Work Text:
Long before mortals could tell good from bad, light from dark and day from night. There existed only one entity. Some called it god. Some called it evil. Others refused to name it at all. But none could deny it held all the answers and fragments. You couldn’t tell where it began and ended.
They said the heavens and hell feared such a powerful being so they unified everyone and called for war. The entity couldn’t handle its peace being destroyed and in turmoil tore itself into pieces.
One half disappeared into the embrace of darkness and the other burned so fiercely that nothing dared draw near.
The separation left behind a wound neither half would ever recover from.
Anguish found a place on earth with the ones who desired to fight them, the wound stretched itself across the void and became the sky.
And from that wound, the universe was formed.
Tom remembered nothing before he engulfed the fires of hell and wore them as a crown.
Whatever he had been before was lost to him now, buried beneath ages so ancient even memory could not reach them. He existed in the hollow of the sky, suspended between earth and eternity, and in all that vastness only loneliness remained faithful enough to keep him company.
His radiance was so magnificent that nothing dared come near.
The swifter planets fled farther into the darkness whenever they could, while the larger ones endured his presence from a careful distance. Yet no matter how far they travelled, they still circled him in the end. None of them possessed the strength to challenge him and none could survive without him.
They bowed because they must.
He was their saviour and their destroyer alike.
With little else to occupy his time, Tom watched the mortals below.
Years slipped into centuries and centuries into ages, but humanity never truly changed. They built cities beneath his gaze and raised temples crowned with gold in his honor. Priests greeted him each morning with hymns upon their lips while kings lowered their heads and claimed his blessing before marching armies into war.
He listened to their selfish prayers and saw the empires rise.
In contempt he witnessed them fight and destroy, burning brighter as his rage grew with the day.
They called him powerful, he was divine.
And through it all there was no one beside him. At the height of his power, there was only the empty sky.
When the day finally began to fade, Tom removed his crown and stretched himself across the horizon. Sleep came slowly, spilling gold across the heavens as his light softened and sank beneath the earth.
Darkness emerged cautiously in his absence.The world exhaled and hours later he rose once more.
The stars retreated before him. The darkness surrendered without a fight as Tom reclaimed his place in the sky and the mortals below awakened in search of his favour.
Thus eternity passed.
Days blending seamlessly into the next until even centuries became difficult to distinguish from one another.
Then one evening, as twilight unfurled itself across the heavens in streaks of violet and gold, Tom caught sight of someone he had never seen before.
The stars began appearing around the stranger one by one, gathering in his presence as though answering a silent summon. They surrounded him in glittering clusters, dancing around him with a devotion Tom had only ever seen mortals reserve for their gods.
The light spilled across the sky softening the darkness of the night. The stars seemed brighter around him and he stood between them all.
Beautiful.
The thought took root in his head and for the first time since the beginning of existence, Tom forgot to look away.
Harry belonged to the night and all the serenity it carried with it. The stars loved him and Harry loved them in return. They reminded him of Tom.
Every one of them carried a fragment of his light, scattered across the darkness like pieces of a story too large to be contained by a single sky. Harry often found himself watching them for hours, tracing familiar shades within their glow and wondering if Tom knew how beautiful his light looked even at night.
The darkness had once been unbearably lonely.
Then Tom had begun sharing his light. Since then, everything had changed.
The stars emerged in his company, gathering around him like jewels sewn into the fabric of the heavens. They followed him wherever he went, twinkling softly beside him as though determined to keep him company. Harry never minded. Their presence filled the silence in a way nothing else could.
Long ago he had chosen to step away from power and glory, abandoning whatever remained of the being he had once been, shedding the part away. He wondered if Tom kept it.
He preferred the quieter corners of existence, the simple comfort of watching the world turn beneath him.
He watched children point towards him from their windows and tug excitedly at their parents' sleeves. He watched lovers find one another beneath his gaze and travellers lift their heads in relief when his light appeared above lonely roads. They thanked him for guiding them through the darkness and Harry always smiled at that.
The light they praised had never truly belonged to him.
Yet he cherished it all the same.
But among all the souls scattered across the earth, there was only one he truly watched.
Tom sat alone in the vastness. There was a sadness about him that no one else seemed able to see. Perhaps they were too blinded by his brilliance or they were too afraid.
Harry saw it anyway.
How could he not?
They had once been whole.
Even now some part of him still recognised the loneliness within Tom because it echoed so closely to his own.
Every night Harry guided the great celestial rock beneath his feet along its endless path, orbiting Tom with the devotion of someone chasing a miracle. He followed him constantly, circling him through the ages in the quiet hope that one day Tom would look back and finally see him.
One day Harry would reach him.
He would mend whatever had broken and they would no longer have to spend their lives passing one another.
Yet no matter how faithfully Harry followed, he disappeared whenever he drew too close. Tom's light swallowed him entirely, rendering him invisible against its brilliance.
It was almost funny.
The thing Harry loved most about Tom was also the thing that kept him hidden from his eyes.
And so every night, while the stars whispered amongst themselves and the oceans answered from far below, Harry found his gaze drifting towards the horizon.
Towards the place where Tom had vanished.
Waiting.
Always waiting.
Waiting for the day he would finally be close enough to reach.
The day was stretching its arm and Tom walked in hurry to meet him. The world had felt young the first time they spoke.
He rose as he saw him and Harry descended.
For one fleeting moment, day and night merged and a crack appeared in the space separating them. Harry saw him wrapped in light so bright it seemed woven into his very skin.
Beautiful.
He truly was, as he looked at Harry. Only looked at him. His skin burned with the desire to express that but the words failed him.
None of them spoke as they adored the other.
The moment stretched and Harry hurried as the time for him to disappear neared.
"Tom!"
He called the name as the sky swallowed him before he could hear any reply. Tom would not be able to see him but he stayed there and watched as he smiled hearing Harry’s words flow by.
"I never told you my name." Tom frowned the next time they met.
The boy chuckled at those words. What was so funny about it?
"The stars did." He said.
"The stars talk about me?" Tom furrowed his brows.
"They talk about you constantly."
And with that knowledge, they drifted away. Tom realized he had not asked his name and cursed himself for his stupidity.
The next evening Harry returned. And the morning after, Tom rushed to him. The one after that and everyone of them. Until dawn and dusk became sacred to them. The few precious minutes when they could see one another.
Tom talked about the world and Harry talked about Tom. Months slipped away like grains of sand through open fingers and the world changed around them as they stayed the same linked to each other.
One evening, as winter bled quietly into summer somewhere upon the earth below, Tom tilted his head and said almost absently, "They claim you borrow everything from me."
Harry looked up from where he had been watching the clouds.
"The humans," Tom elaborated when Harry frowned. His mouth twisted with obvious disdain. "They say you possess no light of your own."
The stars glittered behind Harry like silent witnesses to the conversation.
To Tom's surprise, Harry smiled.
"They're right."
Tom stared as if he had not expected that.
"They are?"
"Of course."
Harry's gaze softened as he looked at him.
"You are my light. I do not possess it nor do I pretend otherwise."
"That's not true."
Harry was genuinely startled and Tom tapped his feet, trying to explain something he had never put into words before.
"We are parts of one another. You carry me with you every night."
Harry's bright gaze lifted to Tom, meeting his dark eyes.
For a moment Harry simply looked at him.
Then he laughed softly.
"Don't be ridiculous, Tom. You make me shine for the world. I do not do it myself. I chose to disappear into the darkness a long time ago. I left the world to its own devices."
"Since when did you become such a terrible liar?"
Harry blinked.
Tom folded his arms. "I do not make you shine. If I did, I would know."
A slow flush spread across Harry's cheeks, turning them redder than the blood that stained battlefields.
For perhaps the first time since Tom had met him, Harry seemed at a loss for words. When he finally spoke, his voice was so quiet it was nearly swallowed by the wind.
"I shine because you are always looking at me."
The words settled between them.
Tom felt heat rise beneath his skin, spreading all the way to his ears.
The horizon pulled them apart moments later but the warmth of Harry's words lingered long after he had disappeared.
The nights seemed shorter after that.
Or perhaps Tom simply spent too much of the remaining time thinking about Harry.
Whenever they met upon the horizon, he found himself looking elsewhere. The oceans were suddenly fascinating. The mountains demanded his attention. Even the humans below became preferable to meeting Harry's eyes.
If Harry noticed the distance growing between them, he never spoke of it.
That only irritated Tom further.
He spent his days watching the world and directing all his frustration towards it.
Maybe Harry finally had enough of Tom because the mortals sensed the danger falling one day. They trembled beneath the sudden absence of light while the planets watched in silence as the ancient prison separating them weakened for the first time in centuries.
Harry was standing before him and there was not a distance separating them anymore.
For a moment neither spoke.
Tom could only stare.
Harry looked exactly as he always had and yet entirely different. He was close enough to touch. Close enough to be Tom’s.
Harry crossed the distance before Tom could see him move.
His lips met Tom's and the world disappeared.
There was only warmth of his lips and the feeling of something broken finally finding its missing half.
Tom kissed him back.
The eclipse might have lasted only minutes but it felt like eternity to Tom.
Then Harry shoved him away before Tom could settle in the comfort of his closeness.
Anger flashed across his face and pain followed close behind it.
Before Tom could understand either, the darkness reclaimed Harry and the distance tore them apart once more.
Everything returned to normal afterwards. Except nothing felt normal anymore. Tom remembered the shape of Harry's mouth. The warmth of his skin. The way their souls had seemed to recognise one another before their eyes ever could.
He wanted that again. He wanted Harry to himself.
The next time they met, he did not bother hiding it.
"When do we get to touch again?"
Harry only hummed in response.
Tom frowned. "You are not answering me."
"Can you leave?" Harry asked instead.
The question startled him.
"What?"
"You are always here nowadays. I can’t stand being near you."
Tom stared at him in disbelief.
"I only get to talk to you briefly."
"Then perhaps you should try harder to change that."
The answer was sharp enough to sting.
"If I become more powerful, I could look at you all the time."
The smile vanished from Harry's face but Tom was gone to witness it.
The words followed Harry throughout the day and by dusk they had become impossible to ignore. The moment he reached the horizon he hurried towards Tom.
"You cannot do that."
Tom looked entirely unconcerned.
"Why not?" He asked.
"Because it would harm everyone." Could he not understand that?
Tom chuckled at his words. "You once told me you did not care about everyone."
"Tom, we would gain nothing by destroying the peace." Harry's jaw tightened.
Tom laughed softly but the sound held no amusement.
"What peace are you talking about, Harry?"
The question settled heavily between them.
"There is no peace in our separation."
Harry's expression faltered. The pain was strong enough to kill but he could not be so selfish to take away from everyone, only to have Tom to himself.
"It would destroy all life Tom."
Tom simply looked at him. Seconds went by but they felt neverending to Harry.
The dying sunlight wrapped itself around Harry's pale skin, and he realized somewhere between their encounters they had switched roles talking about everything.
Harry was speaking of the world. Tom was speaking of him.
"The only life I know," he said quietly, "is you, my Harry."
Harry couldn’t say no to Tom as he watched him burn brighter with every passing day. The fire within him had long since outgrown the heavens, spilling across creation with an intensity that frightened even the oldest of remains. The planets vanished first, ancient worlds that had circled him since the birth of existence crumbling into ash beneath his radiance. Then came the stars themselves. One by one they disappeared from Harry's sky, swallowed by his insatiable light until the night that had once felt so alive became vast and empty.
Each loss should have felt like grief.
Instead, Harry found himself watching Tom and the terrible beauty of him.
There was something devastatingly magnificent about destruction when it wore Tom's face.
The end of creation approached him and Harry stopped running from it.
For eternity he had chased Tom, crossed the sky in pursuit of something he could never reach.
Now Tom was finally coming to him.
The stars were gone and the sky itself had begun to split apart. Yet Harry smiled.
For a moment you could hear nothing. The universe held its breath on the occasion of their union.
Then Harry stepped forward.
Their hands held each other like they were made to grasp the other. The wounds healed in the heat of each other’s skin. The light wrapped itself around the dark void and the darkness welcomed the light home.
For the first time since they had been torn apart, they were whole. Settling into each other’s broken parts and filling the bleeding heart.
Harry tilted his head and looked him in his dark eyes, he could see his own in the void and they shone brighter than the dying stars. It made him remember their first dawn. The glimpse of his shape and his gorgeous smile. The way Tom said his name.
“..Harry.” He gasped.
The words Harry had carried for eternities settled softly between them and he could not help as they left his mouth.
"Beautiful."
Tom's breath faltered.
“You are beautiful.”
A broken laugh escaped Tom as tears gathered in his eyes, bright as molten gold.
"You've always been so beautiful," Harry whispered as he kissed the tears from Tom's lashes before they could fall. They burned against his lips, scorching and sweet, and he kissed him again.
They kissed until there was no tomorrow. Nothing to distinguish them at the end of the world.