surrender the night

The air felt light and fresh following a cold rainfall, the sky slowly clearing up to reveal a peaceful gradient of blues, pinks and purples. Though he was looking at a sky far away from home, it somehow still reminded him of Pleiades, and stargazing with his friends on rooftops, where they’d pull out a blanket Dean sewed and snacks Machi collected. Sometimes they’d play games, like I spy or some guessing game Jojo came up with as a joke that stuck around. Those were good times – times when they could all relax after a busy day and relish each other's company.

But that’s all in the past. They were lord knows how many light years away, and the idea of him getting back home felt even further. Maybe other luminites were around in Earth’s solar system, although who would be as stupid as him to fall on a planet inhabited by ones who’ve killed previous planets? Based on what Cedric talked about and wrote in his diary, humans aren’t exactly fond of things different from what they’ve seen in the history of their world. Even Carter isn’t safe amongst this society.

At least he has a few friends here, for now.

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Carefully stepping around the plants he’d previously dug out – to Ceddie’s dismay; he put up some books around them now to block Carter from getting into them again – he climbed into a comfy cat bed Cedric got for him a few days back. The comfy plush bedding was perfect for afternoon naps, and the little stuffed toys scattered about added a feeling of home he so dearly missed. Something about the messes he always left around reminded Carter of how he was back in Pleiades.

He sighed quietly as sadness creeped up on him, folding his paws under his chin and looking up at the evening sky behind glass. It was completely cleared up now, the clouds revealing a mosaic of dark tones sprinkled with bright twinkly stars. Lively little lights, they were destined to die and birth another luminite like Carter someday. Future friends.

One light seemed to be moving across the sky – a plane? He’s heard about planes from Cedric in conversation with Ceddie’s roommate, how he needed to catch a new flight home since the previous one had been canceled for one reason or another. He’s seen them on tv in various shows and movies Cedric usually had on in the background. He’s seen them on Cedric’s computer while the boy was scrolling on some page, looking for tickets. “Planning a vacation with some friends,” was what he said.

Earth’s night sky was truly something interesting. Its constellations were nothing like the ones back home, and the way various aerial devices mimicked the pretty little stars was quite intriguing.

“Hey, you still up?” a quiet voice snapped Carter out of his withdrawn state, “Is Cedric home?”

“Uhm…” Carter took a second to think of a response, glancing around the dark room and back up at the black stray, “No? I think he’s out with friends.”

“Nice. Didn’t think he had friends.” The cat’s words managed to get a small chuckle out of Carter amidst an internal panic over actually talking to the guy for the first time. Sure, they’d exchanged glances and eaten together, they’ve napped together, but the stray has yet to give Carter his name. Seems he’s far less talkative and friendly than the luminite. “You wanna go chill together? I know a nice place with a great view.”

Carter stared for a bit, unsure of what to do. This was his first time speaking with the cat, and Cedric never really let him out of the apartment, so he probably had good reasons not to. Nevertheless, he got up from where he was previously lying and pushed the window open, climbing outside through the gap he made. “Sure.”

The pair made their way across a short wall separating the street from a garden, up a slanted rooftop and over a few balconies; trying their best to stay hidden from any humans out and about this late. The concrete underneath their paws was still wet, a peaceful smell of post-rain ground permeating through the chilly air. They stopped a few dozen feet away from the apartment on a taller rooftop, and Carter could do nothing but stare in awe at the now completely visible sky.

“Thought you’d like a better view than what you get down there.” The stray glanced between Carter and the sky, sitting down on the cold rooftop.

“Yeah…yeah, that’s…really pretty,” he slowly walked towards the cat and stood beside him, the two of them locking eyes, “but you never told me your name, y’know.”

“It’s Dylan.” A weird silence fell between the two of them for a few moments, Carter taking his time thinking over what to say in failing attempts to make things less tense, Dylan too calm to care much – two sides of a spectrum. “...We can go grab some dinner after this, maybe.”

“UHM yeah yeah that’d be nice. Don’t wanna worry Cedric over coming home late though…” Carter sputtered, flustered at Dylan’s suggestion, before taking a seat beside the cat, “I’m Carter. But you know that already, I’m assuming, heh.”

Dylan only nodded in response, too focused on the stars above, and how they peacefully pulsed against a velvety blue backdrop. Carter almost caught himself getting lost in their reflections in the cat’s icy blue eyes.

“See those three?” Dylan traced a line of stars with an exposed claw, Carter’s eyes following, “Orion’s belt. Part of Orion, the hunter.” The icy blues shifted to the right and higher, “That’s Taurus above it. Honors Zeus and his white bull form.

And over there,” he again moved his paw to point at another cluster of stars resembling two figures, “Gemini, the twins.” Carter stared for a good minute or two, trying to understand the shapes these countless little dots are supposed to represent. He was never really an astronomer back home, preferring to give dumb little names to animals and objects he and his friends saw in the night sky. This was…really cool though, he had to admit. He’d known there was some sort of detail to the sky back on Pleiades, even if he didn’t take interest in learning of it.

“How do you know this much?” he inquired, lowering his gaze down onto Dylan, who was now laying on the roof with his paws tucked underneath himself. His eyes were still focused on the stars above them.

“My owners got really into it at some point, one of them did a project with star maps and constellations and whatnot.” Dylan reminisced, looking away to spare Carter the sight of sadness slowly making itself known in his expression, “Dunno if Cedric talked about them. He was a regular at their library, before it burned down.”

“Oh,” was the only thing Carter could make out, too nervous to continue the conversation after steering it in such a sad direction. Maybe…they could bond over their loss of home. But Carter’s was still there, and Dylan lost everything. “We uh…have pretty different constellations back home from what I remember. This is really cool, though. You should tell me more. About the stars and your owners and the library, if you want.” He lowered himself down to the ground beside Dylan, stretching his paws out in front of him and placing his chin onto them, still watching the stray intently. Is that where he gets the burn scars from?

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Dylan sighed with a vague smile, “you wanna hear about some of the stories behind the zodiac constellations?”

“Absolutely!”