― s t a r c h i l d ― (michael clifford a.u.)

6

The rest of the night was sleepless in the most blissful way possible.
Ciara had spent nights on end, staying up and watching the stars, but there was something about sharing this rather intimate experience with someone as interesting as Michael that she enjoyed immensely. The stars were her loves, that was for certain, and, although she'd done things that were akin to this with Luke, it was never like this.

For the most part, it wasn't like this with Luke because Luke knew less than nothing about stars and planets; basically, the only thing that he knew was My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Even then, he still had trouble naming off the rest of the planets in the immediate solar system, anyways.

Michael knew more than she did, though, so the rest of the night was mostly just listening to him speak, which was something that she felt she could do forever. His voice was so calm, so matter-of-fact; he knew these things like the back of his hands, naming off stars in distant solar systems without stuttering.

Her eyes never left him; not for a second. Her gaze transfixed on every movement that he made, she could see just how beautiful he was. Everything had been so wild and out of control from the very beginning, she'd hardly had any time to catch her breath and just think for a second, let alone sit down and have a chat with Michael about the universe. Seeing him like this, she could understand why she had taken to him so quickly. He was amazing.

"Your thoughts are leaving me quite flustered at the moment," he spoke after a long silence that she wasn't aware of. Blushing profusely, she turned her face away from his gaze, which was suddenly turned upon her, "Don't take that the wrong way; I am flattered," he said in a whisper; god forbid that they wake up Ciara's mom, considering that she valued her sleep above all else except maybe food. "But it is quite distracting."

"Sorry," she mumbled, her eyes studying every aspect of her feet, as that was the direction that she was looking in at the moment, "But you were saying? About the planets that are entirely made of ice?"

"Um... right. Where was I..."

Her alarm blared a few hours later, and she quickly jumped up to turn it off; she hadn't been sleeping, but it was annoying, either way. It was an unappreciated reminder that her chat with Michael about everything had to come to an end, at least for the moment. "I should get ready," she stated, "You should, too. Wait, do you even have other clot--"

At that moment, her mother knocked on the door, "Come in," Ciara said, her attention diverted for the moment.

"Just letting you know, dear, Luke's already here," she said, walking over to the bed, clothes in either hand, "And he dropped off some things for Michael to wear. Wasn't that nice of him?"

"Yes, almost unexpectedly so..." Ciara shook herself from her small distraction, "I'm going to hop in the shower--"

"Please god tell me they haven't been to this house yet," Luke came bursting through the doorway to her room, immediately walking over to Ciara and scanning her for any bodily harm, "Oh fuck, oh fuck... Oh. I guess they haven't. Good."

Ciara furrowed her brow, "The fuck?"

Luke shook his head, "No time to explain; it has to do with what I told you last night... Hey, you look suspiciously tired?"

"No time to explain," she winked at Luke and walked into the bathroom, slowly walking out moments later to get the clothes that she had forgotten.

Breakfast, usually a luxurious, slow affair, was cut incredibly short by Luke, who was convinced that the world was going to end shortly.

"Okay, so my dad was talking at dinner last night about these FBI agents that came poking around the station yesterday," Luke breathed deeply, eyes on the road, obviously trying very hard not to hyperventilate, as he was won't to do when he was over-emotional, "And they're going around, searching houses real discreet-like, interviewing people and all that. I even heard something about them going to buildings in town, too."