Sing to the Stars

"A Beautiful Autumn Breakdown" (Lyli & Lost)

The art piece is by Bastien Grivet I believe and I found the artwork on ArtStation.

     "Alright Lyli, I'm done." Lost's words were accompanied by the sound of her standing up. I turned around just in time to see her brushing dust off her knees. "That was fast."
     "Easy fix." She shrugged, "Not like you were any help, though. You were on the phone the whole time."
     "Hey! I was telling Xavier we'd be a bit late!"
     "And the rest of the crew?"
     "Yeah. Marlen was sleeping, naturally."
     "Little jerk."
     "You love him, though."
     "Of course, he's my brother." Lost lightly slapped me on the arm. "Anyway, we're ready to go. Get your helmet on."
     She didn't get on until I was ready and sitting down, then she slid onto the motorcycle behind me, arms wrapped around my waist. "Remember, this is your bike. You need to learn to fix it sometimes too."
     "I do know how, but you were here today and I didn't even get a chance to try." I heard her grumbling in my ear. "Ready?"
     "Ready." If eye-rolling was audible, I would've been able to hear it in her tone of voice.

     Shades of orange, light yellow, and vibrant red leaves sped by us as we drove down the road. Or...was it really a road? Technically...yes. Did people go down it? Not often. We lived pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
     In a town like ours, everyone knew everyone, and secrets were hard to keep. Our group, and the things we did in the forest together...well, it was impressive that we kept it hidden from others.
     Over the rushing of wind in my ears, it was hard to hear anything Lost said, unless she said it in my ear. We didn't need to speak much, though. Part of it might've been because there was nothing to say, but another part of it might've been because we'd known each other for so long.
     Under normal circumstances, the wind would be blowing through my hair as my motorcycle stirred up fallen leaves. However, because I was riding with Lost, I tied my hair up so it wouldn't get in her face. Even though her chin was resting on my shoulder anyway.
     Twisting mountain roads were difficult for foreigners to traverse, but for us it was easy. We were used to it, and had them memorized. Going down the mountain scared some people, but we'd grown up there, and it gave us a sort of thrill. We weren't going to be reckless-
     That was a lie.
     We were being reckless.
     But it was a careful risk. We knew where we were going and how we had to turn. We knew the sounds of the mountains like the sounds of our own breathing. If there were cars or other people on the road, we would hear them coming. If there was anything blocking the path, the two of us had also practiced jumping off the bike while it was moving, just in case. It started out as a joke, but later got serious.

     Shouts rang up from our destination, and I slowed before I reached our party members. "Hey, everyone!" Lost quickly jumped off the motorcycle, running up to Corvis and hugging him tight, shedding her helmet as she went. "Sorry we're late." She murmured softly.
     Although she seemed pretty rough around the edges, the woman could be pretty sweet when she wanted to be. "It's fine."
     After I parked my motorcycle, I ran up to Marlen, who I promptly put my bag on. He woke up with a gasp, which made Ayla laugh. "That's what'cha get, sleepyhead!" She said, lightly tapping him on the head.
     Lost, Marlen, Corvis, Ayla, Rika, Ashton, Xavier, Harpy and I were a party. A Dungeons & Dragons party. It'd fallen out of style, and we certainly were a mismatched bunch, but that was why we played. The only thing that bonded us at first was our love for an old tabletop RPG, but later we became real friends. A few of us didn't go by our real names, but a few of us did.
     Lost didn't. Harpy didn't. Rika didn't. The rest of us did.
     Xavier was our DM, who somehow put up with the shenanigans of 8 other people. Ayla was like our glue, and our Barbarian. Marlen, our sleepy Bard. Lost, the irritable Monk. Corvis, our mysterious Ranger. Rika was our down-to-earth Cleric. Ashton took the spot of our quiet Warlock. Harpy was the secretive and slippery Rogue. I made the shy Druid's spot.
     Personalities in-game didn't have to match our personalities in real life, which was fun.
     "Finally, you're up." Rika groaned. "Lyli's bag is like 17 pounds! Try sleeping when that's thrown on you!"
     Harpy and Ayla laughed, while Ashton rolled her eyes with a soft chuckle. "What's even in your bag to make it so heavy?" She asked as I took my bag off of Marlen's stomach. "My stuff, Lost's stuff-" I said as I tossed her stuff to her, "As well as food."
     "I brought food, mate." Xavier said. "We're 9 people, Xavier, sometimes not all of your food will feed us all." Ayla raised her hand as if to say, "Yes, I agree with this!" while grinning. Harpy playfully took my bag, looking through my dice. "Why did you bring a d100? Or...100 dice in general?"
     "Because I like dice, now gimme." I jumped up and grabbed my bag back from him, but he held it above my head. It wasn't that I was short, but I was still shorter than him. "No, but it's cute to see you try."
     I kissed him, and when he seemed surprised, I took the opening to get my bag. "Ooh, tough luck." Ayla and Ashton laughed at Harpy's reaction. Marlen simply rolled his eyes. "Shut up, lovebirds. Some of us are forever alone and don't want it rubbed in our faces."
     Rika, silent for most of this, pulled Marlen's hat over his eyes. "Let them be happy." He muttered.
     "Is everything set up?" Lost asked as I managed to let my hair down. "Yeah, it is. We were ready to start. How long should it take you two to get ready?" Xavier replied. "Not too long."
     "I need to sort my dice, but two minutes, tops."
     "Great, then let's go."
     We shouldered our bags again and ran into the woods, where the table was. In the autumn forest, surrounded by the trees, we continued spinning our own story of fate.

I've been getting into DnD lately so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also yes, Lyli is dating Harpy.
There are two other relationships in the group. If you can get them...good for you because I didn't hint much at them.