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It was another one of those nights, where dreams of the past had torn him from slumber and nothing could lull him back to sleep easily.
Often, he gave up on sleep entirely, forgoing the hours of tossing and turning to settle down with his thoughts and tilt his head toward the sky until his neck ached, and then for an hour or so more after that.
His thoughts raced on these nights, but the light of the moon cast a glow on everything around him that told him everything might just be alright.
Niles did not always love the moon. It was once a traitor, making the night too bright for work. A thief could not sneak around under its watchful gaze.
Moonlight had flooded the alley the night Niles lost his eye.
The moon had seen things Niles's own memory had shattered into a million fragments he would never piece together. The fragments he did have glimmered that same gods-forsaken silver as the circle that burned a hole in the sky tonight.
It wasn't a full moon, at least not quite. It was round and bold in its brightness, but it wouldn't be properly full for at least another night.
That was alright, Niles thought. The sliver of shadow at the moon's very edge had seen just as much of his strife as the harsh glow in its middle. It was no less his friend.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize – " a mumbling voice cut into his thoughts. "I, um, I'll go. Sorry."
Niles turned to the side to see a figure shrouded in what looked like a massive cloak. As his eye adjusted to the low lighting, he could make out that it was a short figure, wrapped in what was either lavish winter garb or a duvet. He'd been living at Krakenburg among Nohrian high society for years now, but Niles swore he could never tell the difference.
"Who's there?" Niles tried, voice steady.
"Friend, not foe," the figure replied quickly as they took a step forward. "I don't think my liege would take too kindly to my ambushing one of his brother's retainers in the night."
Niles took a moment to process that. "Laslow?"
"Well, I'm not Peri, last I checked."
Niles laughed at that, a bitter kind of sound. "Stick around then, friend. What brings you to this little patch of roof tiles? Come here often?"
Laslow shook his head as he sat down cross-legged a few feet to Niles's left side, adjusting his makeshift cloak to cover himself. "New habit by necessity, I'm afraid. My last spot nearly got me shot by a night guard. I thought it might be more secluded here, but, ah..."
Niles smiled at that. "Well, you know what they say about great minds."
"They say the same thing about fools," Laslow said, the corners of his mouth curled up just slightly.
Niles leaned back and took one last glance at his new stargazing partner before returning his reverent attention to the moon. "Why go outside at all if you're just going to wrap yourself up like that? I've never met someone so sensitive to Nohrian nights even through the summer."
A pause filled the air between them, breeze stinging their cheeks for just a moment. "From...my homeland, the stars look completely different. I can't get my mind off it, even after all this time. I haven't found a single constellation in common. It's a completely foreign sky. Stars I used to navigate when all other landmarks had fallen to ash are simply...not there, here in Nohr. When I can't seem to sleep, sometimes I spend the night trying to memorize it all, so that I don't feel so...lost at sea here." Laslow inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. "If I may ask, what draws your eye to the sky on a cold Nohrian night?"
Niles laughed aloud. "I've known nights much colder than this, and without a feather-stuffed duvet to protect me then." He put a finger to his lips thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why I come here. I know the night, and it knows me quite intimately. The moon has seen more of my dirty little secrets than anyone."
Laslow pondered that. "I suppose it is nice to have a comrade who already knows all your secrets. No pretenses between you."
"Indeed." Niles eyed him, a glimmer of suspicion behind it. He wonders, faintly, if Laslow has such an ally, but returns his gaze upward without another word.
Laslow hugged his knees closer to his chest. "I'm sorry for interrupting your solitude. I know that a person doesn't usually go sit on the roof in search of stranger to chat with."
Niles laughed. "No, I suppose not. But I really don't mind an impromptu rendezvous in the late hours of the night."
There was almost a note of anxiety in Laslow's voice as he spoke next. "You're being unusually receptive to company."
Niles raised an eyebrow. "Do you distrust me?"
"You've always seemed to distrust me. Perhaps I'm just returning the favor." His words should have stung, but Laslow's tone seemed far more resigned than venomous.
"I don't know you," Niles said simply. "I can find information on just about everyone, but your past is a mystery. You and those friends of yours."
A pained expression crossed Laslow's face. "You won't find anyone in Nohr who knew me before I came here, nor Hoshido. My past was eradicated quite violently, along with all the people in it, save the friends that came with me." He tucked his chin between his knees, curled up into a tight ball. "There are secrets I can't tell, and even if I could, they wouldn't matter. My past is dead. I had to start anew. There's nothing to know."
"And nothing to trust." Niles had intended to put a sharp edge on his words, but they slipped out of his mouth dull and quiet. He sighed.
Silence fell over them both, thick and uneasy. Laslow stared into the distance, and Niles closed his eye and basked in the chill moonlight.
"I don't know if I'll sleep tonight," Laslow confessed, cutting through the stillness that seemed to freeze the air between them.
Niles looked at him and thought a moment before opening his mouth. "You have important duties," he said, halfhearted. "You should be well-rested for that."
"And I suppose you're planning on going back to bed soon, then?"
Niles couldn't help but laugh a little at that, at the way Laslow managed to make his words so bitingly sardonic without insulting or speaking harshly.
"Point taken."
"I'm not sure how to phrase this without coming across…" Laslow searched for the word for a moment before giving up. "Anyway, do you come to this spot often?"
Niles grinned. "Hoping to catch me here in the late hours again, are you? What for, I wonder..."
A deep flush filled Laslow's cheeks, though Niles could barely see it in the dark. "I just mean that I can leave you alone in the future, if you want."
"And if I don't want?" Niles chanced. Laslow tried very hard not to stare at the way moonlight seemed to dance in Niles's hair as his head tilted up slightly.
Laslow hesitated, eyes widening just a little. "I...this isn't just a few times a month, you know. I don't sleep well."
"Neither do I."
"I might be out here just shy of every night."
Niles tasted his next sentence on his tongue for a moment before speaking it aloud. "That'd be alright."
"You never answered my question," Laslow blurted. "Why are you being so...nice?"
Niles met his gaze. His face was so serious then, more serious than Laslow could ever remember seeing him. His eye seemed to bore into Laslow. "You just told me everyone you had to know and love died. I've no interest in punching down at people who've suffered like that."
"You didn't know that when I got here," Laslow shot back – again, with that strange quiet tone, not aggressive or accusatory, yet with just as much sting as if it had been. "I think you might just be nice, when you forget not to be."
"Absolutely not."
"Whatever you say."
Despite himself, Niles had to disguise his chuckle behind what he hoped sounded like an annoyed huff.
The breeze that blew by the pair wasn't strong, but its bite still brought a flush to Laslow's cheeks. "I don't know how you all survive in this cold."
"It's invigorating," Niles said, stretching with his arms above his head. A yawn escaped him as he did, and he quickly covered his mouth.
Laslow scooted a bit closer and nudged Niles with an elbow. "You should really try and...and get some rest." A yawn overtook him midway through the sentence, which he futilely hoped Niles would ignore.
His companion elbowed him right back. "It would seem I'm not the only one whose bed calls him." He stood up slowly, offering Laslow his hand. "Let's both get some rest, hm?"
Tentative, Laslow reached out from under his makeshift cloak of blankets, cringing a little as the bare skin of his hand came in contact with the brisk night air. He wrapped his fingers around Niles's sturdy palm.
Gods, how did he still feel so warm?
...And where the hell did that thought come from?
Laslow quickly let go once he'd stood up, mentally blaming the cold for the pink heat in his face.
"Thank you," he said softly. "For the company."
Niles cleared his throat and looked to the side, shaking his hand a little as if he'd hurt it. "Anytime." Laslow had never heard him so quiet.
There was a pause, like the world itself had stopped turning for just a moment.
"I'll...see you tomorrow, Niles," Laslow said finally, taking the first few steps toward his quarters. "Er, rest well. Sweet dreams and all that."
Niles nodded, the ghost of a lopsided smile on his face. He swallowed, trying not to think too hard about the warmth that seemed to bloom in his chest at so simple a blessing as "sweet dreams."
"Sweet dreams yourself, Laslow."