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“Do you like stars?” Dan Heng asked as he put on his seal sunglasses that he got from the recent event that took place in Amphoreus. Phainon looked at him with a raised eyebrow and chuckled.
“You still have those sunglasses?” Phainon reached his hand out and rubbed Dan Heng’s head, earning a subtle hum from the latter.
“Will you answer my question or not?” Dan Heng spoke up once more, making no effort to move away from Phainon’s touch. The Chrysos Heir gave him a gentle pat before pulling his hand back into his lap and looking up at the sky.
“Professor Anaxa once said that the sky in Amphoreus is fake. I’m not exactly sure what he meant when he said that, but if we were to go with that logic, then it means I’ve never seen real stars.” Phainon explained, knowing how eager Dan Heng would be to hear new theories about his world.
“A fake sky? I guess that would make sense, seeing as Amphoreus is a one-way door; you can enter, but not leave.” Dan Heng started to ramble a little as he took off his silly seal sunglasses and got his notepad out. Phainon glanced at Dan Heng jotting down notes, deciding to stay quiet for a bit to let him focus.
A few minutes passed by and Phainon suddenly spoke up.
“Even if the stars in Amphoreus are fake, I’ll still look up at them and think of you. You know, since you trailblaze. Always swimming in a sea of stars...” Phainon didn’t want to sound too sentimental so he looked off to the side and straightened his back.
Dan Heng looked over at Phainon in slight surprise, not expecting to get such a heartfelt response to his simple question
“Right, because I trailblaze and…’swim’ in a sea of stars.” Dan Heng closed his notepad and put it away, not needing to hide his smile since Phainon was looking away.
Phainon rolled his eyes and smiled as he picked up on the subtle teasing in Dan Heng’s voice.
Seeing as Phainon didn’t respond, Dan Heng spoke up again.
“I’m only joking,” Dan Heng murmured as he linked his arm with Phainon’s and tried to pull his face back to him, “It’s sweet how you connect stars to me.”
Phainon turned his head back to Dan Heng, his rosy cheeks relatively visible. “Somehow I still feel like you’re teasing me.”
Dan Heng rubbed Phainon’s arm with his thumb and looked up at him. “Well, I’ll confess that I see you in the sun; my star, the brightest of all.”
“Bound to explode in a couple billion years?” Phainon chuckled while Dan Heng huffed in embarrassment.
Phainon smiled warmly at Dan Heng’s expression and used his free arm—the one that Dan Heng wasn’t actively holding onto— to cup a side of the dark-haired man’s face. He pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead and muttered against his skin,
“I’m also just joking, Dan Heng. We’re equal now, so don’t tease me for the rest of the day.”