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"Star?" His head lowered to look over at Mae, twisting around to face her. She was standing at the entrance to the small, temporary house they'd set up for the next few days while he was recovering from the various injuries he'd received when their last job hadn't gone too well. With her hair done up in a bun and her eyes only half open, she seemed like she'd just woken up, and a small smile spread acros Star's face at how cute she looked.
"Hey," he hummed, turning away again to look back up at the stars. It was winter, so they were especially visible, absolutely stunning as they lit up the night sky with the full moon steadily climbing. "Sorry if I woke you."
"No, you didn't." He could tell that wasn't true, but he wasn't going to argue with her about it this late. Only a moment passed before they were sitting down next to him, pulling the jacket they'd hastily thrown on tighter around themself. "What are you doing…?"
His eyes traced along the stars of Orion, beautiful and glowing among the sea of millions of stars, like someone had scattered glittering sand all over the pitch blackness. Even though he'd been looking at them for over twenty years now, it still never got any less pretty. With a soft smile, he murmured, "Just stargazing. They're really beautiful, aren't they?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mae's gaze lingering on him for a few moments, before she looked up at the sky as well. "Yeah, they are."
They could only wonder what exactly she was thinking, if she could maybe be thinking about them - but they were both probably just tired and Star was definitely imagining things. She was their friend, she'd said so plenty of times now. Not that she'd ever said she didn't view them romantically, but they absolutely weren't bringing that up, not with them being the way they were, with the body they had and everything. They didn't think anyone could be attracted to them, if they were being honest.
But they didn't really mind that all too much. After all, they were still friends, and they enjoyed Mae's company regardless of if she felt the same way about them or not. He still got to admire her from afar, and in his opinion, she was prettier than any constellation could ever be.
He didn't realize he'd started staring at her until she turned to look at him, only to pause as he hastily looked away again. Her eyebrows raised just slightly and his heartbeat picked up, panicking that she'd somehow picked up on his feelings, before she turned her head away again. "Do you… know anything about all the constellations? Like which ones they are? I only know a couple."
"Mhm." He drew in a slow breath, blinking a few times as he tried to clear his head. After a moment, he lifted a hand, pointing up at Orion. "You know that one, right? Orion."
They shifted closer until they were pressing against his side, his heart jumping into his throat and making it a little difficult to speak. "Yeah, I do."
This was fine. He tried not to think about it too hard, how warm they felt against him and how much he wanted to just snuggle up to them right there, how gorgeous and kissable and perfect they looked. How had he even managed to become friends with someone like her? Compared to him, she was like some sort of goddess, or at least she looked like one. Logically he knew that the only reason she cared about him at all was because he'd been training her to be a rogue, but maybe if he ignored all that there was something else there.
Swallowing hard, he tried to focus on the task at hand and continue pointing out various constellations and the stars he knew the names of. Mae listened intently, although after a couple minutes, when he was in the middle of explaining the story behind one of the constellations, he realized she was staring at him. They slowly trailed off, losing their train of thought as their eyes met hers.
"Oh, sorry if I distracted you," she said with a quiet laugh, leaning back slightly. Her bright green eyes glittered with starlight, practically glowing, like two of the prettiest emeralds in the world. "I was just listening."
They swore they could see the slightest bit of red on her face, but they were sure they were imagining things, some trick of the light. Still, their voice wavered as they quickly assured her, "No, no, you're uh- You're fine. I don't… I don't mind."
Looking away, they tried to remember where they were in their story, but Mae spoke up again before they could remember. "Y'know, I guess that's why you're named Star."
"Yeah, it uh-" A quiet laugh left him as well, moving his hand back to run it through his hair. He'd taken it out of its usual braid, thick curls falling over his shoulders and onto his upper back. "It kinda is? My, um… father, he taught me the constellations and everything when I was little. And he… he's the one who gave me my dagger and everything, that's why I chose this name."
There were a few other things - like his father's nickname for him, little star - that he couldn't explain to her. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but even thinking about any of the details made his throat feel tight, eyes burning just a little. Thankfully, they seemed to understand, patting his shoulder a couple times and not questioning him any further.
"I think it suits you." They glanced him up and down and his heart managed to pound in his chest even faster. "With your freckles and everything, they kinda look like stars."
Her hand slid down to his own, where he hadn't bothered to put on his gloves for once, pulling it into her lap and tracing a finger lightly along the back of it. His face felt awfully warm as he watched her study him, more fascinated by tracing lines between the tiny dots on his skin than she had been with the sky.
"Thank… thank you," he breathed, not daring to move too much for fear of her realizing how flustered he was and stopping. Then she glanced up at them again and a smile spread across her face, and a second later, there were lips pressing against their own for just a few moments.
They hadn't managed to register what she was doing by the time she pulled back, their head completely blank. Her lips were soft and warm, especially compared to their own, tasting of warm tea and honey and raspberries. They could only stare at her as she grinned more, until they eventually managed to force their voice to work again.
"You- What?" they mumbled, tongue flicking out to swipe across their chapped lips, selfishly savoring the taste of her. She let out a quiet laugh and her other hand slid onto their cheek, tilting their head up to face her more properly.
"Come here, you've been staring at me all night." Before he could apologize, she pulled him into another kiss, this time much more firmly pressing their lips together. His eyes fluttered closed as he tilted his head, adjusting his position to rest a hand on the back of her neck. He had admittedly never kissed anyone before - not that he was telling them that - but this was better than he'd thought it'd be. Or maybe it just felt nice because it was Mae and he'd give anything to keep kissing them.
It was almost like he was dreaming, especially with how hazy he felt from exhaustion, but the soft sigh they let out against his mouth felt more real than any dream he'd ever had. Distantly, a voice in the back of his head reminded him that he was supposed to be resting so he could recover properly, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care. He certainly wasn't getting up and risking having this be entirely forgotten tomorrow.
Unfortunately for him, Mae also seemed to remember his injuries, running her fingers through his tangled hair as she slowly broke the kiss. "You should get some sleep." He blinked open her eyes to see her smiling at him softer now. "That's, uh- That's why I came out here in the first place, because I realized you hadn't gone to bed yet, I just got… distracted."
"Uh huh." They started to pull back again, face warm with embarrassment; they only felt even hotter when she placed a kiss on their forehead. "You, uh-"
Pausing, they tried to figure out how to phrase the question, only for her to laugh and ruffle their hair. "Yeah, we can talk about this in the morning. Come on, star boy, let's get you to bed."
Star boy. He couldn't help the quiet giggle he let out as he was dragged to his feet, careful of his injured leg as he stumbled after her. Even in his exhaustion, he had no idea how this had happened, how she'd managed to fall for him when she knew she could have any other man, any other real man who wasn't like him, something he had a feeling she'd argue against if he brought it up again. She was so perfect though that he couldn't really doubt her decision much, as long as she was happy - and maybe it felt a little good that he sure as hell was happy too.