Star Shower

Daine wondered if he'd ever get familiar with staring at his bedroom ceiling in the middle of the night. It was a familiar enough sight, he guessed. Staring at the shadows thrown by the streetlights, wondering what was shadow and what was spider and what was some demon sent to get him. Of course, in the daylight, he could convince himself that there were no demons. And of course there weren't, those weren't real. But in the middle of the night, when anxiety gripped him so tightly that his chest and throat constricted, when all he could hear was the sound of his heart thumping in his ears, when his body shivered even though it wasn't cold? At that time, it was harder to believe in logic. Better to believe that there was some tangible reason for his fear, and not just his brain, his own body, betraying him. Not that he ever told anyone about this.

Finally unfreezing, Daine reached for his phone, lying on his nightstand. He pressed the home button and ran his thumb across the cracked screen, quickly thumbing in his passcode. The floorboards outside of his bedroom door creaked, causing Daine to thrust the phone and himself beneath the covers as his phone background proudly displayed his handsome boyfriend in full Greatest Showman attire. It had been the school musical this year, with Ydris playing the lead role, of course. Daine strained his ears to see if anyone was coming, but he couldn't hear anything over his own heartbeat and too-sharp breaths. He was trembling so much that he could barely find his contacts, and he had to check three times before determining that his phone was, indeed, on silent mode, with no vibrations or tones to disturb the night air and alert anyone to his presence.

The message, when it popped up onto his phone, scared Daine so much that he almost screamed and did emit a strange strangled squeak. Heart pounding, he saw that it was from Ydris and his body sagged in relief. He was sweating, still shaking.

"What are you still doing up?" Ydris sent to him.

"How'd you know?" Daine responded, grateful to autocorrect for existing. He didn't trust his shaking hands or his eyes with his dyslexia at the moment.

"Discord," Ydris sent back. "You didn't answer my question."

"What are you doing up?" Daine responded. He didn't even want to tell Ydris about his fear. He loved and trusted his boyfriend, yes, but... his fear wouldn't let him tell his boyfriend everything. He'd always just fobbed it off as family issues. Which was true, but not the whole truth.

"There is said to be a meteor shower tonight," Ydris sent back, along with the link to a website. Daine followed the link, his eyes skimming over letters that danced everywhere. He wanted to watch the attached video, but he didn't quite want to leave his safe little blanket nest to fumble in the top drawer of his nightstand for his headphones. That would make too much noise, anyway.

"At 3AM? Couldn't they make it more," Daine typed, before trying several words. Frowning and cursing his dyslexia, he erased the message to read "At 3AM?"

"Unfortunately for us, the stars do not obey the whims of mere mortals, nor do they obey proper sleep schedules," Ydris responded. Daine closed his eyes against the jumping letters, tears sliding down his face.

"Tell me later," Daine responded, hoping that his tears wouldn't transfer through text. "Pick me up?"

In answer, Ydris sent a picture of his keys, complete with the purple amethyst attached to the keychain. Daine closed his eyes, biting his lip against tears as he sent back a single heart emoji of gratitude.

Carefully, Daine crawled out from underneath his blankets, padding across to his window to climb out. But then, feeling the slight chill in the air, he returned to grab his jacket from the back of his desk chair. He remembered a time when he'd sketched at his desk, but not anymore. Not when the pages were filled with one male face after another. One more than others, actually.