Interstellar

Venus

Ve•nus [vee-nuh s]

(n.) The second planet in order from the sun, having no moons and being the most brilliant, or bright, planet in the solar system.
(n.) An ancient roman goddess of love and beauty.

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After successfully venturing out in the middle of the night, I thought it'd be fun to go on another little journey. Hell, this time it wasn't even all that difficult to persuade him.

I met him at the door to the rooftop today, much to his surprise.

"Bucky, what th-"

"Relax, Rogers, we're leaving now, anyway," I interrupted him, walking past.

"Where're we going?" he asked, trailing behind me as I walked confidently across the way to the stairs that would lead us out of the building.

"It's a surprise," I replied, never stopping.

"Umm..." He hesitated. "Alright."

We made our way down the street, weaving past street signs and crossing barren roads and walkways. Eventually, we even passed the park. I looked at him from time to time and the only expression that remained consistent across his face was this sense of wonderment and curiosity, almost like he was wondering how far this place could possibly be.

I stopped before a grand, silver doorway and looked at him with a smile across my face. "Well, we're here."

He looked at me blankly. "And that is...?"

"Oh, come on," I told him, grabbing his arm and entering the unlocked building door.

We made our way across the building, being careful not to disturb or move anything from its place as we did so. I led him silently to the stairwell and opened the door before us, letting him enter first.

We made our way up what felt like a hundred sets of stairs before we finally reached the top. I looked down at him as he made his way up behind me and, oops, I kind of forgot he had asthma.

"You alright?" I asked, my hand meeting his shoulder.

He nodded, moving his hands up to the buttons at the top of his shirt and undoing two of them, as he was somehow sweating profusely. "I'll be just fine... maybe, though, you oughtta me where the hell we are, huh?"

I smirked and moved my hand away from him. "Have a look for yourself," I said, presenting him with a metal door as I stepped out of view.

He looked at me with this sort of sideways smile, then approached the door and pushed it opened. I followed closely behind him, feeling the cool, night air blow through my hair, attempting to push us back.

We both looked around us, wonderstruck, at all that we could see.

It felt like we were at the highest point in all of the city. Sure, there were other skyscrapers surrounding us, but I'd never seen as much sky as I could see right now in my whole life.

"Buck- god, you can see everything from here," he pointed out, as if I didn't already know.

"Yea," I said, approaching him as he neared the cement edge of the balcony-style rooftop.

"Ugh, and the stars," he continued. "They feel almost like they're brighter, if that's even possible." He looked at me. "This is... it's incredible. Thank you."

"Me? I only brought us here."

"Yea, but, still," he proceeded. "I never would have been able to climb all those damned stairs if it were anyone else leading me here- and thank god I did because it was well worth it."

I nodded, not exactly knowing what to say to that.

For a while thereafter, we simply stood at the edge and looked out upon the silent city. For a place that's normally so lively and bustling, it was awfully quiet at night. Despite the fact that the lights all staying on, making it harder to see the stars, I still really enjoyed the fact that they were constant. It made me feel a lot less alone as we stood up here together, making me realize that we're probably not the only one's who were still awake.

It seemed that, no matter where I looked, there were stars. Up in the sky, little flames glimmered across their black canvas and formed immaculate clusters, constellations and galaxies. Down below us, artificial starlight glowed from yellow streetlights, shallow apartment doorways and bright white skyscraper windows. Right next to me, I watch both ends of this incredibly diverse spectrum reflect perfectly in tandem across his blue, observant eyes.

That instant, I saw him shiver. "It's gotta be a good 10 degrees colder up here," he spoke, having been the first of us to do so in what felt like hours.

I looked across him, allowing my eyes to wander for a small instant. I walked closer, letting my body heat to push through to his skin. I reached up for his lapel and his eyes searched mine for a purpose, though there wasn't one to be found, as I had no idea what I was doing.

I let my warm fingers graze softly upon his cold chest as I slowly re-did the second button from the top. I realized my tongue had been poking through my lips as I focused, so I pulled it in and bit down on my lip to prevent myself from doing it subconsciously again. I felt his eyes burning holes through my skin as I moved ever-so-slowly towards the next button.

I felt my body go hot all over, as it felt like he was leaning closer into me. I let my eyes meet his for a moment and it felt like something ignited the very blood coursing through my veins. I looked down at his parted lips for a moment, then, too, feeling like, at this point, kissing him wouldn't make any difference in the matter.

Then, looking down at the button I was attempting to close, I saw that my hands were shaking as they rested on his chest. I could even feel his heartbeat quickening through his thin button up shirt as I finished what I had started.

My eyes met his yet again, but this time, I could barely see all of him, as he was that much closer. I let my mouth open, and I nearly said something, but couldn't seem to spit the words out.

Just then, almost entirely by chance, my gaze wavered just the slightest bit to the left and fell upon a rather brilliant star. Though, upon looking at it further, I saw that it didn't, in fact, twinkle, as most stars tend to do. It was shining.

It was... Venus?

But, I've only ever seen Venus on the horizon when watching the-

"Sunrise," I whispered, snapping out of whatever trance I was in.

"-Huh?" he murmured, seemingly popping out of a similar feeling.

"Look," I requested, pointing at the planet. "That's Venus... only shows up at the horizon about twenty minutes before sunrise, as far as I've ever experienced."

"Uhhm..." he continued, unsure what I was getting at.

I looked back at the dark blue canvas as pink and orange paints seemed to bleed across it's base. "Steve, the sun is rising," I clarified. "We needa get home, like, now."

And, with that, we ran like the devil.

Thankfully, I made it home without a hitch... I just hope he tells me the same thing tomorrow morning at the park.