(Art inspired by ALZi - Pixiv)

The night lay prone, exhibiting nature's dearest works of art upon them; stars. A precious collection of magnificent glints, and, at this rare occasion, the only companionship to the nugatory abyss around them. 

It was sealed by life and death, and all in between and beyond. Existing simultaneously as everything that resembled eternal love and as the unceasing portrayal of loneliness, the universe was a most obscure abstraction, and sometimes it appeared to be identical to the human soul.

Lena had seen the stars once, with Finn by her side, and ever since, she had no aspiration to see them anew. Not with Finn's absence. 

Finn now bid her look at them, and she only satisfied his wish when his eyes glanced up at them first.

"What do you desire most in the world?" asked Finn.

Confused about the source of his question, she needed a moment and then said, "To find a home."

"And if you found it, would you feel happy?"

"I'd hope so, yes."

"And what would you do if you were to lose it?"

"Search for a new one. Why are you asking?"

"What I desired most in the world was not a place. It was—"

Nitha. But he could not say her name out loud. He thought it would be better to tell Lena about the cause of his obsession, but at that moment his head and tongue worked independently and against each other.

He then pursued to say, "It was something quite special. And I had it. I had the one thing I desired, and I lost it. I'm searching to find it, but my hope dies bit by bit with every day's passing."

As Lena began to lose herself in the blur of the stars, she fell in love with the beauty life offered. Happiness pumped heat through her body and melted her own worries, but it was sorrowful for as long as her heart cried tears for Finn.

"Look at the stars. Each and every one is precious. If I could hold one in my hand, I would steal one." 

His thoughts were familiar, he's had them before, but his ventures had changed the idea behind it tremendously. He used to think that he would hide a treasure if he was ever lucky enough to find one again. But now—

"I wouldn't keep it. I couldn't keep it. Such beauty must not belong to someone, it would die like a flower when it loses touch with its ground. A star, in all its greatness, could never belong to someone. Never can I hold it and call it mine. It's wrong. 

I have to trust that every night it will still be there, shining bright. It hasn't been long since I experienced the darkest of all nights, and I just knew that my star was gone. She had left me standing in the darkness."

There it was. She: A tenuous hint and inadvertently uttered link to his secrets. 

But it hardly mattered; it was needless to say that a girl was what Finn desired, as it was evidential to Lena that only a human could leave such cavernous scars on one's heart. And Finn was deeply carved; his heart bled grief and drowned in it. His wounds had yet to heal.

"Her name was Nitha."

Finn felt as if a spear was piercing his heart, yet it was only half as painful as the stab that Lena felt in hers.

"She was my girlfriend. Last year, her mother got very sick and needed help beyond Kepler's medical abilities. It wasn't anything contagious, yet a lot of people seemed to be getting sick at the same time. Most of them scientists, so KSP offered to take them to one of Boreas' small islands, with the hopes that a hot spring could heal the disease. They went on that journey immediately. A return wasn't decided, and so Nitha chose to separate herself from me to tag along with her family."

Finn paused. He considered telling Lena what he never told anybody. A side of him that he had tried to hide for too long, and he was already battling the tears.

"All my life I've been left by the people I loved the most: My parents were always gone for months, due to their jobs, but everything was worse when——" His quavering voice died in a whimper. "When my brother died."

Lena's eyes were glazed orbs, sprinkled with light from the stars which they had devoted their love to. This was the first time that Finn spoke of his past, and she began to see now how his inner conflict tore him into pieces.

"It hurt so much to lose Nitha after I had accepted that she was all I had left. I was willing to follow her to the edge of the universe, but she didn't let me. I begged her not to leave me, and all she said was, 'turn around.' I did. I looked away and then she was gone. Her words have haunted me ever since that day.

I trusted her to be there for me during the dark times, like a star that shines at night, but she chose to be with her family and left me behind. I can't blame her for that decision; I would exchange the world to have my brother back in my life, however, I blame myself. I let Nitha leave when I should have fought for her. I should have held her hand and never let go. But I did. I did let go."

The drop of a tear rolled down along Lena's cheekbone. 

Finn looked up to the sky; a place of numberless beams of hope strewn through the undefinable darkness.

"I wondered for a long time if perhaps I had already lost my star——I have come to learn that I could have never lost it since I could have never had it. But—as the human body dies, it begins its journey to become stardust. And if I am ever lucky enough to hold a star, it will be when I am long gone. And bright we will shine. Together."

Lena placed her hand on that of Finn.

"You don't have to hold a star, silly. Look at them. It's quite enough to be able to see them at all."

Finn's head glowed red. He nodded and smiled genuinely; a spring of little visible delight.

"I'm glad that you told me how you felt and why. If you let me, I would like to help you meet your mission's goal. You are not alone, not if you don't want to be."

Finn's head dropped left to look at Lena. He gave her a thankful smile, she smiled back. She had forgotten that her right hand was still cherishing his left. Abruptly, she removed it.

"May I make a second promise to you?" he asked. His gaze couldn't leave hers. "I've already promised to never lie to you, and in earnest, I will keep my word. Now I would like to declare that from this moment forth I shall have no secrets from you."

"I never want to force your secrets out of you, and I don't expect you to vow to me. Just know this: The heaviness you hold in your heart belongs to gravity, and before its weight crushes you, I will be here to carry the burden with you."

"Everyone always leaves. I have lost my trust that people stay."

"I am not your past. I can be the star that shines each night. You need to find the trust that I will be there. Let me make a promise, too, that for as long as you want me to, I will stand by your side. Unless you ask me to go, I won't choose to leave."

"It's odd. You make a promise upon something you have no control over, yet I hear nothing but honesty in your voice."

"Because I am honest. I can't control what happens to us, but I promise to make decisions only when they embody being with you. Can you believe me?"

"What can I say? You put your trust in me. The least I can do is put my trust in you."

"Good. I hope you find what you desire."

"Me too."

Light touched the land and the stars gradually faded away. 

Kassiopeia found the two, uninterrupted, sleeping on the roof when the morning had come. Finn on his back and Lena curled up to his side, with her hand on his chest. 

She woke up first, much later, and in shock over her own hand's positioning, she removed it with slow motion at first, and when Finn seemed to be waking up, she yanked it back at an instant. She had rolled away from his body by the time he opened his eyes. He remained unaware that she had closed the space between them unwittingly.

Finn's upper body elevated, whereupon Lena pretended to have just woken up herself. She faked a yawn and took a spin to find the sun. It was setting already.

"Did we sleep all day?"

"It can hardly be called a day," said Finn, rubbing his eyes awake.