Archive of Our Own

"What are we even looking for?" You asked, impatient as you hurriedly trailed after the Researcher and Stardust through the busy streets of Bambouche.

The wind was cool by the sea, and your star-speckled feet tapped against the path much softer than the harder steps of the others.

You had been busy (doing nothing, lazing next to the Kid, etcetera) back at Pétronille's house when the two had practically dragged you out the door, all for the intent purpose of bringing you on as a special guest to their fun new secret quest! But all you had gathered from what little they had thought to tell you was that the quest's objective wasn't to find a familytale this time. So that left you without a trace of a clue as to what the objective actually was.

Stardust looked at you over his shoulder and blinked with enough exaggeration to suggest it was a wink. Stars. Did you really used to look this ridiculous doing that?

"It's a secret," they cheekily replied, because of course it was.

Narrowing your eyes at him with offense, you swiped your foot out towards his boot, and he dodged out of the way with a surprised grin.

"And you expect me to be of any help with that kind of information??" You asked with bewilderment. It was a secret quest, and they couldn't even tell you what they were looking for!

"Oh, you will be," the Researcher said with a distracted certainty as she looked around with a steady gaze. You looked to her. Her eyes drifted over the buildings searchingly, and when it seemed that she didn't have anything else to say to you, you looked away with a huff.

It became clear over the course of the walk that the two of them were looking for a building that the Researcher had evidently lost.

When asked, she couldn't remember where it was, nor could she remember what it was called. Just that she had seen it the other day, and that it had been important. If she knew what it was, that seemed to be Stardust's business only, judging by the hushed whispers the two of them occasionally shared, noticeably outside of your hearing range.

You were getting more and more annoyed with each less-than-subtle glance thrown back at you.

And yet you were expected to just tag along behind them without question.

It was after the first time the Researcher accidentally circled the two of you nearly all the way back to Pétronille's and muttered a Ka Buan curse under her breath that you decided this super awesome special secret quest of theirs wasn't worth your time anymore actually.

While the Researcher and Stardust stopped to quietly speak to each other again without any need of your input, you slipped away to go find something more interesting. You could find them again later, or if not, you knew how to get back to that side of the beach yourself.

You hated being in towns.

Scratch that, towns themselves were perfectly fine so long as they weren't Dormont. You hated being you in towns. Passersby were intent on giving your twinkling form startled looks and curious stares, making you all too conscious of how you didn't fit in with any of them anymore. As if you ever used to.

You swerved down a less populated road to avoid the many eyes, and walked. Your gaze lazily drifted across the shops. There were gardening shops, artistry shops displaying their wares in the windows, quaint little family-run restaurants likely passed down through generations.

…Things were different, in a town this far north against Vaugarde's coastline. The smell in the air of the restaurants carried a nostalgia that weighed heavy on your mind, of recipes borrowed and changed but rooted in something forgotten. The accent wasn't so different this far up north, and yet as your steps carried you past the quiet wisps of conversation, something about it sounded just a tiny bit more familiar. And not just because of the Kid, but because it reminded you of the kinds of accents you had once grown used to hearing from overseas visitors at their age.

One time, your best friend had gone on a family trip to the neighbouring country. On the day they were set to return, you had patiently waited for them on the dock munching on the snacks your parents had sent you out with. So when their ferry had arrived, there were so many other people onboard travelling for their own business and purposes. You had heard so many curious accents and words you hadn't understood. Now you knew that to have just been Vaugardian, though.

Once you had spotted the darkless curls of your friend among the crowd, the two of you had practically leaped at each other. And now…

Now…

Where..…

.……...

You stumbled, suddenly fighting back a disorienting wave of dizziness. You grunted and placed a hand to your chest, hissing a discomforted breath. It had felt as if the very wish craft composing you had for a moment shook, leaving you with a horrible nausea.

Where were you?

How long had you been walking for?

...Why were you half on the ground?

You didn't register the sounds of quickly approaching boots until you felt a hand drop down onto your shoulder. The contact in your vulnerable state abruptly made you go rigid and tore out a gasp from you. You scrambled back on the road and spun your front towards the figure with your hand raised in a scissors sign—

Stardust leaned back with a startled look as the Researcher's hand quickly grasped your wrist and aimed your scissors attack to harmlessly kick up dirt off the ground with a shing.

"Easy, easy. It's just me and Siffrin," she assured, although she sounded just a little out of breath. "Don't run off again. You're still important to this quest, believe it or not."

"Stars," you grumbled, tension leaving your shoulders as you placed a hand to what should have been your temple. The Researcher let go of your wrist and you yanked it back. "Don't- just grab me like that."

"Um. Sorry," Stardust awkwardly apologized. The Researcher notably did not, as the potential consequences had been a little more dire in her case. He leaned forward, concerned gaze looking you over. "What happened?? Did you trip?"

"As if I'd be so clumsy as to trip over the ground like you," you hissed, standing back up and clutching your arms in mild embarrassment for the display. Stardust followed you up.

"That isn't an answer…"

"Huh," the Researcher curiously said at your side, and you gave her a questioning glance. She was looking someplace up past you and Stardust with brows raised in surprise. "You found it."

Found...?

You finally took a proper look at your surroundings, and found that you had collapsed in front of the steps of a quaint building by the sea. Extending over the water was an old dock without a single boat in sight, unremarkable and uncared for in its disuse. The building, however, seemed just as old but far from uncared for.

The door upon the steps was simple and wooden with a charm you didn't recognize adorning the front, and the windows at its sides were blocked with dark curtains shimmering with pointed beads that bore a striking resemblance to the night sky. But most notably, below those windows…

You stared, gaze caught on the wood.

The wood of the walls beneath the window frames was painted in a minimalist style, depicting the vague shape of a darkless-haired figure running on a hill with a freckled child behind them underneath a night sky painted with so much love, it clashed against the simplicity of the figures. And yet something about that framing felt right. The paint looked old. Chipped. But preserved, by splashes of newer paint where someone hadn't allowed damage to take it.

Something twisted in your chest.

At your side, Stardust's breath caught.

If you didn't think too hard on what land's hills had to have been depicted here, then... then it was a lovely picture. And it didn't have to be more than that, even if it was. Even if you knew, you knew, you knew it was.

Because then maybe the Universe wouldn't take this precious sight from your memory.

"It really is..." Stardust muttered under their breath, trailing off in a tone that sounded about as mesmerized as you felt.

"Is...?" You looked to him, a little lost and prompting.

"I told Siffrin I had found a shop the other day that looked to be of the same kind of culture you two came from," the Researcher spoke up, walking past the two of you up the steps. She turned back and met your gaze. "I was thinking we could buy some trinkets to bring back, or at least whatever catches our eye."

"Tr-trinkets?" You stammered, surprised. You took a few steps backwards and looked to the little board leaning against the wall that just read Neb's Knickknacks. "This place, it's…!"

It was…

It was something that shouldn't have remained, and yet here it was, a testament against your shaken belief that all was truly lost.

Places like this couldn't have just disappeared into thin air when the island had been forgotten, and someone had to have been stubborn enough to hold on rather than move on.

You turned your troubled look back onto the Researcher and asked, "will we even remember where we got them?"

"If you don't, I'll be writing it down," she assured. "In fact, I've already written down today's plans in advance. Even if you forget the shop itself, I'll still know where we got the items from."

The Researcher's hand was on the door handle as she carefully glanced between you and Stardust.

"Take your time, if you need. Both of you."

Then the door was pulled open with the little jingle of a bell, and closed behind her. The charm swayed and clacked against the door.

...You and Stardust took a moment to just stand there and stare at where the Researcher had once been.

The two of them had been taking you here, and decided to never mention it? Why?

"All those secret quests for Odile, and now we're having one for you, huh?" Stardust chuckled, averting their gaze from the shop to you. He looked nervous. He sounded nervous. He must not have been as ready for this as he had imagined he'd be.

"Me?" You asked them, perplexed. "Isn't this for you?"

"We're here to get you a gift." Stardust fidgeted with his hands. "Odile and I were talking about it."

A gift, huh...?

You warily looked back to the shop.

Still, neither of you went inside.

Stardust, always the better between the two of you, was of course the first one to steel himself. His warmer hand snaked beneath your own and took ahold of it, giving it a tight squeeze of reassurance. With that, you allowed him to walk you up the steps.

He pulled the door open by the handle.

The bell jingled.

The two of you stepped inside onto the wooden floors, and—

Oh.

The door closed shut behind the two of you.

You and Stardust both went entirely still.

Stars.

There were stars everywhere when you entered the shop. On maps; on mugs; on quilts hung from the walls, stitched with enough wish craft that you could taste it in the air. And that was only what could be seen from the entryway.

At the counter to the far end of the shop was a freckled woman with bouncy darkless hair leaned forward with an elbow on the countertop, talking with the Researcher.

You didn't notice that Stardust still had your hand in his own until his grip began to crush it.

You winced, and pulled your hand out from his to shake it out. Stardust didn't acknowledge this. You turned to the side and took a step forward, leaving him to take a deep breath by the door.

Near the entrance was a little pedestal table with rows of opaque shades laid out across its surface. On a folded note at the front read:

Wear in case of headaches! They will only help with reducing brightness!! On the house, feel free to take :)

Some of the shades looked to have been taken from the line-up.

Hm.

The sounds of Stardust's boots falling against the floor drew your gaze to your counterpart's stiff walk towards the counter. Oh, good! They hadn't chickened out after having to drag you in here.

...Not knowing what to do with yourself on your own, you followed after him, albeit at a distance.

The freckled woman's eyes fell away from the Researcher to land on Stardust, and she quickly straightened her posture back up to something a little more professional. If she was at all surprised to see somebody with the same shade of hair as hers in her shop, she didn't look it. Though maybe it wasn't much of a surprise at all, this far up north. Perhaps there were others like you and Stardust, even if very few. It was only a shame that you didn't share that kind of resemblance anymore.

"Hi—" the woman greeted, before her eyes fell upon your approaching figure.

Ahh.

Now there was the surprise on her face.

Her customer service smile faltered, and you felt stared at.

"Hello," Stardust quietly murmured under his cloak collar, quickly stepping to the Researcher's side where everything would surely be a little more safe. You, on the other hand, were just left to stand self-consciously out in the open.

"This is Siffrin," the Researcher cut in, waving a hand to Stardust before sweeping it towards you. "And this is Loop. They're the ones I said I'd try and bring by."

The woman behind the counter quickly glanced back and forth between you and the Researcher and in a way that screamed you didn't mention one of them was a star without being so rude as to say it out loud, before she was hastily putting a smile back on her face and clasping her hands together.

"Ah, yes! Right! Madame Odile here spoke well about you two when we met. Welcome to Neb's Knickknacks!"

You glanced to a shelf near the counter where there lied a picture book with the title scribbled over with ink. There were drags and smudges, as if someone had later tried and failed to clean it off. Still, it was for sale. You felt sad looking at this, somehow.

"Are you Neb?" Stardust asked.

"Nah, but I'll be sure to get 'em to take some of my work days when I figure out who that is. I'm Éloïse, though! And this shop has been treated with a lot of love for some time," the freckled woman—Éloïse, apparently—replied. "Though this used to be a familiar spot for visitors from up, uh..."

She trailed off with a blank look in her eyes, before she quickly shook her head and gave a pained smile as if she was used to shaking off a memory that would never form.

"Well it used to be something, and one day I realized it must've been mine."

"Why do you still run this place if you can't remember why you cared to?" You blurted out your first words to her.

"Who said I don't care now?" She raised a brow at you. If she didn't care for you being a star now, then it was likely forced. You were such a peculiar thing, after all~. Even more so to anyone who would recognize what kind of thing you were. "I'd rather take the chronic headaches and forgetfulness than lose the one thing I get a say in keeping."

...That was fair. It wasn't like you had ever gotten a say in keeping anything, yourself. You glanced away once more, and that was the interaction complete.

"Well, feel free to have a look around," the woman slouched back over on the counter and waved a hand out in a shooing gesture. "Oh, and don't depend on me to know what half of this stuff is. If you're looking for anything in particular, the worst of it is in the back room and anyone who can look at that crab without blacking out gets it free."

With that, you set off to explore the shop in the opposite direction of Stardust and the Researcher.

The shop was... largely empty of people. There were no customers aside from the three of you, but there were still signs that the shop saw life from time to time. Empty spots on shelves where things must have been taken and bought. Shades missing from the table by the door. A crayon that had been lost and rolled beneath a chair by what you could only assume had been a customer's child.

Notably, there was nothing with any visible writing anywhere. And if there was, it was written in Vaugardian. You wondered if anything depicting the language was hidden away in the back room.

There was glassware with crystals embedded into what you thought must have been constellations, but made your head spin and lose track of the trail when you tried to follow its shape.

There were stuffed animals that might have had a story in a loving home, or could've always just been kept on sale for an owner-to-be's collection.

Items you couldn't understand, but you knew must have been special.

Items you could understand, because you recognized them to be of cultures you had experienced in your own times of travel, mixed up and jumbled in with the rest by someone who wouldn't know the difference even if they wanted to.

There came a point where you... stopped walking.

Where your legs wouldn't move you any farther, and when you looked down to the ground, you realized that you were dizzy all over again. Your feet felt frozen in time, and you could feel your stomach (or whatever else you had for insides) twisting itself into knots. Why did you feel so strange standing here all of a sudden...? You felt like an imposter in this shop, impossibly detached to something that should've been more familiar than a light wave of déjà vu. But who DID belong, if not you?

You felt taunted with your own home.

Not by Éloïse, or "Neb," but perhaps by the Universe itself.

…You didn't want to be alone anymore.

You quickly spun around and walked back towards the counter in search of Stardust and the Researcher. Turning the corner of a shelf, you certainly found Stardust when you nearly collided with him running past. You just barely caught sight of the swish of his darkless cloak and frantic steps headed towards the front, and just like that, your briefest glimpse of Stardust was lost to the sound of a bell and the subsequent slam of the door.

You stared at the place where he had just been, posture tense with surprise.

Uh—?

The Researcher had been close behind, and paused with a look of self-debate when she saw you standing puzzled in the middle of the shop. She looked to the door then looked to you before her shoulders fell. You awkwardly stared at her figure as she sighed.

"Loop, would you mind checking on Siffrin? If I can get my things checked out at the counter, then I can get them out of here faster," the Researcher asked, gripping her bag, and you uncertainly nodded.

"Um... sure. What's...?"

But with your confirmation, she was already walking off to the counter. You grimaced, and walked to the door empty-handed. You hadn't ever picked anything up. Maybe you should have, if you were all leaving already.

You tried not to regret it, although you were failing.

When you pushed it open and sunlight filtered in through the door, you paused with your hand on the handle. The first thing you saw was Stardust crouched on the ground outside below the steps with his face closed in to his knees, shoulders visibly shaking.

A gasp tore through him into the hands he had over his face, and there was another shudder.

They were crying.

Your brow furrowed, unable to suppress the spike of worry the sight caused you. You quickly abandoned the door and let it close shut behind you to make your way down the steps to his hunched form.

"What? What's wrong?" You hurriedly asked, crouching down beside him in a similar fashion to what he had done for you when you'd fallen in this exact spot before. You failed to get a look at his face. "Did you- see something you shouldn't have? Does your head hurt??"

Stardust quickly shook his head.

"N-no, sorry, I'm just." Stars, his nose sounded stuffy. Stardust slid his hands down from his face with a sniff, and his eye was puffy. "Overwhelmed. I feel nauseous for some reason."

...Yeah.

Yeah, you had started feeling weird towards the end there too.

The feeling of being in a place half attempting to mimic something not even its owner could remember... It wasn't something you knew how to describe. It felt like relief and longing and an anger directed towards the injustice rolled into an emotion you couldn't even begin to untangle. It felt like frustration at the fact that you couldn't even get to enjoy it without wanting to cry.

Well. Stardust was certainly crying, now.

You looked away.

"...I didn't feel the best either," you admitted, and surely he of all people did not need you to elaborate on what that meant. "Were you expecting to feel elated?"

Stardust weakly smiled.

"Well you never feel the best."

This was what you got for showing him your sympathy??

You shot him a betrayed look and elbowed them in the side. Stardust swayed back a tiny bit with a little ah.

"Watch it," you hissed, and Stardust stuck his tongue out at you, the annoying little copy that he was.

He didn't respond though, and neither did you as you allowed him to collect himself for the moment.

He sucked in a shuddering breath, and you heard the shop's door quietly open and click shut behind the two of you. Alongside that sound, a tiny thump.

"...I don't know." Stardust wiped at the wetness at his eye with his gloved hand. "This is stupid. I feel like this should have been enlightening. I should've been able to stay in there for longer, or talk to Éloïse about her experiences, o-or... something! Wasn't this supposed to be different from the bakery...?"

In your honest opinion, this trip had gone a lot better than the bakery had all those years ago. For one, neither of you had gained an obscure phobia out of nowhere this time.

Or... had it been just a few months ago, actually...?

Hm.

You didn't like to think about the passage of time anymore!

"Well I don't know what happened with a bakery, but we'll be remaining in Bambouche for a while longer, Siffrin," the Researcher spoke. You and Stardust looked behind yourself as she made her way down the steps. "You can always revisit if you want to try again. You as well, Loop."

"Yeah..." Stardust sighed, and slowly got up to his feet against the protest of his joints. You followed beside him, your joints being... decidedly less joints-y. "Y-yeah, I'll do that. Could you... write down the directions so I don't forget?"

"I will," the Researcher agreed, and there was a certain pride to her tone. But alongside it, concern. "...Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," they quickly replied.

"Siffrin—"

"Stardust—"

Stardust cut the two of you off with a wet laugh. "I'll be fine," they assured, a little smile on their face. "I just need some air and to head back to Pétronille's for now. I'd like to think."

The Researcher nodded.

There was a pause.

"All things considered, I think you did well," she praised, and Stardust bashfully tucked a doubtful smile beneath his collar. You looked them both over, then rolled your eyes.

"What about me, all things considered?" You butted in, and the two turned their attention onto you. "I'm not the one who got all gross and cried, where's my compliments?"

"You don't need compliments," the Researcher replied. Wow!!!!! So rude! Stardust must really be the favourite after all—! "Because you're getting your gifts now."

You blinked.

"Don't get greedy," Stardust grinned at you.

Oh.

Oh, right! With how much entering the shop had scrambled your head, you had slowly forgotten what Stardust had said about him and the Researcher getting you something!

Huh. You wouldn't be going back empty-handed after all, that meant. Something about that inspired relief. Like you hadn't missed out on an opportunity, even though you knew that you were still always able to return to this place.

"Greedy? Never. Teehee, you two got something for little ol' me? How sweet~!" You cooed with a hand to your chest, as if Stardust hadn't already spoiled the surprise before you had even gone in.

Stardust stepped towards you, and you curiously eyed the way his cloak shifted as he slid a hand into one of the pockets at his belt.

"Mhm," he hummed. "I asked Éloïse to show me to the back room. Which was... a little before I ran out. But I saw this first, and it reminded me of you."

When he pulled his hand out from beneath his cloak, it cradled a shimmering necklace adorned with little hanging stars hung at various heights like a twinkling night sky.

You stared at it just a little bit mesmerized and held your hands out below his. Stardust allowed it to fall into your grasp. In the center of the necklace was the largest star, its words engraved within.

You pulled the necklace up closer to your face and attempted to squint at the small text.

"It means 'the stars brought you to me,'" Stardust quietly spoke.

Ah...

You stared at the necklace for a moment, silently processing that.

The stars... brought you... to me...

...

You shot an offended look up at Stardust's smiling face, your eyes narrowed with displeasure.

"This is my gift? Is this a joke?" You flatly asked, vaguely appalled.

Stardust had the gall to give you a mischievous grin at that.

"A little, yeah."

"You freak..." You muttered half-heartedly, looking back down at the necklace and tilting it in the sunlight.

"I also thought you'd appreciate the fact that any stranger who gets close enough to read your necklace will suffer for it," Stardust cutely added in a way that suggested he knew he could win you over with that, and... hm. That did indeed make for a very good point.

"Well now you're selling it," you said with approval.

It was awfully pretty, despite the joke of poor taste behind it. And now it was... yours?

You haven't been very used to something being yours in a long time.

"Here." The Researcher stepped up and held her empty hand out palm-up towards you. You curled your hand around the necklace and eyed the hand warily, before deciding that you hadn't ever stopped trusting her. You gave her the necklace.

"Stay there," she told as she stepped behind you. You did as told, and felt the cool metal of the necklace be laid atop whatever you had for a collarbone. You stared down at its shine, then peered up at Stardust's fond smile.

Out of nowhere, you suddenly felt... embarrassed.

You almost felt a little special in this moment, being handled this way.

There was hardly a second after the clasp of the necklace was secured when you quickly stumbled away from the Researcher, muttering "okaythankyou."

The Researcher let out an amused huff. "Don't say thank you yet. You still have my gift, after all."

"...Oh?" You looked towards her, a little startled. Your hand unconsciously came up to play with the largest star on the necklace as you watched her walk back towards the shop's entrance, her shoes tapping against the wood along the way.

She grabbed the strap of a purse that had been left up the steps to the shop's entrance.

...

Wait, when had that gotten there?

Had she placed it there when she had returned to Stardust crying? But—

You abruptly remember meeting back up with the Researcher in the middle of the shop and assuming the bag she had been holding to be her own. A bag you had never once seen her wear before.

Stars, how had you made that mistake?

She walked back down the steps with it and held it out towards you.

"I've been thinking that you may need a bag of some sort," she explained. "You could use more possessions to your name in general, but that's only easy if you already have somewhere to store them. And this one looked nice."

It did look nice!

It was sleek and lightless with a clasp in the shape of a cratered moon. At the bottom, the stitched on pattern of thin clouds wrapped around the purse. You could probably attach a charm or two to this. Would the necklace hang nicely on the bag, or would it be better on your neck, where a necklace belonged?

You were getting carried away, but you'd never had a purse like this before! Just those silly pockets and that handy little belt that weren't yours anymore!

But this was yours now, apparently.

You quickly took the purse, and fumbled through your head for the appropriate response.

"Look at you two, making me so stylish~!" You kicked a leg back and smiled with your eyes. "Thank you, Researcher! I'll be sure to put it to use!"

Put it to use for what, though?

Oh, hm?

The purse had a little bit of a weight to it, like there was something within. You curiously tilted it and felt something slide. You looked to the Researcher with a question in your gaze.

"There's a journal inside, if you'd like to write down this trip for yourself, or whatever thoughts you've been keeping trapped inside that head of yours," the Researcher answered, and you stood a little straighter. There? was?? more??? "As well as some kind of puzzle box I've never seen before, but it looks like something that could keep you busy."

You went to speak—

"Oh, yes, and a pouch of coins for you to do what you please with." She waved a hand out. "I'm sure you're the one who knows what you need most."

She'd be wrong about that. You really didn't.

You stared at her for a moment, not knowing what to do with the appreciation bubbling up within you, before looking back down to the purse and muttering another thank you. You really didn't deserve all this. You took ahold of the strap and pulled it up over your shoulder.

…It felt as if it would probably sit better on actual clothing.

You squeezed the strap of the purse and struck a little pose, looking to where your stardust had been patiently waiting with a little smile. There was hardly any indication that he had just been crying at all, anymore.

"How do I look~?" You asked, holding your pose with upturned eyes.

"Is it rude to say that this makes you look even more naked?" He snickered.

Your pose faltered, and you stood normally to deadpan at him in annoyance. "Yes," you grumpily replied. "Don't ruin this for me."

You crossed your arms and looked to the Researcher with a huff. "Do you see what I deal with when you bring me out with him? All they do is annoy me."

The Researcher raised a brow. "As if you don't do the same. It's all back-and-forth with you two, I swear."

You rolled your eyes. "Irrelevant. He's a pest."

See, you get away with saying that, because the only response Stardust has for that is and you're a parasite. But you got upset the last time he said that, so he doesn't say it anymore—

"And you're a bitch," Stardust casually stated.

Hm. He had another response for that.

"Researcher? Do something about him?"

The Researcher heaved the heavy sigh of somebody who has had to deal with this far too many times already. "Save your bickering for when I don't have to be here for it."

See, once upon a time, she would've played along. Back when this wasn't the seventieth example of this exact type of exchange between the two of you and you weren't all standing in the sun.

"Sorry, Odile." Stardust gave her a sheepish smile, and that seemed to be the end of that. They straightened up. "I guess we should head back to Pétronille's now?"

"Actually, there's one last thing," Odile said, reaching a hand into her coat pocket. You gave her a curious look, and Stardust made a small questioning sound. "I picked something up for you as well, Siffrin."

Stardust's eye widened.

It was no surprise to you that she had grabbed something for him, the island had been his home too despite that void where memories should have been. But if the two's entire plan had been to take a look around and pick things up for you, then it was clear that the Researcher had made no mention of her extra little side-quest.

"For me?" Stardust asked, looking thoroughly caught off guard. You stood off to the side as the Researcher stepped close to him and pulled out... a small box...? It had a latch on the front, as well little sheep hastily painted on its sides.

On the bottom... a flat winding key.

You and Stardust seemed to realize at the exact same time that it was a music box, judging by the way his features softened with awe.

"When did you...?" He breathed as he slowly brought his hands out towards it like it was something special.

"I snagged it when you weren't looking." The Researcher smirked, placing the music box in Stardust's hold. "When else?"

Stardust just stared at the music box for a moment, before finally bringing a hand down to hold the winding key. It emitted clicking sounds with each twist of his hand.

You stepped up to his side, drawn in by the want to hear it for yourself. He gave you a short but meaningful glance of understanding.

Then he unlatched the front of the music box, and lifted the top.

The notes began to play, and you were both relieved to find it still worked.

The melody felt...

...familiar.

(Like a melody hummed at your bedside by someone you loved.)

(Like a melody sung to lull you to sleep by someone you never wanted to lose.)

There was a heavy silence between the two of you. And after only just a few soft notes had played—

Stardust shut the top down and cut the rest of the song off from playing. He sucked in a shaken breath, tears gathering in his eye.

You held your arms and stared blankly over his shoulder.

…What a lovely song.

The Researcher glanced between the dazed looks on your faces with an uncertainty to her expression.

"...Did you not want it—"

Stardust laughed.

And laughed.

And despite the tears in his eye and the longing pain that couldn't be denied, his laugh was sincere in its joy. He grinned up at the Researcher, and held the music box close to his chest.

"I love it. Thank you, Odile. I-I'll listen to it later?"

You would both surely cry if he played the full song, and that wasn't ideal in such a public place. Maybe he would let you listen to it with him, though, whenever he'd be ready.

The Researcher's shoulders slumped with the relief that she hadn't accidentally upset the two of you by giving Stardust an improper gift.

"That's fine," she nodded, giving them a little smile of her own. "Listen to it whenever you'd like. It's yours now."

The Researcher was very kind, even if she didn't always know how to show it.

You hadn't been this far up north in Vaugarde since a youth that you could hardly recall, spent lost and uprooted as a teenager without the support system you had needed in those times. You had moved. And moved. And it had never occurred to you what kinds of traces of the island would still remain in these parts, fighting for a place in the memory of at least someone.

(Or rather, you had never thought to look for an island at all. You had never thought to understand just what you were expecting to find when your gaze often drifted to the sea. But you had known with a fierce ache in your chest as the years went on that you were grieving something you were never going to get back.)

(It was only now that you were beginning to understand just what that was.)

But the Researcher had noticed. Noticed your hearts still beating within the quiet little shop up north of Bambouche. And she had dedicated an afternoon to just the two of you to follow it.

It was on the walk back through the busier roads of town (now with a new purse and necklace on your person) that you figured it would only be right for you to do something for her sometime. Whatever that may be.

You watched Odile's back as she walked the two of you down to the more residential sides of the beach and warned you about the rocks.

You watched as Stardust glanced over his shoulder and flashed you a smile with more affection than you deserved, a reassurance in itself that the two of you would go on to make something out of what you saw today.

And in that moment, with your hand in his and your safety watched out for by Odile, it didn't feel so hard to admit that you loved your friends.

You'd like to find that shop again with them someday.