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Mika snuggled closer to Nour, letting her eyelids flutter shut. She drew her blanket tighter over her shoulders and yawned.
Sure, they were both nocturnal, and sure, Mika had stayed up past her bedtime plenty of times, but the ambiance was making her sleepy, and Nour made a good pillow. They wrapped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her, playfully rocking her a little in a way that made her squeal and open her eyes.
“Just a few more minutes, then we can call it a night, okay?” they glanced down at her and gave her a reassuring smile.
Nour didn’t usually smile. Not in a normal way, at least. But if Mika looked the right way, she could tell when their eyes were scrunched minutely, or when their lips curled minimally upwards. For Nour, it was enough. It was still nice to see them smile.
“Okay,” she smiled back. Because she trusted Nour. She could stay awake for a few minutes for them. Lifting her hand from where it was securing her blanket, she patted her cheeks in the same way she’d seen them do, trying just a little bit harder to keep her eyes open. For them.
“Atta girl,” they gave her shoulder another squeeze before loosening their grip again, letting their arm drop back down to support their weight.
They were both sitting on the empty floor of the Magloc Observatory’s… well, they didn’t have a name for it, yet. Big Clear Dome. Patented. Supposedly. It seemed a justifiable expense at the time, a way to freely study the sky and surroundings while protected from the elements. While the owl had plenty of telescopes and star charts, meteor showers were difficult to capture if they couldn’t see the full sky.
So, now they were sitting under a big clear dome, seemingly built for this purpose only, watching the sky. Waiting for a meteor shower. The pair had come prepared, with blankets and pillows and enough snacks to last the whole night.
If only they could prepare for the sleepiness of a child. Mika’s head bonked against Nour’s shoulder, alerting them to the fact that she had nodded off again. They shuffled a little and nudged her with their elbow, causing her to blink awake again. She squeaked something about resting her eyes, and Nour chuckled fondly. The fox rubbed the sleep from one of her eyes and craned her neck upwards again.
A shooting star bolted across the sky before the two of them. Immediately, Mika woke up proper.
“Quick, write that down!” Nour gasped. They were already patting the ground for a notepad
Mika scrambled for the notebook on the floor between them, flipping to a random blank page. She clicked a pen open and paused.
“What time is it?!” she asked with audible desperation.
Nour glanced down at their watch, “12:07.”
Mika furiously scribbled the time down and tallied down one meteor. She glanced up again, searching the sky for any others.
Nothing.
She sighed in disappointment. She sat back on her paws and let her head fall back.
Nour leaned forward and grabbed her just above the waist, hauling her into their lap. Mika kicked at the ground a little to help them as they put a great amount of effort into such a simple move. It took a very long minute for them to get properly situated, with Mika finding a way to rest her tail that was comfortable and Nour trying to find somewhere to place their hands. The pair finally settled back down with Nour’s arms draped over Mika’s shoulders, their hands clasped together in a way that locked the fox securely in their lap. The notebook rested in Mika’s lap, with a pen in her hand, ready to jot anything else down.
Nour glanced over their shoulder to check what she had written, and nodded in satisfaction. They returned their focus on the sky, while Mika hunched over to doodle flowers and stars in the margins of the notebook. At random intervals, she would sit up and look where Nour was looking, rocking back and forth in their lap with excitement.
It took a few more minutes, but sure enough, another meteor flitted past. This one was brighter than its predecessor, a proper shooting star that left a blazing golden line in the sky. Mika gasped, and Nour’s breath hitched. Mika looked down and tilted her head to read Nour’s watch, taking a moment to count the numbers on the clock face out loud. The owl kept their eyes trained at the sky. They nudged her shoulder with their arm and she looked up in time to see the tail end of another shooting star.
She scribbled it down, a little bit under the first notes. 12:15. Two tally marks.
And suddenly, something happened, and the sky lit up. One, two, five, fifteen stars flitted across the sky in rapid succession. A brilliant lightshow of burning rocks and ice, leaving their own little marks on the world, in the memories of the pair, and likely hundreds of others across Elysium. Each one streaked through the night sky, temporarily outshining the stars beyond it and making a quiet announcement that it had existed, and by the Gods it had been beautiful. Each one varied in color and trajectory, in minute ways Nour themself could only really notice after decades of vigorous astronomy.
If they had been alone, they’d be writing those details down. Tail length, light color, trajectory, et cetera. But they weren’t. They rocked the fox in their lap a little, and she giggled.
If only they could see her face, the awestruck expression plastered on it. The literal stars in her eyes.
She tried, in vain, to tally down about the first ten before she got lost.
“I… am not counting those,” she announced. She clicked the pen closed and leaned back into their chest to further make that clear. With a final few meteors, the wave of shooting stars came to an end.
“Twenty-three,” Nour hummed. They hugged Mika tightly and rested their chin on the top of their head, her ears brushing their cheeks. Mika’s tail began to wag, a gentle thump thump thump against their thigh.
“But it’s fine,” they continued. They trained their eyes up, watching as another brave meteor led a second wave of shooting stars through the sky. It was always a gorgeous sight. They didn’t regret dragging Mika out to see.
“For now, let’s just watch.”