City of Stars

Yamaguchi never liked the stars.

He saw them all the time; in his books, in his food, even when he closed his eyes. When he asked his mother about it, her face when pale, and yet the smile on her face remained happy. She kissed him on the forehead and told him that maybe, just maybe, he had a beautiful disease.

Yamaguchi never understood what was so fascinating about the stars.

When he was 11, he fell in love with a classmate. He kept it hidden, as anyone else would of course, but his silence costed him quite a lot. One night as he stared out his window to gaze at the stars, wondering what exactly it was that everybody liked about them, his vision became filled with them.

His eyes prickled all of a sudden. He thought it was tears at first, but as he rubbed his eyes, there was suddenly a faint gleam of light coming from his hands. They were stars, and he couldn't stop crying them out.

Yamaguchi would always see stars, so what was so nice about them?

He was sick of it. People constantly told him how his freckles resembled the stars too, how his cheeks and arms would be like a sky filled with constellations. He didn't like that, so he only grew to hate the stars and himself more. He despised it.

That's what he always thought, until he fell in love with someone who would never shut up about them.

And oddly enough, Yamaguchi didn't want him to.

•☆★☆•

It was a cold Autumn's night when the freckled boy found himself standing at the beach. The ocean's waves kept coming to and back from him, like they were teasing him. As he walked closer to it, his steps growing heavy by each one he took, he wondered if he would still see the never-ending stars if he were to be drowned in the salty and ice-cold water.

As Yamaguchi took off his shoes, he felt a tingle go up his spine as the waves touched his bare feet. He'll catch a cold if he's not careful. But even if he did, he'd still see the stars— he might even see more of them. Part of him just wished that they would stop; the four or five cornered shining beam of lights, never leaving his sight as if he were cursed with it.

Looking up to the sky, his heart tightened at the sight of it being filled with stars. They blinked and moved from time to time, but never disappeared. Maybe if he were normal like everyone else, he would come to like the stars as well.

The ocean's calls grew more tempting by the minute, yet Yamaguchi couldn't bring it in himself to move forward. He always liked the thought of drowning in water more than the stars, it seemed less painful in a way. He missed crying actual tears, rather than the ones that would prick his eyes and blur his vision each time he finished. He would have to get glasses soon in this case.

His phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket, snapping Yamaguchi out of his thoughts.

Tsukki : Are you there yet?
Tsukki : I'm on my way, give me about 3 minutes

Right, he had a reason to be here.

As his friend promised, Tsukishima arrived on the beach quickly, a pair of binoculars in hand and a box of french fries in the other. "Sorry I'm late," the blond said. "Here, I got you these on my way here." he held out the treat to Yamaguchi, who took it with a weak smile.