Soulmates in the Stars
madlysanecatlady
Tweek climbed the ladder Craig kept leaning against the back of the house and pulled himself up onto the roof, spying his boyfriend there, lying near the roof’s peak and staring up at the night sky, like he did on most nights offering a clear view of the stars above. ‘H-hey Craig.’
‘Hey babe,’ Craig turned his head to smile at him. ‘You found me.’
‘You’re predictable,’ Tweek smiled back, heading over to sink down next to him. ‘What’re you looking at tonight? You don’t have your telescope.’
‘Just the stars,’ Craig fumbled around blindly between them to find Tweek’s hand, lacing their fingers together. ‘Today sucked at school for you, and I know you always seem really calm whenever we do this, so I thought it’d help.’
‘Aw Craig,’ Tweek was lost for words. Every so often, Craig still managed to completely floor him with the sweetest gestures Tweek still never expected, even after seven years of dating. He could never get his mouth to work right to tell Craig just how much he appreciated it, but he knew Craig knew how he felt without needing to hear it. Still, he knew how to show his appreciation, so he pushed himself up with his free hand to lean over and press a kiss to Craig’s waiting lips, smiling against them at the hum of contentment he’d earned himself. After a few minutes, he pulled away, smiling and laying back down next to Craig. ‘Listening to you talk about something you love like stars really makes me feel grounded, yeah. So tell me about some constellations.’
‘What kind do you wanna know about? The sciency ones or the mythy ones?’
‘Tell me about the romantic ones,’ Tweek said after a moment’s consideration. ‘There’s gotta be some love stories behind at least some of these stars.’
‘Well, there’s a few out tonight I can think of,’ Craig nodded, turning his face to kiss Tweek’s cheek before turning his attention back to the night sky. He pointed upward to an hourglass shape traced out in twinkling lights. ‘You see that guy? That’s Orion.’
‘Yeah, you pointed him out last time too. He’s the easiest one for me to find,’ Tweek nodded, following his gaze. ‘Does he have a romantic backstory?’
‘Kinda. You see those seven stars there? The ones near the Y shape that make Tauros?’ he pointed to a nearby cluster next. ‘Those are the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. It’s an old Greek story about how Orion fell in love with these beautiful sisters and would follow them wherever they went, I don’t know if they were running away or not, but he followed them around for 12 years before they got turned into stars. Now he can chase them all he wants forever, but he’ll never catch them.’
Tweek frowned. Craig seemed to have a really odd definition of romantic if he thought the story of a creepy stalker hunter would set a romantic mood.
‘Yeah, ok, so it’s not romantic in the sweety-pants kinda way,’ Craig laughed, watching Tweek frown. ‘I don’t have a lot to work with. All the crazy ancient people who named the constellations had weird ideas about romance and shit, ok?’
Tweek snorted. ‘You’re trying. Is there another one?’
‘Yeah, same star cluster, see the bright one that’s sort of apart from the others? They call her the Lost Pleiad. She’s mourning the loss of her love, Sisyphus.’
‘The guy with the rock that never gets up the hill?’ Tweek asked, waiting for Craig’s nod of confirmation. ‘So he’s stuck forever rolling that stupid rock and they can’t be together? That’s tragic. Are all these stories so sad? I’m sorry I asked.’
‘Naw, the last one’s got a happy ending, promise,’ Craig pulled Tweek’s hand up to his lips to kiss before continuing. ‘See the weird W shape? That’s Cassiopeia. Underneath that, you see the really acute angle? That’s Andromeda. Her parents, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia boasted about how beautiful their daughter was and pissed off Poseidon, so they had to tie her to a rock in the middle of the ocean to sacrifice her to some sea monster. So you see that wonky Y shape next to her? That’s Perseus, the guy who killed Medusa. On his way back from that fight, he found Andromeda tied to the rock and killed the sea monster, saving her. They fell in love, so he brought her back to her parents to ask to marry her. But of course, being a princess, she was supposed to marry some other guy before the whole sacrifice thing, so Perseus killed that guy too so they could be together. So there’s a lot of murder there, but like, they get their happy ending. And now they get to be together forever as stars. They were soulmates, can you imagine?’
‘I don’t think I need to imagine,’ Tweek said quietly, rolling onto his side to rest his head on Craig’s shoulder, hand going up to fist in Craig’s jacket, holding on tightly as though afraid Craig would slip away if he let go. He relaxed his grip slightly when he felt Craig’s arms go up and around him, lips pressing against his forehead. ‘Do you?’
‘No way, I’m living it every day,’ Craig smiled against Tweek’s forehead. ‘But our love story doesn’t have sea monsters or angry gods or stuff like that in it. I think I like that a lot better.’
‘Me too,’ Tweek agreed, reaching up to pull Craig’s face down so he could kiss him. ‘Got any more stories you wanna tell?’
‘Naw, let’s go inside,’ Craig smirked. ‘I can think of way better things a pair of soulmates could be getting up to right now.’
Craig was legitimately surprised he survived the journey down from the roof Tweek tugged him down in such a hurry. Tweek was a klutzy, impatient spaz, especially when Craig got him in the romantic mood like he was, but still, near-injuries aside, he wouldn’t have his soulmate any other way.
