Two Stars in the Sky (A Magneo Fanfiction)

Part 1: Cleo

Cleo stretched her arms above her head, yawning, before she collapsed into her bed. The silky bedding felt cool on her fair skin, and her body sunk into the feather-filled mattress. A sigh of tranquility escaped her mouth as she rested her head on her fluffy pillow.

And yet, she felt alone as ever.

While she ruled Auranos, residing in the palace there in the well-known City of Gold, Magnus had left her to visit Limeros almost two months ago now. Each night she slept alone in her bedchamber, not even the most luxurious bedding making her truly content. Each day was dealing with the problems of the kingdom, whether it was deciding the fate of a captured thief in court or looking at hundreds of papers trapped in her workroom. Nothing truly exciting had occurred today. She could only wait for Magnus to return to her now.

The queen rolled over on her side, propping herself up so she could blow out the candle on her bedstand for the night, but she paused as she noticed a small, folded piece of paper resting on the surface, one she did not recall leaving there. Curiously, Cleo reached for the parchment and gently opened it up, bringing it close to the small dancing flame to see the writing better.

She gasped as she examined the handwriting - a mixture of quick lines and fancy curls. She didn't even need to read the note to know who it was written by, but she did either way.

My dear Cleiona,

Come to the palace gardens when the moon is its highest and the stars shine their brightest. I await you eagerly.

- M

Cleo's heart stopped for a second before pounding faster, her exhaustion forgotten completely in that moment. Setting the note back on the bedstand, the Auranian queen quickly threw her blankets off of her and bounded over to the large window that overlooked the gardens in the center of the palace. The large, enclosed area seemed vacant of anyone except for the three guards stationed on nightwatch. Looking above, Cleo could clearly see the moon high up, and the stars twinkled fearlessly at her. With great ardor, she slipped on a simple dress - which was truly not "simple" at all - over her shift, one that required no help from an attendant, before hurrying out the door to her bedchamber. The guards standing watch near her door jerked to attention as she exited, opening their tired eyes wide at the unexpected presence of their queen.

"Is something the matter, your highness?" one asks dutifully.

Cleo did not slow as she called behind her, "No, everything is perfect." She couldn't hide her smile, and she left the guards with confusion.

As she hurried down the labyrinth of hallways toward the nearest door leading into the gardens, she painfully forced herself to walk instead of the full-on sprinting she desperately wanted; however, she did permit herself to a speedwalk. Each footstep brought more and more exhilaration to her the closer she got to the gardens, the closer she got to him. Tears threatened to spill onto her cheeks at the thought of finally touching his forever cold, Limerian skin against her own eternally hot Auranian skin. To finally embrace him after these two months which felt like two years. To finally have her lips upon his again.

At last, wiping away a tear of joy that managed to free itself, Cleo reached the door leading out to the palace gardens. The guard stations there did not hesitate to allow her through, almost as if he had been expecting her arrival. A waft of the cool night air, still fairly warm from the Auranos sun, drifted over her as she passed through the threshold, letting it embrace her gently. She lightly walked into the large, fragrant garden, her bare feet quiet in the smooth, stone pathway. Her gaze scanned the garden fleetly and excitedly, seeking for a tuft of dark hair among the green fronds.

"Magnus?" She whispered the name, not wishing to break the quiet moment she was in. She paused in the middle of the straight pathway before an intersection, spinning in a circle in search of him. She wanted to keep her hopes up, that he really was there, waiting for her in the gardens. But where was he?

Cleo recalled the note. There was absolutely no mistake that Magnus had written it himself. And that must mean that he had arrived earlier in the day, but no one had told her, or she was too busy with her duties, or Magnus was avoiding her until now.

Yet it seemed that he still was avoiding her.

Had I done something wrong? she wondered desperately. Her hope at seeing Magnus tonight swiftly dwindled away like a handful of sand between unsteady fingers would.

And I thought we were finally over these bickerings. She breathed out heavily and began walking back to the doors to return to her lonely, feathered bed, but she heard a couple of footsteps on the stone path some ways behind her.

"Cleo."

The queen stopped where she was, her breath catching in her throat at her name. At the voice who called her name.

Cleo spun around, her long, golden hair whipping as she did. And a smile grew on her face as she gazed at, in the center of the intersection she had halted before previously, a tall man wearing his signature black-as-night clothing, his dark hair a mass of short but flowing locks, and his equally dark eyes glinting in the nearby torchlight.

He smiled back at her, even if it was only the slighting lifting of the corners of his lips. "Greetings."