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“Was it a good birthday?”
Theta Sigma looked up at Koschei, who had snuck up on him. He still held a mug of ginger spice tea, which was surely cold by now, and his cheeks had a bit of that blush to them that Theta knew meant this was his second helping. As Koschei sat down next to him on the cool flagstone, the main courtyard of the Prydon Academy was silent around them. Along with the daylight and the warmth, the usual flocks of red-robed students had faded away from the circular outdoor space as night fell. Theta sighed and stretched out his arm, opening his blanket cocoon and enveloping Koschei in with him. He felt Koschei’s familiar telepathic signal brush against his own as their shoulders came in contact. “Yeah.”
“Just yeah?” Koschei took a sip of his tea and then set it down. He busied his hand instead with tugging on the other end of the blanket, tightening it around the two of them so that Theta giggled softly as he was pulled closer. “Not fantastic, or anything?”
“Hm.” Theta leaned his head against Koschei’s shoulder. “It was nice. The cake was good.”
“We could put a bag of plain sugar in front of you and you’d say it was a culinary masterpiece.”
That earned him a smile.
Koschei tilted his face upward, following Theta’s line of sight to the stars above them. Given a slight orange hue by the protective shield that enveloped Gallifrey, they flickered gently. Any Academy student would have known a good portion of those tiny dots by name and galactic quadrant. On nights like this, though, it was easier to see the stars for what they were. Some were homes to civilizations, grand and insignificant. Historical sites. Timeline anchors. Most were just cosmic glitter, massive spheres of combustion that would be born and grow and live and die just like anything else did in the universe. For a younger Theta and Koschei, they’d been a game of connect-the-dots that had generated constellations like The Flubble Fairy and The Left Ear Of Zagreus. Lately, though, now that more and more birthdays had begun to accumulate, they were beginning to just look like stars again.
“Which one are you looking at?” Koschei asked.
“Right there.” Theta gave him a mental nudge. A little to the left. Down a bit. To the right. There.
Koschei squinted. “Hmm. An important star?”
“It’s Sol. Earth’s sun.”
“Right.” Koschei nodded. “Sorry, I should have remembered.”
“It’s hard to find sometimes, and it only appears in season.” Theta shrugged. They both stared for a moment. “Dad’s there now.” His voice softened. “Too busy to come visit this year, I guess.”
“How many birthdays has he missed now?” Koschei frowned.
“This is the fourth in a row.” Theta’s eyes dipped down. “I should stop getting my hopes up every year, really.”
“Or maybe he should just do the bare minimum.”
The corner of Theta’s mouth tugged upward. “He’s not a bad father. He loves me. He’s just not around very much anymore.”
“I know. But I know you miss him.”
“Yeah. And I miss-- I miss Mom.” Theta’s voice skipped over the word a little. “All the time. Still. And maybe Dad misses her even more than I do, and that’s why he doesn’t ever come back. Maybe seeing me just reminds him of her." He blinked up at the stars. "We used to look at the stars every night when we stayed at the summer house. They'd always show me where Earth was."
A memory flashed across Theta's mind, and he let it overflow into Koschei's. Sitting up on his father's shoulders. Following his mother's pointed finger. "Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning!" A beautiful laugh.
"When we go see all of the stars together," Koschei offered, "We'll go to Earth first. You can show me around."
"There's a lot to see."
"It'll be a long stay, then. A nice vacation."
Theta smiled. "Like a honeymoon."
"A what moon? Does it have honey on it?" Koschei wrinkled his nose.
"Nope. It's a trip humans go on after they get married."
Koschei rolled his eyes. "I never thought I'd meet someone who would propose marriage to me on a nearly daily basis."
"You're lucky to have me!" Theta kissed Koschei’s cheek, making sure to emphasize a loud mwah! sound.
Laughing, Koschei only tried a little bit to pull away from further exaggerated kissing. "Okay, okay! All right! Marry me as much as you'd like! Have all the moon honies you want!"
Satisfied, Theta sealed his answer with a much softer and considerably more pleasant ginger-spiced kiss on the lips. "Thank you, I will."
For an hour or so more, the two of them bundled so closely together that neither felt the nighttime cold. Even as they reluctantly trundled back to their dorm, yawning and stretching all the way, billions of stars glimmered overhead, at least one of them a home.