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"C'mon Mountain, you said you'd take me up there!" Phantom whined, knowing Mountain would eventually give in to his persistence and huge puppy eyes, "Please? I wanna see the stars!"
"We shouldn't," the drummer retorted, sly and playful eyes flicking over to the clock.
"Says who?" Phantom tested the waters a little more, "Its not like anyone's gonna see!"
"Won't we get cold?"
"Huddle for warmth." The smaller grinned, and when met with a look, he sighed, "Fine, fine, I can get our coats out."
"...."
"...."
"....Knock on my bedroom door in 10 minutes."
A cheer came from the slight Quintessence ghoul, already halfway down the hall.
___________________________
Practically bouncing with energy, he hoped the Earth ghoul would not mind him being early too much. With his free hand, he rapped the door, other being occupied handling Mountain's hefty coat wrapped in a big blanket from the common room. A small rustling behind the old wood, then a creak and the guitarist was basically buzzing.
"Well, I think someone's excited," the taller expression softened affectionately, admiring inquisitive eyes briefly, "Now, you can only really get up there by my window or storage's one-" He paused to usher Phantom in, "-and please be careful as you can, don't want to wake up everyone and end up with enough ghouls up there for a roof cave-in." The rhythmist nodded keenly, handing the other his coat.
In an unexpectedly quick movement for such a tall ghoul, Mountain, already with his coat thrown on, leapt onto the windowsill, letting a biting chill into the room as he opened the frame. A brief moment of regret flashed over the guitarist's face as the cold hit his hide, nipping at his nose, but the warmth radiating off his cheeks put up enough of a fight in his heart. The Earth ghoul's hand was outstretched to the other. And in yet another flash of quick movements, the two were balancing on a thin strip of tiling.
"Please, for the love of Lucifer, watch your step here," the drummer sighed, voice laced with exasperation from some surely previous event, "Especially in this temperature."
Being lead up a carefully planned route by the tall, lithe ghoul, the Quintessence ghoul could think of nothing but the hand holding his, guiding, and how it practically engulfed his own hand. The other's hand were not meant to be a comfort - calloused and rough with years of work, claws ragged around the edges and frigid - but the ghoul's grip steadied the shorter ghoul in more ways than one. Butterflies flitted around in their chests; well, more moths at this late hour; sending tingles into every frosty extremity.
They peaked the summit of the roof, where Mountain released the other's hand and laid the common room's blanket into a little flat nook by the chimney, big enough for two-maybe-three people. The drummer cringed, thinking of how to get the soot stains out later, but he supposed cleaning the blanket was better than sitting on icy concrete. However, the rhythmist's mind was elsewhere, wide eyes fixated on the dark void above. Completely cloudless was the sky, allowing the moon to shower the duo in all her crescent beauty in form of silver rays. She stood as a beautiful beacon, a blue hazy halo portraiting the celestial object like a noble painting carefully hung upon a wall. The shine of the stars was practically immaculate with the lack of human light to dull them out - and oh shine they did - like the gloss on a fresh coat of polish, like pin holes poked through paper, their radiance slipping through the holes to grace beings as lowly as ghouls.
"Woah..."
"Right?" Mountain said with equal wonder, "We're damn lucky to have no clouds tonight,"
Like the temperature seeping into their ghoulish bones, Phantom relished in how the sheer radiance soaked into him. The sense of sheer insignificance in comparison to the grandeur of the inky blackness all around cloaked the pair, who revelled in the comfort of irrelevance. The rhythmic pulse of his heart matched itself to the buzzing thrum of the omnipresent quintessence that hung in the air; and it wasn't just his own heartbeat that he could sense - the beating from Mountain's chest too, uncharacteristically fast. Odd - perhaps he was compensating for the cold?
Focusing again on the heavens above, the guitarist couldn't help but think back to the weight of library books in his grip, and the tired ache in his eyes from when he would stare down at the hand drawn diagrams - but the books he laboured himself over could never compare to the crystal clear darkness right then and there. But it was just enough - just enough to match the constellations up between text and reality.
"You see that one there?" Mountain's gaze followed the ghoul's finger to a rather bright star, "That's called Betelgeuse-"
"-Like...Mist's favourite musical, Beetlejuice?"
"Kinda! It's spelt different, but yeah, inspired by it." Phantom turned to watch the taller, who was enraptured, staring in awe, "It's due to go supernova anytime from now or for a whole 100,000 years! Well not quite anytime because lightyears- anyways, when it goes, we'll see it even during the day, wide as the moon for months."
"Maybe that should be my new name for you: supernova," the drummer said after a beat, then returning the loving look. Even in the cold of the night, the heat rising to Phantom's face warmed the Earth ghoul's heart. The guitarist must have gradually wormed his way against the other rhythmist's side, now both sharing body heat, coats tucked around one another. Not quite enough body heat evidently, with the paling of knuckles and slight shiver shaking their shoulders.
Wordlessly, the taller pulled out two thermoses, from God-knows-where Phantom did not see; at the latter's disbelief - how did he not spot them? - not really aided when Mountain gave the extremely simple of explanation of 'big pockets'. The Quintessence ghoul tentatively reached out to grab it, but the way butterflies danced in his stomach as they merely grazed fingertips was utterly embarrassing to the ghoul. So much so that he almost dropped it, which certainly would not have improved his situation, except for the gentle chuff it pulled from the drummer.
Fuck, Mountain had memorised how he likes his hot chocolate too. A dainty dash of honey and a soft sprinkle of cinnamon stirred in - perfect. Phantom smiled against the rim of the thermos gratefully. Silence filled the cool night air as they sipped at the warm drinks, only fractured by breaths that steamed against the chill and the rummage of nocturnal life in the forest. Tapping into the element that formed him yet again, the smaller ghoul sensed out the warmth buried in the wintery chill around the pair; the hot chocolate in his hands, the lithe body aside him, the insignificant yet steady heat that poured out of the building, up and out of the stone walls. The young ghoul pushed his internal anxiety out into the transient energy, dulling both edges like strips of sandpaper scraped back and forth - a fair deal he supposed.
They traded stolen glances, and a feather-light blush they would both blame on the cold. Looking between his coat and where Mountain was pressed up against him, the guitarist noticed the freckles dotting the Earth ghoul's hands and face, and he couldn't help but wonder if they spread up his arms, over his back, maybe even further. The ghoul mentally remarked their similarity to the speckling of stars in the sky. Earth is always a part of space, in a weird way, he supposed. In a strange way that he would rather not think about, for his sanity.
"Did you see that?" Said the freckled ghoul, spooking Phantom out of his trance.
"What?"
"The shooting stars, no?" He questioned, "Look, look, do you see them?" The ghoul pointed around a few times at the dots smearing the night's ink every few seconds, the other's keen gaze following every movement. The meteors showered the duo in a bask of light, dashing across the skies like leaves on a breeze. The Earth ghoul's eyes flicked between the sky that tossed stars like a toddler tantruming, and the ghoul staring at them in angelic reverence; and the way the moon curved into his pupils like it was always nestled there. It seemed that with every beat of a ghoul's heart, a new light would fall. Perhaps that is what it looked like when Lucifer and Heaven's angels fell from grace - beings of pure light losing their holy titles as they were cast down into a seemingly endless void of silence and nothingness. A star, a fallen angel, not any true power on their own, but when together - a sight so breathtaking and yet so very haunting. After a minute of awe-struck gasps and gentle mutterings, the drummer started speaking again.
"These are the geminids," Mountain explained, gaze landing back to the heavens' reflection in the other's eyes, "They visit every December - I forgot they were peaking today."
"Are they related to The Twins constellation? Y'know based off the name I just thought..." the Quintessence ghoul trailed off.
"Yes, you're right - as Gemini rises higher in the sky, the meteors get more visible.....Well, as far as I remember, I'm not the one to ask about space, really."
"...Y'know, I don't tell you enough how much I love spending time with you, star," Phantom muttered, barely louder than a whisper. Loose curls draped over the drummer ghoul's coat shoulder, fabric crinkling under rigid horn, where the shorter rested his tired head.
"Same here, Tom," Mountain smiled softly, though never one for being expressive; the nerves built up all night had now smoothed to a simmer with the shorter's gentle words, "Let's do this again when it's warmer. I'll read up on what's to come next year, how about that, supernova?"