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Josh stared up at his ceiling, tugging his blanket over him.
Knock, knock, knock…
Who was knocking at his door at this hour? A peek out his window revealed that yep, the moon was shining and no sane person would be awake.
But someone was persistent enough to keep trying, so he had to give them that.
He cracked the door open with a creak, just to be met with Marty staring right back at him. Marty’s blue-green eyes glittered with a look of rule-breaking excitement.
“Marty—“ He tried to complain, before getting dragged outside.
“Trust me, this’ll be worth the violation!” Marty giggled. The dull sights of fields blurred past Josh’s eyes as his body tried to shut them. “C’mon, look at the sky!”
“…it’s the sky, Marty.” Josh rubbed his eyes, trees crunching as Marty climbed up to sit on a strong, sturdy branch.
“No, Josh, come up here.” Marty patted the space beside him.
“Whatever you say man.” He hauled up himself onto the branch beside his friend, staring out.
“Isn’t it pretty?” Marty kicked his feet as he grinned. “Look at all the stars!”
“I dunno why you dragged me out so late to look at them…” Josh yawned, setting his head atop Marty’s shoulder.
“There’s Polaris, it’s the star that helped our families navigate here when they were first traveling! And there’s Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, and the Big Dipper…” he rambled, pointing at various flecks against the silky dark background. “Y’know, the old story about the sky is that there used to be no night, but then all of the animals started fighting, so they were punished by having a giant quilt put over the sky. But the animals didn’t like that, so they all had to try to remove it. So first, the bear climbed up the tallest tree she could find, and slashed a massive hole. Then, the birds tried to poke holes, and then… I forgot not gonna lie. But all the animals got back together, and the snake said that some of the holes looked like the crane’s neck, and the fox said that some of them looked like the jaguar’s tail.”
Josh sleepily nodded along to his friend’s ramblings.
“Oh, and there was another about these siblings who…” Marty happily continued, not noticing that Josh was starting to snore softly.
Marty ruffled his friend’s hair as he dozed, grinning at him. He was pretty with the silvery light and basically all other times but he didn’t want to think about that.
“I’d best get you home, then?” Marty guessed, scooping up his friend like a princess in need of saving.
Marty knew where Josh kept a spare key to his home, unlocking the door and walking inside, setting Josh down in his bedroom.
“Goodnight, Josh. Cya tomorrow.” He made sure his friend was comfortable before leaving, taking a last glance at the stars before heading to bed himself.