(Content warnings: none :] )

     Grian sighed, just looking up at the stars in the night sky above him. It was an endless sea of void covered with the lights. Just taking a moment to enjoy this little bit of life was an amazing feeling.

     He heard a car stop and a door open.

     Turning, he could see someone shut off the headlights and get out of their car.

     "Hey, are you doing alright?" The guy called over, walking as he asked.

     "Yeah, just watching the stars." Grian said, going back to his original position. The guy walked up to him, looking down.

     "Do you mind if I join you?" Grian shrugged with a slight smile. He didn't mind having some company on a nice night like this one.

     The man was only a shadow it seemed like, his face hidden from the darkness. The only thing Grian could tell when the other stood up was that he was incredibly tall (he didn't want to think that it was just because he happened to be short.)

     The man sat down next to him opening a bag that the shorter didn't notice before. He seemed to pull out what appeared to be a book.

     "I don't think you can read much with how dark it is." Grian joked letting his head roll back to watching the stars. The man laughed for a second before also laying back.

     "I'm not here to read. If I forget one of the constellations, I have this book here to remind me." Grian could faintly see it in the moonlight, it appeared to be a notebook.

     "You study constellations?" Grian asked, curiosity dawning on him.

     "Yeah, I'm minoring in astronomy. It is so interesting to learn about how vast this universe really is." The man let out a longing sigh, as if he wished he could touch the stars for himself. "I come out here every night that it is clear enough to see. This is the one area you could see the stars so clearly without all the light pollution." He explained, pointing towards a lighter area of the sky. "Over at that horizon is a major city. The light pollution creates its own dome. You can't see Orion from here because of it." The man sounded saddened by the idea.

     "Isn't Orion that one constellation of that archer?" The man let out a disappointed sigh.

     "Nope, not even close. What you are thinking of is an asterism. A constellation is a boundary. There is eighty-eight of them and they cover the night sky." The man turned on a flash light and pointed it to his book. Grian could see a map with various shapes, all labeled with constellations he recognizes. They looked blocky, unlike the Connect-to-Dot shapes that he was taught in school. In the middle of the constellations were the asterisms the man was talking about. They were highlighted in blue.

     "Wow, that's so weird." The man laughed before shutting off the light and laying back down. "Is there planets that we can see?"

     "Yeah, we can see Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Saturn without a telescope. We can even see the Andromeda galaxy as well." The two fell into comfortable silence, just staring at the stars. It was a couple minuted before their conversation continued. "If you look over here, there is a triangular shape made with three bright stars." The man traced it with his finger, showing Grian the shape. "That is the Summer Triangle. This is the best time to see it since it will disappear soon."

     "What do you mean, disappear?" Grian felt saddened that he won't get to see the three stars again. The man laughed.

     "That's not what I meant, the Summer Triangle only really appears during the summer. It will come back up. It happens from the tilt of Earth's axis. Don't worry, we'll see it again." Grian turned to look over at the man.

     It was like he was looking at a painting. The man's dark curls were around his head like a halo, moving in the night time wind and spread across the grass. He had a tie and suit on but he still looked at peace. One thing that surprised Grian was the mustache over the other man's lip that looked well cared for. The moon washed his face in a warm glow and it looked like his body was emitting aura with the light bouncing off.

     Grian felt his mouth become dry with shock.

     "W-We'll?" He asked, suddenly nervous. The man turned, a gentle smile on his face.

     "Well, if you want to join me looking at the stars again, why not?" Grian nodded his head before going back to mentally tracing the Summer Triangle into his mind.

     It was peaceful.

---

     For months, Grian kept returning back to their little spot under the stars.

     He started to not only care about the stars but about the man with the mustache. It's quite comical, really, but Grian has never actually learned his name. He learned so much else about him though.

     The man was an optimistic guy, looking for any good in the world whether it was right there or deep under the surface. He is majoring in engineering so he could learn how to create lights that won't cause light pollution in large cities. The man loved history and would get excited over little things. He sometimed brought snacks for the two of them to share in a brown weaved basket. Sometimes, he would giggle at jokes. He had a pure hatred towards astrology and would get mad if Grian mentioned anything about it (Sagittarius became the man's nickname since that was his star sign. He told him that the constellations have shifted for years and that Sagittarius wouldn't even be his star sign. Grian still called him it out of spite.) It became a reciprocal thing between the two, the man calling him Leo in return.

     "Sagittarius, is the Summer Triangle going to come up again?" He asked, turning to the other. He let out a huff at the nickname but the ghost of a smile was still there.

     "Yeah, should be starting to show up soon." He pulled his coat closer to him. It was still slightly cold out but at least it wasn't snowing and they had to cancel like they did a few weeks ago. Waiting for a nice night was torture to Grian.

     And that's when he felt it.

     A droplet of water fell onto the tip of his own nose, rolling down and went across his cheek. Raising a hand to wipe it away, he felt more. They were increasing and soon, it was absolutely pouring.

     They didn't say anything to each other about it, there was no point. They could both feel the rain and knew they should leave before the field became a muddy mess. They had never had to quit mid stargazing though.

     "Here, let's go to my car!" Sagittarius yelled over the rain that started to pelt them. Grian's coat was getting soaked and his t-shirt underneath was as well. They made a mad dash to the car that was on the side of the road. Sagittarius had shown a better spot in the middle of the field to gaze at the stars, further away from the road and his car. Grian parked further in an abandoned parking lot awhile away. He liked to walk in the cool weather and listen to the symphony of the wind.

     They both got inside the car, slamming the doors shut tight. They were breathing heavily from how far they had to run. For a second, they both turned to each other at the same time and saw how soaked the other was. In harmony, they laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation.

     "Alright, what do we wanna do now, Leo?" Sagittarius said after a deep breath to calm himself. Grian did the same he thought.

     "I have no clue, do you have an idea?" The man shrugged, before buckling the seatbelt, Grian copying.

     "We could go to this 24/7 coffee place. I go there almost everyday and it's not too far."

     "Whatever you say, Sagittarius."

---

     Grian had to admit, it was a cute shop.

     Majoring in architecture really helped put that to mind. The outside was an older style and the inside matched. It was a little cafe that had the aroma of coffee and burnt out college kids. Basically, home for Grian.

     They got up to the counter, placing their orders before sitting down and waiting. Grian got a coffee and a sugar cookie. Sagittarius got a hot chocolate with a chocolate chip cookie.

     Grian was tapping his fingers across the cool to the touch metal table when one of the workers came up with their order.

     "Here is your- Grian?" Looking at the face of the worker, he saw it was his friend, Taurtis.

     "You work here?" He found himself blurting out in surprise. He didn't expect to see the guy who has been his bestfriend every since he was a child working at a cafe at three thirty am.

     "Yeah, started working here when you started doing whatever it is that you do at night." Taurtis shrugged after putting their order on the table. "Speaking of which, is this your boyfriend?" He asked, a sly smile on his face.

     Grian choked on his coffee, ears turning red from embarrassment.

     "Oh, this is my friend and we go star gazing at night together." He explained, gesturing towards Sagittarius.

     "Well, nice to meet you no name, I'm Taurtis." They shook hands with each other.

     "My name is-"

     "Taurtis, get back to work!" Grian's friend sighed loudly at what was presumably his boss.

     "I hate to leave you guys but I have to get back to doing whatever it is that Mr. Grumpy wants me to do. Bye!" He waved before dashing off to behind the counter.

     Grian could feel that his face was still warm before he turned back to Sagittarius.

     "So, your name isn't Leo?" He asked, an amused grin on his face while he tried not to laugh.

     "Of course not, dummy!" He whacked the other's shoulder, causing him to laugh harder.

     "Well, too bad. I'm still calling you Leo." Grian felt his cheeks get redder.

     "What should we do?" He squeaked out in embarrassment. The other still had a smirk on his face.

     "We could watch a movie or something at my apartment." Grian nodded his head and took a sip of his coffee.

     "Sounds like a plan."

---

     Sagittarius parked the car at the front of the apartment building, allowing for Grian to get up. They walked up to the third floor to a room next to the staircase. Entering, Grian could hear people talking.

     Roomates, Grian remembered he had said. He lived with Iskall and Etho, sharing rent for a tiny apartment. It looked homey enough with drawing on the refrigerator and a goldfish in a large tank on the kitchen counter.

     "Whose drawings are these?" He asked, pointing to the scribbles. Sagittarius giggled.

     "You mean the abominations that litter our flat? We have to go around once a week and throw any that he allows us to get rid of." Grian could see a plastic box filled with the drawings. They must be recycling them. "They are our friend's drawing. Don't be tricked, he is older than us." Sagittarius shoved some of the papers off of the counter to put his bag down before patting the tank gently and leading Grian to another room.

     Entering the room, he could see who appeared to be Iskall and Etho, lounging on the couches with books in their hands. They were nerding out, talking about engineering jargon that Grian had no clue what they meant.

     "-and they connected the repeater and it suddenly went haywire! Pistons were going so fast that they were forced to dump water and destroy it!" The guy with a swedish accent said, making the other laugh. "Mumbo!" The guy waved and from where Grian was, he could see that Sagittarius was sheepish. "Welcome back, we were just talking about-" the guy seemed to notice Grian standing behind Mumbo ackwardly although he was so much shorter. "Etho-" he turned to the other man, a smile creeping onto his face. The other nodded his head in joyus acknowledgement.

     "Finally bringing your boyfriend to meet your parents, eh?" It was Sagittarius'- or Mumbo, Grian should say- turn to be embarrassed.

     "Etho, now isn't the time-" he was anxiously messing with a ring that was on his thumb. Grian never noticed it before, probably due to the lack of light when they would be star gazing.

     "Oh, don't say that to your father!" The other, Iskall, said with a frown.

     Grian had no clue what was happening. Why were Sagi- Mumbo's roomates calling him their son? Why the heck was everyone so insistent on calling them boyfriends? This was confusing him.

     "Leo, these are my friends who, begrudgingly, call me their son because they think I'm stupider than them." His arms were crossed in annoyance.

     "Ah, so this is Leo!" Iskall got up and shook Grian's hand. "I'm Iskall and this is Etho."

     "I've heard about you." He looked to Mumbo who looked away, face becoming more red.

     "And we have heard about you as well! Mumbo here likes to talk about how-"

     "That's enough, I think you've teased him enough." Another person made their way into the room. From what Grian could see, he was wearing an apron with red stains on it. He was worried it was blood. The man seemed to see his concerns, "It's not blood, just frosting. I was making a cake and then this guy jumped out and scared me while I was putting the red frosting on." The guy glared at Etho who shrugged. "Anyways, no need to torture Mumbo any more. People call me Vintage Beef, partially because they think I'm old and partially because I like to cook and bake." Grian recalled the pictures littering the flat. Lots of them were covered with cake designs.

     "You are the one who draws those drawings." He finally said, registering it into his mind.

     "Yeah, I've got to practice." He rested his arm over Etho's shoulder. "Anyways, in this family, I'm this guy's dad."

     "Stop!" Etho whined, pushing Beef away.

     "It was you who created this system, not me. I'm just making sure you feel embarrassed like my grandson is now." He had a warm smile on his face. Turning to Mumbo, Grian could see that his eyes were watering but he mouthed a thanks to Beef. The two must have really been messing with Mumbo's nerves if they were close to making him cry. "Anyways, let's leave these two boys alone. It's nice to meet you- wait, is Leo your actual name? You don't look like a Leo to me." Grian laughed and held out his hand.

     "My name is Grian, Leo is just a nickname that Mumbo gave me." Beef shook his hand with a welcoming smile.

     "Aww, does that mean Mumbo has a nickname too?" Iskall asked.

     "I call him Sagittarius, after his-"

     "Star sign. I'm guessing it started out as a teasing joke between you two whenever you stargazed. He always loves to talk about stargazing with you." Beef gave Grian a wink before pulling the two others out of the room.

     "So-"

     "Sorry about my roomates, they are weird and sort of mean." Mumbo rushed out.

     "Who is Vintage Beef by the way? You said your roomates are in the same class as you and he doesn't seem to be an engineer."

     "He is our neighbor. We have become a close knit community and we call ourselves the Hermits. He is like Etho's mentor so he comes around often," Mumbo explained. Looking around at the apartment, he could see photos of who he guessed were the Hermits. He looked at them longingly, he missed having a community when he moved into his house a few years ago. "I'm sure that our landlord, Xisuma, has an opening." Mumbo said with a shrug. Grian turned to him, confused on how he could know what he was thinking. "Look, don't take it personally, Grian, but the first time I met you, you seemed lonely." He said, fidgetting with his ring agisn. "I think it would be a good way to get involved with people. I can already tell the others would accept you as well." Grian smiled and opened his mouth to say something when the door opened.

     "Mumbo, how could not have told us that Leo would be visiting!" A shorter woman said with her arms crossed.

     "Stress, he-"

     "And he is wet from the rain!" Looking down, Grian could see that his clothing was still damp.

     "It's alright-"

     "Nonsense, we don't want you catching a cold." She held up a box. He took it and opened it to find a red sweater. Looking to Mumbo, he looked embarrassed again.

     "Wow, this is soft." Grian said, feeling it.

     "Mumbo thought you would like it. Said you looked like a guy who would wear a sweater."

     "But how-"

     "She knitted it for you." Mumbo said, taking it and holding it out to Grian. "She knits or sews something for everyone she ever meets. She made me this tie." He gestured to the tie that was always around his neck. Turning to Stress with a smile, Grian took it.

     "Thank you so much." He thanked her.

     "Go ahead and out it on, I want to make sure it fits." Grian took off his jacket and quickly threw off his shirt before pulling it on. It fit perfectly and was so warm compared to the cold night they were having.

     Turning to see their reactions, he was met with Stress looking up and smiling at Mumbo who had his jaw slightly dropped open. When he noticed he turned, it closed quickly.

     "Looks great." He gave an awkward thumbs up, Grian blushing slightly.

     Looking in a mirror that was on the other side of the room, he felt at home for once in his life.

Words: 2040
Written: Friday, August 27th, 2021, 11:53 am
Edited:
Originally posted: Friday, August 27th, 2021, 12:01 pm

Wow, an actually happy oneshot for once? Completely unheard of. You better take this one cuz this is gonna be the last time- joking aside, idk why I wrote this. Disclaimer, I don't ship the actual people, they have their own lives and this is just something I quickly wrote. Idk, I feel like you cant really be straight if you look at stars in a field with another guy who you gave nicknames to. This is a real life au and centered around the US cuz idk any pastry names from anywhere else also I was basing the constellations and stuff after the ones that I could actually see from where I live if I drove to a darker area. The Orion Constellation cannot be viewed from where I live, that is factual because of the light pollution from the capital city in my state. Idk, Im taking astronomy class and I really enjoy it and kinda wanna share my facts with you guys. ANYWAYS, kinda joking, kinda not but there really isn't going to be many fluff fics at all coming from me any time soon. Byeeeeee