Right?"

"Correct!" Aster scooched over in the grass, a bright smile accompanied with an expectant look that vaguely looked threatening, even if he was back to being short and small. "Go on, explain that injury."

"Injury? Ha!" Vir breaks out into laughter, but quickly steadies himself when Kiwi shifts in her nap with an annoyed peep. His fingers thread into her fluffy tufted feathers in an attempt to soothe her back to sleep. "Don't be silly, Aster. It's just a bruise."

"And from where exactly?" Aster questions.

Vir pauses. Could he really tell Aster that he got punched again on the job after last time? He knew Aster was never really overjoyed at the fact he often was at the brunt of patients of all shapes and sizes, particularly of the abusive kind, and often overreacted whenever Kiwi or Vir would be at the mercy of someone else. Not that he wasn't appreciative of Aster standing up for the two rather timid people he is always around, in fact, having Aster around was even better than having a bodyguard, the shadow was relentless when he deems something a threat, but he digresses.

While Vir himself didn't work a job post that would require him to be tending to conscious patients, he still apparently was required by the hospital to help any nearby medical personnel with de-escalating conflicts between them and a patient, which led him to have a lovingly trained impeccable customer-service smile— even if it was soul-sucking and muscle-aching to keep up.

But sometimes being customer-friendly simply wasn't enough to cool down frayed nerves, he concludes with a huff.

Aster seems to study him thoughtfully, Vir shrinking a little under his gaze."…Do you mind if I take a look?" He seemed a little hesitant in his approach, likely ready to take a refusal, but his concern that seeped into his tone jabs at him, and Vir feels bad that Aster even has to care about him that much on the days he rendered himself bedridden and useless.

Well, fuck it, he trusts Aster more than enough. Vir vacillatingly moves his arm towards Aster, his other hand moving up his hurt arm to roll up his sleeve.

Vir never really liked seeing his arms, a bullet scar that scored his other arm was one of the reasons, reminders of syringes glowing with magic energy poking into his skin and arms ladened with strong metal plating were another, but a one-size-fits-all explanation would be the horizontal scars that littered all over both of his arms, from his biceps down to his wrists. A lot mostly faded into a dull brownish color a healed scar would exhibit, but the others were still… pretty fresh, pink, still slightly raised, but otherwise not an open wound.

Self-inflicted, Vir's mind unhelpfully supplies. But today they were insignificant in comparison to the starkly reddened bruise that bloomed all over

his left forearm, outshining the rest of his scars, with yellow and dark purple patches surrounding the site of the bruise.

It certainly was not a gratifying sight, and from how Aster's ahoge curls knots in the air, he was not as unperturbed as the doctor about it, who was long desensitized to even the most gaping of bodily wounds.

"Violent patient's relative." Vir elucidates all unspoken questions plainly, as if he were describing how he accidentally stubbed his toe hours earlier.

Aster looked like he was on the precipice of another outburst with how he glared at his arm like it owed him money, however after what seemed like an eternity, snapped his eyes shut and shakily exhaled. Vir was not aware of what thoughts ran through Aster's mind with his eyes now in a darker red tint, yet from a glance, he could tell he was brimming with anger, fear, maybe disappointment. If feelings could burn, Aster would have likely seared his arm black and razed the field into charred ash.

Anger at what though? Vir would rather not analyze more about the incident today for now, so he puts his theories to the side.

Aster interrupts his inner monologue. "Vir—you really need to report this."

"Riley surely did." Vir replied. "I was the one helping her restrain the relative from hurting her."

"Still." Aster grouched like a doting mother.

How thoughtful. "I swear I'll do it next time I head in, okay?" Vir attempts to reassure Aster. He narrows his eyes at him, but the bite and resentment in his look had mostly washed away with a light amaranthine.

"Fine." He responds, but quickly adds. "But I'll remind you before that!"

"Really?" Vir arches an eyebrow. "And you won't forget about it this time?"

Aster pouts. "I swear! I can remember things!"

"Sure you can." Vir reaches over to ruffle Aster's black hair fondly, to which the other yelps in protest but surrenders to his discontentment, his ear flicking his arm in patterns that were still an enigma to him.

Their laughs quieted down, and only then did Vir dare to break the ice himself for once. "So?"

Aster looks up at him, and he looks smaller than he already is. "Hm?"

"An answer for an answer, right?" Vir nudges Aster's tiny side. "I can tell something's bothering you."

Aster levels a gaze at him before he turns to look elsewhere— maybe the stars? "Um…right."

Vir quickly interjects. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, no!" Aster jolts up from his resting position, eyes wide and a sharp yellow. "I have to tell you, I want to. It's just- I-" He looks glum. "I don't know how."

That dejected, unsure face… it was all too familiar to Vir. His hands itched to fidget and scratch again, but he pushes down that compulsion and settles for burning his unsettlements by giving Kiwi more scritches. The bird joyously complies in her sleep, subconsciously purring in short bursts as Vir's fingers sort through her tiny feathers.

"…Take your time." He selects his next words carefully. "Start whenever you'd like. It's still early in the evening."

Meanwhile his companion contemplates, Vir turns his head back to the sky. He guessed the faint rustling right out of his peripheral was the asters blowing with the tall grass. The tiny flowers made for a brilliant sea of color, and Kiwi was right, they are like the almost constant shade of purple Aster has in his eyes.

Both the stars and the aster flowers… they shine as boldly and brightly as the man himself, the stars guiding the lost since the dawn of time with their meager lights in the dark while being thousands of lightyears away, following the moon as it rises and dips behind the horizon. The asters reflect their light and glory, even if — in his opinion — it is only in its name. They're very bewitching, in appearance and how it perseveres until late autumn until its blooming season passes, an oddity for sure, even if they still kind of looked like discount purple daisies to him.

He could hear Aster gulp and shakily exhale right next to him, a puff of air not yet visible in the autumn chill, but Vir could imagine, he can imagine. He continues to patiently wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wai—

"Do you think I'm a burden?"

"No." Vir instantly answers without a pause, that was not even something he had to consider. "Why…do you think so?"

Aster blinks, as if slightly bewildered at Vir's immediate response, but continues. "I'm loud, rambunctious, even. I talk a bunch, not even a bunch, a lot. I ramble on and on about useless topics and I jump on to the next every other minute. I know it's really annoying, I know you know it's really annoying." He stutters again. "I get emotional all the time and I can't stop it— I overreact and stuff all the time, and you and Kiwi are forced to clean up my messes every time I do." He huffs. "You know, I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused you, Vir."

…Trouble? "No, it's alright." Vir responds. "I like hearing you talk. And you might be an emotional mess, but you aren't a burden, not to me."

Aster laughs, incredulous. "No way."

Vir confirms. "Yes way."

"But-" Aster's left hand does beelines in the air, movements as restless as its owner. "Vir, me and Kiwi are practically immortal, and you…aren't, y'know?"

Vir spots a sparrow fly past, it was redundant to focus on the creature while he was conversing, but somehow, the tiny bird's rapid flittering intrigues him for a moment. "What are you implying?"

Aster sighs, and stops in silence for a moment. Vir was about to ask what was wrong until he interrupted. "I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"I'm scared that I'm wasting your time." Aster's voice wobbles and teeters, as if it were a taboo to admit. "You only have so many years to live and so many problems to deal with and here I am, hogging up your time and space when I have near an eternity to live. You should be- I dunno, making human or less long-living Starfallen friends, shouldn't you? And not wasting time with someone who disregards the limit of time mortals have. Don't you ever get envious that I'll have more time to do anything you only wish you could, that I'll never have to be anxious about not being able to do something or any responsibility? Don't you feel disappointed that someday, I'll outlive you and your entire family bloodline? Will you…" He swallows thickly. "—hate me if I did?"

Aster seemed to shrink into the shadows at that moment, terrified definitely, but also seemingly curious of Vir's answer. The subject of the question simply remains silent, mulling over how exactly, was he supposed to answer such a question.

He was only a failure of an adult human male after all, talking about the complexities of immortality— of his friend, no less, was a hurdle he was not prepared to deal with today.

He wished for death, it was something he was sure he wanted. Every single day he contemplates whether maybe not facing the day was better than being productive, that maybe sweet release could help with everything that would inevitably crash and burn in his life. His head always ached, his body always too heavy, masculine and clunky to call his own, his hands tired from muscle memory.

He wished for an end, but now? He kind of wanted something more. Seeing Aster's optimism gave him hope even against his logic, having Kiwi around to titter on about various shitty things in life made him feel less lonely. They made him look forward to the future, made him see that there's so much in life he missed out on that he kind of craves now even in his exhaustion, even if killing himself seemed like the better option in the long run.

But, he was willing to try to give a response to such a predicament. He inhales then speaks. "Look. I know that I might complain about how little time I get to do things, but no matter how much you're different from me, how much space you take up, how much I might accidentally hurt you, we're still friends. I can't hate you for something as superficial as that."

Aster looked at him as if he were insane. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Why would I be?" Vir shot back.

"Like…" Aster starts fidgeting restlessly again. "Do you not feel any sadness? Any envy? Any anger? Not at all?"

"I do." Vir looks for patterns in the stars. "I get annoyed at how you keep on running around with topics of conversation like an endless loop all the time. I envy how you'll never have to worry about getting old and frail, pretty disappointed I can't outlive my entire bloodline in spite, that I'll never be able to experience everything with you and Kiwi. It's so unfair, how fate grants me both of you for my best companions, but I don't think I could ask for more, lest they call me ungrateful." He chuckles. "We're friends, as you said. I-I like listening to you ramble, I appreciate how you make up for the assertiveness and expressiveness I and Kiwi sorely lack. I know you might think I'm just bullshitting to make you feel better, but you're worth my time. In fact, I'm glad we met each other. You've made my life better, and I hope you can accept that." He met Aster's gaze, a deep indigo. "It would really sadden me if you couldn't right now, but I get it, I've been there."

A long period of silence. He must be pondering his words, Vir thinks. It was still a little too sappy, too intimate, too awkward, but the air seemed more comfortable the more the quiet stretched than the tension on the train, perhaps it is how the wind continues to be his saving grace with the cooling feeling of another autumnal breeze leaving his previously sweat-clad skin now dry and comfortable, as well as bringing the scent of fresh grass, a tangy yet sweet leafy flavor, so distinctly green in his perception, a comfortable blanket of nature in smell-form.

"…Damn." Aster chokes out a laugh behind something that faintly sounded like tears. "I was about to call you emotionally constipated, guess it was me who was."

Vir jokes. "Don't worry, we can be emotionally constipated together."

"Together, huh?" Aster seems to be lost in thought once again, turning back to the sky. "Sounds cool."

Vir took this as the cue for the end of this conversation and quieted down. Aster seems to not mind, his hands now dormant laying on his stomach, calm, at peace, even.

"Aquila." Aster points up at an indistinct point in the sky.

"Huh?" Vir turns to look at Aster, who doesn't return his gaze but continues gesturing at the sky.

"Aquila, see up there?" He points again, and Vir moves to look from his point of view. "It's the Eagle constellation. Its brightest star, Altair, is one of the points of the Summer Triangle."

At the mention of the distinct marker of the summer night sky, Vir quickly finds which star Aster was referring to, and squints at the fainter neighbouring stars Aster says is the constellation, tracing invisible lines between the dots as if it were those connect-the-dots worksheets that plagued his childhood.

"Looks like a disfigured paper aeroplane." Vir comments. "Or a crane in flight, but sure, if I squint, it kind of resembles a flying eagle."

"It always seemed like a paper butterfly to me before I heard of its name." Aster mutters. "I'm sure you've heard of Vega, that's one of the other stars in the Summer Triangle, it's part of Lyra."

"I assume that's a lyre?" Vir asks.

"Right. Problem is, it doesn't really look like one and it still doesn't." Aster continues. "Apparently, it's supposed to resemble a bird carrying a lyre. D'you believe that?"

"I…can't figure out which stars you are talking about." Vir replies, squinting at the dark navy of the sky through his glasses, scrutinizing every tiny pinprick he thinks is a star and not just an aircraft. "Can you point it out to me?"

Aster grinned as if he was waiting for Vir to ask that exact question. "Good for you, you know someone who can use the sky like a rubber band geoboard." He moves himself right next to his body, stretches his glove hand skywards, and moves his pointer finger in the air, as if he were connecting the stars itself from below— which he was. As if the shadow could bend reality itself, his pointer finger dragged glowing purple lines between each star in the sky that were lightyears away, connecting them into a shape Vir can't help but chortle at.

"That's… not a lyre." He tells Aster, and he shoots him an incredulous look.

"Of course it doesn't look like one, I did say it didn't." Aster squinted at his handiwork, how could he connect stars like that anyways? "Looks like a glorified hourglass, doesn't it?"

"I'm thinking of a goldfish cracker right now." Vir replies, and Aster cracks up in response after a moment of silence.

"You're right, it does look like one!" Aster smiles ear to ear, the midnight blue in his eyes now washed away with a shade of vibrant heliotrope. "Maybe astrologers intended for this star to be named …'the Golden Crackera' instead."

Vir hums. "We'll never know if they did, won't we?"

"They're long dead." Aster laments. "We can't."

"And all we'll ever get to know of them are up there in the stars." Vir answers. "Without any memory or technology to remember or record them. Like the Old Age, nothing but oral recounts and some memoirs and photos."

"Maybe if the stars gained a voice in the future, they could tell the tale." Aster wonders. "After all, many saw the universe's birth, and they'll be witnesses to its death too, but in the meantime, they kinda just… sit up there, staring down at us like spectators, silent guardians and witnesses."

Vir entertains the thought. "Perhaps lightyears into the future, they'll mention us sitting like ducks here, talking and misinterpreting every single meticulous pattern they create to another intelligent lifeform out there."

Aster bursts into a fit of giggles. "That's hilarious. But it also feels nice too." He hums. "Nice to know that at least they will remember us."

Vir mutely wonders what a celestial lifeform in the skies would think about this moment.

"I think I know why these flowers are called asters." Aster says.

"Why?"

"Look." Aster points out at the field. "Just stare at them for a bit."

Vir squints. Nothing, they still looked like daisy-like flowers to him, purple ones."I don't get your point." He deadpans.

"Take off your glasses." Aster looks at him to confirm. "You're farsighted, right?"

"…Yeah?" Vir reaches up to his face and takes off his glasses, also taking the time to wipe the lenses on his hoodie. "What then?"

"Sit up, look at the flowers." Aster urges Vir upwards from the grass, to which he pushes his hand into the dirt to help himself up from the ground, and looks out across the field.

Everything was a dark blur, until he focuses on something presumably is the flowers. The ones in front of their spot were too blurry for Vir to make any sense, but scanning farther ahead yielded some results. In his vision, the lighter periwinkle of the aster petals had blended all together into a flat block of color, with the yellow buds tiny blurred spots in midst of the dim lighting, standing out in the blue-dominant scene like…

"Oh..." Vir blinks to clear his eyes and picks up his glasses. "No wonder. It's the buds."

"Maybe ancient people were just slightly vision-impaired." Aster suggests cheekily. "Or they just had more imagination like me."

Vir flops back down into the grass as Aster laughs, sulking, even if he was holding back a giggle with clenched teeth and all that came out was a snicker.

Aster's body was previously positioned right next to him, with a small gap between his shoulder and his. But as they stargazed in silence, he had quietly inched over until their shoulders touched. He didn't emit any sort of heat— he was just a mass of shadows and energy after all, but the tiny threads of warmth from the point of contact was likely his own being reflected back at himself. His hoodie had done well to comfortably shield his thin limbs from too much prickly grass, but it hadn't stopped the slight tickles of Aster's fluffy hair that slightly graze against his skin whenever he moves to point out another star or comment about a string of nebula visible in the sky.

Unfortunately, he was kind of ticklish, so he couldn't help but freeze whenever that happened to stop himself from shrinking away abruptly, but it was alright, he didn't mind it when Aster snuggled right up by him like an affectionate cat, he just doesn't mention it throughout the conversation.

As of now, he had asked him when his birthday was, and quickly pointed out Pisces that faintly shone from the far edge of the cosmos as if he knew them like the back of his hand. And to the astronomically illiterate Vir, it looked nothing like two fish. In fact, Vir didn't even think it was a fish until Aster pointed out the tiny circular ends of the V-shaped constellation was in fact the fish. The tiny circular ends! And the rest of it is just strings binding the two fish together! How does that even work?!

Never has Vir been more flabbergasted by stars. Heck, how does he keep on getting his expectations subverted by star-related things?

It took a while for him to realize Aster had stopped his explanation of the cosmos. He blinks, then nudges him with his elbow. "Go on."

"Yeah, hold on, just…" Aster squints at him. "I thought you hated prolonged physical contact?"

Vir pauses, did he not tell him? "Why do you ask?"

Strange things happened a lot today. "It's been…well over 20 minutes." Aster places his words as if he was talking about something delicate. "You still haven't shrunk away or something, and we're like, zero millimeters apart, and Kiwi has accidentally rolled off into my lap."

Sure enough, there was the absence of a rotund bright fluffy ball on his lap, having now perched on Aster's leg. Vir stifles a laugh. "Oops. How is she still asleep?"

"Deep sleeper." Aster explains nonchalantly. "She's used to being thrown around by me so much she can sleep through practically anything."

"That's…insane." Vir reaches over to poke at the bird. No sassy or annoyed response. Aster reaches down to fluff her feathers to accentuate his point, and contrary to his expectation, Kiwi only unconsciously swats her beak at Aster's hand, before going back to trilling snores. Vir chuckles.

"Anyway, my question?" Aster queries again, Vir huffs.

Did Aster not realize even after so long? He never intentionally shied away from his touch past the moment when he showed he truly cared for him, even in his opinion, Aster should save himself the effort and quit being so friendly and enthusiastic towards practically everyone at first impression, the reality of the Core Cities would be too harsh for optimists like him— only proven wrong currently by Aster still being the same as he always was.

Also, he just got accustomed to Aster invading his personal space. Sure, his skin tingled unpleasantly with every physical touch on him no matter the person, but it took a conscious effort for him to stop swatting Aster's hand away when it lands on him in midst of his rather dramatic flair of expression. To be honest with himself, being reminded that his pats and hugs were all expressions of his trust and affection made it… slightly easier to accept them from Aster and Kiwi.

It was nice to know despite everything in his life, he had someone that cared about him.

"As I will now reiterate, you are my friend. I do let Riley drag me around by the arms and manhandle me to parties, it's no different for you." Vir trails off into a tinier, quieter voice. "I trust you enough to not hurt me, and hopefully, you won't. And really, it's just I'm not used to… that much physical affection."

Aster's eyebrows raise, but contrary to his expectations, he doesn't question his words further. "Didn't know you even went to parties."

Vir barks out a laugh. "You should've seen me in college, I wasn't always stuck being this way, all sad and melancholy and shit, except when I'm highly drunk." He stretched his back, his bones were getting a little achy. "I had way more energy to do crazier stuff."

"And you're getting oooold." Aster leans over to poke at his cheek. Vir swats that finger away amusedly and lets Aster shoot a face of mock hurt towards him before settling back into the grass.

While they had been fooling around earlier, Vir hadn't noticed the moon had risen so high into the sky already, the asters that drifted lazily right out the corners of his eyes almost looked a little drowsy. What time was it? He didn't know, wished he didn't have to care, the stars, the sky and the flowers seemed to stretch on into infinity. It would be nice to die now, not have to tend to any responsibility anymore, with this happy memory being his last thought before he succumbed to eternal slumber, but Aster and Kiwi won't like that.

And he did promise himself he'd make up for the trouble he caused. Fuck, he walked himself right into this responsibility and now his dwindling sanity and bleeding heart pay the price.

"You know," Aster pipes up from his side. "I'd like to think you won't betray my trust either."

"And I don't think I would ever. Hopefully." Vir replies, his lean fingers picking at the grass with a lack of Kiwi to pet, that job was left to Aster currently. His head had rolled next to his at some point, his curls tickling his neck and chin, the side of his face contentedly tucked atop his shoulder, ears flicking every so often, probably a little itchy from the prickled grass.

But there was no verbal response from him. Vir's fidgeting with another crisp blade of grass grew antsy until he dared to turn to face the other, only for his eyes to meet a rather euphoric (and very rare) magenta, and a very cheeky smirk.

Aster snickers. "Aaand you're staring again. Am I really that interesting?"

"You're the one who's staring!" Vir splutters into giggles, and Aster finally gives up and guffaws. This time, it didn't sound reserved in disbelief, strained in incredulity or a simple response to something he found entertaining, but something freeing, like how a wind chime drifts in the wind, or that feeling when someone looks at the stars and realizes there's much more beyond the sky, he supposes, even if the volume of the sound was completely un-chimelike, it's more like a description of a merry feeling than a descriptor of an action, a metaphor but just for an unspeakable sensation. Vir was never good at imagining things outside of reality or any sort of creativity-heavy hobby, but he could make enough sense of his words to at least nod at his own home-baked metaphor. His face was sore from smiling, but he grins anyway in his hilarity, even if those muscles weren't used in a while.

Geez, Aster and Kiwi really were rubbing off on him.

"Are you two done interrupting my nap?!" Kiwi squawks amid their mirth. Aster huffs disapprovingly, and Kiwi glares at him as if Aster had plucked out all her feathers and made a feather hat with it. Hilarious.

"And once again, we have a party crasher. Can't two people have fun ever?." Aster bemoans, contradicted by the wide grin on his face. Kiwi grumbles incoherently at that and pecks Aster in the chest, to which he yelps loudly, and grumbles in complaint.

Vir takes the moment to pull up his baggy sleeve to check his watch, revealing a concerning 9 pm in its choppy cold holographic projection. Aster leans over to take a gander, and Kiwi stretches her tiny body and legs in the grass in the meantime, muscles definitely sore from her loafing.

"It's nearly time for the last train back." Vir sits up from the earth, smoothing down the erratic mess of hair tousled by the fun and his rest in the grass. "C'mon guys."

"Aww, can't we stay a little longer?" Aster whines, then pouts when Vir climbs up to his feet, Kiwi following a moment later to perch on his shoulder slightly droopily. "Pleaaase?"

"I have to head in to work the day after." Vir offers Aster a hand, to which he accepts it with a reluctant groan. "C'mon, up up, no destroying my sleep schedule far worse than it already is."

Kiwi jumps off his shoulder again to retrieve Aster's cane for him, and he accepts it with a grateful tilt of his head, before letting go of his hand and leaning back on his cane. Kiwi, the wingless bird she is, then floats back up to Vir's face level in an electric yellow and cyan haze of magic, before depositing herself right back onto his head, reclaiming her rightful throne and exacerbating his neck pain.

Vir pretends to not notice Aster's glare up at the claimer of The Spot™, and could already imagine the smug upturning of Kiwi's beady eyes even if he couldn't see it.

The trio make their way back, with them stopping for a moment to look back across the field towards where they came from before trodding along the path back.

The sky was entirely dark now, only illuminated by the moon and the stars that slowly faded as they approached more populated territory, artificial lights obscuring any sight of the tinier pricks of light as if they had never existed at all.

It was depressing in all honesty, how it seemed all so easy to notice them away from the chaotic and breakneck pace of society, and the second he returns they disappear amongst brighter neon signposts and clusters of lights from millions of homes so easily it would've been hard to even imagine there was a sky beyond those tall, imposing skyscrapers that dominated the view.

Somewhere in their trek, Vir didn't notice both siblings were back in their human forms. Heck, he didn't realize until Kiwi commented about the dilapidated state of many of City 1's paths as she strode next to him, and Vir jumped out of his skin upon realization.

In Vir's truth, Aster and Kiwi were astounding in their own little way, even if they can be somewhat kooky to outright insane at times.

Nearing the station at a decent 21:35, Kiwi announces she needs a drink, and points Vir towards the nearest convenience store. Also feeling a little thirsty, Vir finds a crumpled 20 dollar note and a 10 dollar coin and asks Kiwi to help him get anything from the tea section, and Aster requests a juice box, deciding to stay outside the store with Vir in a darker corner of the street where no normal civilian who somehow would be outside at this hour would bother them. Meanwhile Kiwi disappears into the aisles of the convenience store to fetch what they wanted while Aster entertains himself by seemingly trying to juggle his own hands. He twists and confuses himself the first few times, but with a few more attempts,his hands somehow juggle themselves in a smooth unending cycle and Vir is just incredibly confused. However after a bit, Aster stops spontaneously, and just recedes into tapping his foot impatiently in a rat-tat-tap rhythm.

"You look quite radiant today." Aster swivels to look at him with an inquisitive look that searches him as if he was looking for a reaction of sorts.

Quite far-fetched that Aster describes him as 'radiant' of all things, he is everything that is its antonym. "Is something wrong?" Vir questions back.

"No, no. It's just I can tell how happy this has made you, and that's rare." Aster stops, then rephrases. "That's not saying we aren't or you're being weird! In fact, I'm overjoyed that you try your best to make time for us." He rocks on the heels of his feet. "And I really appreciate it."

…Oh? Vir was stunned, so much so his head blanked on any response he could have given to that. He opens his mouth, but finds that he can't utter any cohesive words at all.

Aster gestures and flaps his free hand around erratically. "And…you know. You can get really deep inside your head at times, glooby, sad, all'at a lot of the time. So it's like fishing for diamonds recalling every moment you even crack a big smile. I know you can't control it, and it isn't your fault. I'm just kind of…." His hand stills with his pauses, and takes flight again whenever he talks, oscillating in different patterns in the air. "-happy that you are feeling better right now, even if it's just slightly."

His tongue felt a little dry, but Vir felt the corners of his lips tilt upwards of their own will, a product of his attempted repression of a swelling, delightful feeling in his body at those words. Gratitude that Aster still hasn't ghosted him? Probably. Embarrassment that is over how Aster thinks every time that he is positive is so far in between that it is a point of interest? Yes. Startled by the sudden vibe change? Totally.

Aster coughs, his cheeks flushed purple. "Forgive me for getting off track. I'm just glad you're doing better."

"T-Thanks." Vir manages to stutter. "I'm… sorry I blew up on you guys earlier on the train here. Wasn't in my element."

Aster's hand flies up to pat him on his shoulder reassuringly. "It was a reasonable crashout, doc. Don't beat yourself up on it."

He quickly interrupts the silence before they could fall back into another soothing being-next-to-each-other-quietly moment that seemed to happen so frequently as of late between them. "Tell me though, did you bring us here because of that one conversation a few weeks ago?" Aster asks.

Vir felt his face heat up, his fingers connecting, crossing, and lacing with each other as he admitted the truth. "…Yeah."

"Cycles! That's…" Aster snorts out a laugh that is mixed with a confounded squeak. "…cheesy as hell. I suspected it, though!" He points an accusing finger at him. "You weren't subtle at all!"

"Didn't intend to." Vir winks, and he watches Aster roll his eyes. "I'm glad you liked it, though. Always pleased to do favors for a friend."

Aster gazes back up at him without an ounce of hostility, and wordlessly wraps an arm around him, pulling him into a side embrace, clearly not intending to indulge in a full hug for now whether it is they were in public or he simply doesn’t bother, and yet, Vir could feel his gratefulness seep out of his actions all the same.

Kiwi came out of the store’s automatic glass sliding doors with the drinks a minute later, complaining about how the cashier was asleep at the counter and only woke up when Kiwi poked them with the tip of her wing. Aster laughs, and Vir thanks Kiwi for the drinks and hands Aster his grape juice box while he cracks open his iced green tea with little difficulty, and gives way for Aster to help Kiwi open her bottle of water as he levitates his drink midair in a cloud of purple and ultramarine stars to utilise both of his hands, cracks the cap with a swift twist and places the bottle between Kiwi’s wings.

They would chat and discuss any topic that came to mind together in an accustomed and adjusted dynamic while walking to take the last train back home. Kiwi would decide to sit next to Vir instead as she claims Aster moves way too much for her to nap properly, then the two siblings would end up snoring away leaned on both of Vir's shoulders, intensifying his shoulder and hip pain as he tries to stay still and stay awake lest they miss their stop and end up all the way in City 5's Terminal Station, almost half the city away from their home and have to walk all the way back when he already had sore legs from all the hiking and running around they did together today.

And maybe, this was enough. No, 'enough' isn't adequate to describe Vir's fulfilment. Perhaps, this was his Elysium on Earth, and guess what? Vir loved almost every second of it.