Chapter Text
“Hey, budge over!”
Hokuto sends a slightly exasperated glare Subaru’s way as he pushes himself beside him, plopping himself onto the grass. It’s not something for Subaru to care about, though, as he links their arms together and lays his legs flat out in front of him.
The sky is already pitch-black at this time of night; in the excitement of the festival and the endless fun they’d been having, he’d lost track of time a long while ago, and only now is he starting to descend back into reality again. It’s quiet around this corner of grass, their corner of the world that they’d found to sit and watch the fireworks, the highlight of any festival night out.
Hokuto’s phone screen lights up from the corner of Subaru’s eye, and he leans over to check the time. Five minutes until the fireworks start. There are groups of people milling about the centre of the festival, strolling towards the hill with the best view of the light show, all in festival clothing with their hands full of food and trinkets.
It’s new to Subaru. Something he’d only been able to experience in his dreams, on the television, in books and manga, and now he’s here, making memories with his friends that will last forever.
Unable to help the smile on his face, he looks down the row of his friends. Each of them in their coloured yukata, Hokuto’s silver necklace and Makoto’s emerald earrings shaped like stars. Mao’s braid and floral hairclip, Anzu’s high bun and pearl bracelet. Subaru discreetly brings his phone out and snaps a photo, revelling in its candid nature. It’s something worth framing, he thinks, a snapshot of his life to keep forever.
“I wanna do this every year…” is what slips from his mouth, almost inaudible among the bustle surrounding them.
“Me too,” Makoto says, drawing his knees in. He turns his head to Subaru and nods. “We’ll be friends forever, right? Then we’ll be able to do stuff like this as much as we want.”
“Until we’re all old and wrinkly?”
He gets a laugh from Mao in response, light and carefree like the summer breeze. “Yeah, of course, if that’s what everyone wants.”
There’s a chorus of agreements, and Subaru allows himself to relax once more. Safe in the knowledge that they’ll always be together, that he can always hold hands and link arms like this, that they’ve found their own constellation that can never be broken apart.
He turns back to the sky and the sea of stars. Though for now, he finds that the sight tucked away in the gallery of his phone is more captivating, more precious.
“I’ve never been to a festival with friends before,” Hokuto says quietly from beside him.
Subaru lets the statement sit for a minute, hanging in the air like an invitation to continue the conversation if he wants. He gets it—he knows they’re similar in more ways than Hokuto would ever dare to admit, but it’s comforting somehow, the idea that he’s not alone in having been alone.
When he speaks again, it’s as much for himself as it is for Hokuto. “Then we’re gonna make up for it, right? We’ll go to all the festivals that we missed before and have all of the fun that we missed!”
“Hm. I don’t know if we have the time for all that, but I get the sentiment.” Still, Hokuto’s smiling, so Subaru takes that as a win.
Then there’s a bang.
Subaru whips his head back around, and is faced with only the second most beautiful sight of the night.
Blooming flowers, a shower of glitter against a starry backdrop. More colours than he’d ever seen in his life: dazzling yellows, passionate pinks, burning reds, and a rainbow of all the vibrancy that he’d been searching for for so long.
“Amazing…” Anzu breathes. Subaru tears himself away for just a moment to glance towards her, and sees her gaze fixated on the show before them, just like everyone else. The colours reflecting in their eyes, glimmering and mixing together like specks of neon dust.
Around them, the world seems to stop while every other festival-goer remains entranced by the view, the whizzing of the fireworks before exploding into a burst of light.
Subaru doesn’t think to bring his phone out for pictures, not when the memory is etching itself into his mind, every last star and strand of grass and the smell of festival food and the sound of laughter. All of it, kept safely under lock and key in his heart, the start of a pile of even more memories together.
It’s all too soon when the fireworks come to an end, the final light falling through the sky like a shooting star, shrouding them in relative darkness once more. Not that it matters to Subaru, already brimming with excitement at the thought of their next festival, and the one after that, and—
“It’s pretty late, huh?” Makoto says, though not making a move to stand up. “I was having so much fun that I didn’t even realise the time until now.”
He sure did, if the various plushies won from the festival games are any indication. Subaru holds his own close to him: a puppy, in the same shade of brown as Daikichi. Makoto had taken one look at it before giving it to Subaru with a smile rivalling that of the sun.
“Right?” Mao responds, sitting his pink unicorn on his lap. For my sister, he’d said when presented with the plush, but Subaru suspects he’s more attached to it than he lets on. “I can’t believe it’s already almost over.”
“Then we don’t have to go home right now, do we?” Subaru says, not willing to let the night end just yet, so that he could find even one more moment to picture and treasure. “There’s still so much more we can do!”
As long as it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and as long as the others wish. Subaru takes off, running through the streets of the festival, letting his laughter run free as the others chase after him. With these experiences and these memories, he feels as though he can keep running until dawn breaks and the festival is only a set of images in his mind.