The story of humanity begins not with cells, but with atoms. It begins not with life, but the absence thereof. Humanity did not come to be because of our kicking and screaming, of demanding to be granted life; rather, it was quiet and it was calm, and it was a gradual growth with gradual change.

Just as gravity pulled matter and elements and dust together to create stars and galaxies, humanity was drawn together of stardust. Slowly, we became ourselves and as our planet came to be as we know it today, so did we.

We became complex creatures of dreams and hopes, of desires and nuances. We are truthful and dishonest, loyal and unfaithful. We are given life only for it to be stolen - either by our own making or otherwise. We are foiled upon birth, and we are doomed with our first precious breaths. And yet we are also gifted, we are lovely, and we are fervent. We are intelligent beyond our years and yet know nothing at all; we comparatively know more in this time than we have ever known before and yet with the great expanse of the universe as we know it, we have returned to knowing nothing at all.

We are of stardust, and to the stardust we shall return someday.

Our forefathers, our ancestors and our grandparents - to the dirt they have gone, and there they shall remain. We will join them someday, too. But for all of this, as our bodies are laid in their final resting places in the dirt, someday the planet will die and with it, we will be released to the cosmos once more. For us, after we pass, it shall be instantaneous and yet as long as a thousand eternities stretched thin.

We are of stardust, and it is to the stardust we must go back to.

For all its mathematical proofs, for all its statistical anomalies and the theorems we have written to prove our existence among the stars and our place on the planet as we strive to name the nameless and provide rules for the ruleless, the universe is vast, unknowable, and ultimately forgiving. It allows us to struggle to learn, knowing that we shall never know all we want to know.

It allows us to, for it knows that we must.

We strive to learn about the infinite seas of matter above and below and everywhere else because it is our home.

We are of stardust. Someday, we will go home to it.

Humans long to know the composition, the history, and the future of the universe because we were birthed of it. All of us are all of it, altogether and separate. Our way to the future lies in the past, and so it is to the past that we look.

If you were to fall into a black hole, however fortunate and unfortunate you would be, you would be able to see the universe at both the beginning and ending of time - due to its dilation. We are perhaps in a black hole now, for we look to the future and the past with equal fervor, searching for answers in and among them, between them, and outside of them.

The universe is fated to exist because logic and science and yet, for all its logic and science, there is little room for fate.

And yet, conversely, it is the ultimate proof it exists.

Because how might two souls feel to be forever bound if no physical force on earth can justify it? How can people be so drawn to each other that it hurts to be away from them if not for some greater explanation? How can strangers feel fated to meet? How can little more than a single moment of shared eye contact in passing be enough for someone to linger in the mind for days, weeks, months after?

We cannot explain it with science.

We are of stardust - and it strives to return to itself, to return to the stardust with which it was formed, to the stardust it was partnered with in the very beginning of it all.

My love, we are of stardust. We are meant to be together, you and I.

Your words are like poetry to me, and your flowery language always found a way to coil around my soul just so, just so that my heart could latch onto it. I hope, if nothing else, you know how happy those words made me and someday my words might mirror your own.

If nothing else, if I never reach that goal... I hope you know what you mean to me. I hope...

No, I know within my heart that you know how I feel already. You must, for when you look at me like that...

We are of stardust, and when you look at me like that, I know that the universe was made just so that you and I could find each other. No matter what life threw at us, and no matter what it will only continue to throw, we have each other. Call us what you will - kindred spirits, soulmates, partners in life and in love.

We are of stardust, my dear, and it is to stardust - and to each other - that we shall return.

—

"An explosion of space itself is what birthed the universe. Does anyone know what this explosion was called?"

"The Big Bang," came the excitable answer from an excitable brown-haired boy who sat just a row over and a few seats in front of me. He had his arm straight up, his fingers outstretched and the widest smile on his face. He wasn't even sitting in his seat right - his knees were on the seat, and he was kneeling and stretching to be as tall as he physically could be while still remaining (kind of) at his desk.

He was sitting in a sunbeam, the result of sitting at just the right spot in the classroom to accept all the sunlight streaming in. Others were blocked by curtains, an attempt to keep the classroom from growing too warm - but he was gloriously illuminated, his chocolatey brown hair seeming much lighter in that light and he didn't seem to even flinch away from the brightness.

"Very good, Oikawa," came the teacher's response, peering at the boy from over her round-rimmed glasses. There was an amused smile on her face, one she really tried to hide but failed to. It was a trained smile, but a genuine one all the same. And it was also, I felt, one that she utilized often with this class in particular. "But next time, raise your hand."

"Yes, ma'am," the boy replied easily, as trained a response as the teacher's smile had been.

Oikawa, I committed to memory. The kid who loves space.

"Sit down, dummy," hissed the boy beside Oikawa. He had spiky, dark hair and a scowl on his face, but when the teacher shot him a look, he simmered down. Still, Oikawa crossed his feet beneath him and sat down in the chair, still smiling widely through it all.

"Iwaizumi," the teacher chided. "Leave the disciplining in this classroom to me."

"Yes, ma'am," the boy replied.

Iwaizumi, I committed to memory. The kid who tries to keep the space kid in line.

"The Big Bang is exactly right," the teacher finally continued. "After the explosion, space expanded and as the universe began to cool, the simplest of elements started to form. Gravity, the force that keeps us from floating away, began bringing matter together. Soon, brand new elements formed, and after that, the very first stars were born. It took time, but eventually galaxies formed as well and with them came our very own, the-"

"The Milky Way Galaxy!"

"Oikawa."

"Sorry, ma'am."

"Within the Milky Way Galaxy sits our solar system. For the next major project of the year, I find it fitting to research the history of how our universe came to be. Allow me to pass out the first assignment and then I'll begin with the instructions..."

When it came my way, I looked down at the sheet of paper before me. Sure enough, it detailed the project in its entirety and stapled to it was the first preliminary set of questions. As several sets of eyes began to skim the pages just as I did, excited ripples of conversation rose up within the classroom until the teacher hushed them all.

"I have already assigned groups," the teacher said, sending an almost accusatory look around the room. "I'm to hear no complaining about it - it was random, and they will not be changing."

With that said, annoyed groans came from a few of the students as others cast rather dubious looks around at their classmates, wary about who would be their partner for what was sure to be quite an involved assignment. I was the student perhaps looked at the most in this way, and I knew the exact reason why. The teacher began to list off the partners, and I paid attention to my own.

Finally, she said: "And last, we have Iwaizumi and Kageyama."

Iwaizumi, the boy who tried to keep space boy in line, perked up a little, then looked over his shoulder at me. I could see Oikawa's (the space boy) mouth drop open and he balked. "But that's not fair!"

"It's entirely fair," the teacher said simply. "Now, moving on..."

As she started into the instructions, I became the sudden focus of a set of brown eyes, narrowed and angry. Oikawa was looking back at me venomously, and I met his gaze almost sheepishly. I hadn't assigned the partners, so why was I the subject of his anger?

"Switch," he whispered over, only to be hushed by everyone who sat between us. Still, I heard him loud and clear, and I shook my head. His eyes widened and he looked like he was about to say something more but the teacher called to him. He turned around begrudgingly, but I had a feeling that the conversation - brief though it was, being only a single word - was not over.

—

"Kageyama," the teacher called, inviting me into the room. I walked in quietly, approaching her desk only to stand before it. I bowed my head to her slightly, offering my own greeting in return. She smiled, and gestured for me to sit, which I did. "I didn't mean to interrupt your lunch," she told me. "I only wanted to check in. Starting at a new school is never easy, after all. How are you settling in?"

"I like it here," I answered honestly. "It's a lot bigger than my old school."

"Kitagawa Daiichi is a wonderful school, and I hope as you settle in further that you feel truly welcome," she added. "Now, I did notice in your placements that-"

"Pardon the intrusion!"

"Oikawa," the teacher said sternly, sending a firm look his way. "I did not invite you into this room. Coming in unannounced is rude!"

"Sorry, sorry," he said in a rush, coming to stand just beside the chair I was in. "But I want to change partners!"

"I was in the middle of discussing something important with Kageyama," the teacher said. "I will not humor this from you right now. Leave, and when we are done here, I'll invite you back in if you can be civil about it."

"I want to work with Iwaizumi!"

Straightening up a little in my chair, I looked towards the teacher. "It's alright," I said. "I can switch, if that's easier." The teacher looked at me, her surprise clear in her features. "It's not like it makes a difference to me. I don't know anyone yet, anyway."

At that, Oikawa blinked and looked down at me. "Oh, I didn't say I wanted you to switch."

Well actually, yes he did. In class. He told me to switch, but I wasn't about to bring that up.

"You want to work in a trio? Am I understanding this correctly?"

"Yes," Oikawa said proudly, setting his hands on his hips. "I want to be the very first friend the elusive new transfer student makes!"

I couldn't help but laugh a little. I wasn't elusive!

...or was I?

I wasn't trying to be, anyway.

"So, I'm to leave Itari without a partner, then? And for such a selfish reason?"

"He doesn't want to work with me, anyway," Oikawa said with a shrug. "He called me a nerd for liking space so much. And besides, is it really that selfish to want to make a new friend?"

The teacher sighed. "Less I have to grade, I suppose," she mused, "and one less headache I have to nurse later." At that, she looked pointedly towards Oikawa, and when he smiled, she redirected her gaze - now with kinder eyes - towards me. "Is that fine with you, Kageyama?"

I nodded. "I don't mind." Then I looked up at Oikawa. "Besides, I don't think you're a nerd. But if you are, then so is he. He's got loads of dinosaur stickers on his notebook, so he'd be a nerd for a different reason."

"Really?" I nodded, and Oikawa downright beamed at me - a smile so bright it seemed to catch all the sunlight in the room - or maybe it just seemed that way because where he was standing, he was standing suspended in a sunbeam that flowed in from the open window.

Oikawa took my hand then, hefting me up and out of the chair and leading me from the room at a jog. "We gotta go tell Iwa-chan! Don't forget what you just said, Kage!"

Kage?

"Hey," the teacher called after us. "No hand-holding at school! And I wasn't done speaking with..." Left alone in the room, she let out a sigh. "Get rid of one headache, and gain three more," she lamented. "Ah, well. At least that boy will give her no option but to settle in here."

We didn't hear any of what she said, of course. We were already halfway back to the school courtyard where Oikawa the space boy had left Iwaizumi - the one who tried keeping him in line - behind.

And I wondered, for that moment as we ran together, about that boy; the boy who now held my hand and led me along the still-unfamiliar hallways of my new school, the boy who so loved space and seemed perfectly content sitting within a sunbeam.