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You are the earth; it's what your brother always said. He repeated this ever since you were small, before you could even comprehend it. You remember sitting in his lap by the fire, in your house made of trees and flowers, where he would sing to you the tales of a past that never existed, the songs of a different galaxy and the void beyond you and your comprehension, and the poems that are written about your earth.
Your brother is the light of the day, the sun, the clouds, the rain, the snow, and a storm. His hair shines like a bright, autumn afternoon; his eyes are the colors that the leaves turn in the fall when it would get colder; his skin is the color of the wet sand that is the line where you and the ocean meet.
You are the earth—you are the eyes of the trees and you see whatever they see, you are carried by your brother's winds as if you can fly, you are the ears of the hills. You are the anger of an earthquake and a volcano, the calmness of a tree's leaves rustling. Your eyes are red like the flowing liquid from a volcano, but your hair shines white like the snow your brother brings forth. Your skin is much like a deer's—spotted white around your cheeks and shoulders that are hidden beneath your cloak.
You work together to maintain order. He fights with the fright of a million storms, and you fight with the power of the earthquakes and volcanoes.
☆
Your brother has to leave early for a meeting with the ocean. You highly doubt that it's an actual meeting, for he has looked for every chance to be with the ocean boy, but you dismiss him and tell him to take as long as he needs. (You find it weird that he fancies this ocean, for he always told you that love is dangerous.)
You've become used to his leaving, and you will let him do want he wants because you are not in control of him, and he is not in control of you. He may have some type of control on you, but you both agree to work together.
He is still technically with you, for he is the breeze that carries you and the sun that creates the daytime. He is still the cold of your winter and the gentle snow of it.
He may be far, but you still work together.
☆
A few days go by, with you both exchanging messages through the breeze. Everything is peaceful and in order.
Except the moon. The moon should not be shining so brightly and full every day. Surely the tides are frustrated with the moon.
You're carried by the winds to the place where the moon shines the brightest, and you feel a rumble of disturbance.
You tell the trees and the animals to search for the disturbance, and the breeze carries you to it, tossing your hair back as you hold your staff strong. The trees lower you down with their arms, and you land on the dirt.
There is a hole in the ground.
No, multiple ones, containing rocks that you've only seen a few times before. They are landed in a circle, lighted with the fire of the atmosphere.
But there are holes in the ground.
Holes in your ground.
You scream a distress call to absolutely no one, for you do not want Dirk to find out about this, although he probably already knows. This fight will belong to you, only if it actually is a fight. The trees and the grass shudder at the scream, and the flowers hide their faces.
You apologize to them, telling yourself not to lose your temper.
But how can you not lose your temper? You are dealing with the void beyond you, the ones who killed your sisters' most prized creatures, the ones who made them mourn over their extinction.
You would rather not remember the horrid stench of them in your earth, and how you made memorials to them with their bones because you just wanted your sisters to have something to remember them by. You keep them alive in the memories, but not necessarily alive in the physical form.
Your sisters ended up expanding their creations to smaller types of creatures, so that they would be plentiful and would never go extinct.
This was all because of the void and its rocks.
The void beyond was older than you and your brother and the ocean, it is important, but you deem it nothing more than useless.
Oh, but the void is beautiful.
You stare at the holes in your beautiful earth, and you want to mourn, but you will not look weak in front of the trespassing rocks. You are the earth, and you are stronger than a few burning rocks. You stand tall with a small, ignorable sting in your leg, holding your staff in one hand, and waiting for whatever intruder decided to enter your planet.
It emerges out of the rock—a dark figure, but its darkness confuses you. It does not have any shadows, and it is a silhouette shaped like you, but it contains light. You do not like it. Your trees point their arms towards the intruder and the hills prepare an earthquake.
The dark figure looks at you, and you know what it is.
His name is Jonathan. He is part of the void, but not all of it. He is the moon and the stars and the twinkling of the planets. He is an infinite number of galaxies, but not all of them. He is your night, and the many stars over the forest and desert, and the small amount of stars over the cities and towns polluted by human light.
You do not deserve to be in his beautiful presence. But he is an enemy.
"Jonathan," you say shakily, telling your trees to keep guard.
"What is your true form? Why do you insist on looking like the creatures of this earth?"
He ignores your words, but his eyes glow bright when he looks at you.
You show him your true form—your arms become the thick vines of the jungle, your legs the wood and strength of a sycamore tree. Your eyes split into four—two on your forehead, and two where a human's would be. Your skull emerges the two antlers that your sisters based their deer off of, and your heart becomes the indestructible metals from the depths of the earth.
His eyes glow brighter.
You change back to your human self and he does too. And by the creator of you and everything else, Jonathan is gorgeous. You float down to him and examine him while he examines you.
"You did not answer my second question."
You glare at him.
"I am terribly sorry, and I apologize. What might that question be again?" (You will not admit to the sarcasm and bitterness in your tone. Or how you made the trees point sharply at him, or how you made the flowers hiss at him.)
"Why do you insist on the—what's the word—oh, human form?"
He seems quite distracted by the trees, or maybe your eyes?
"Some of them know I live here. It is safer for me to be like this. Now, if you would like to go back to Uranus or the moon, I suggest you go now before I force it upon you."
"I am here for business."
Ah.
☆
Your messages to Dirk are more frantic, consisting of you panicking, and him telling you to try to deal with it.
You can tell he's going to be in the ocean for a while.
☆
It has been several months since Jonathan's arrival.
He has been nothing but a bother to you, slipping innuendos here and there, flirting with you whenever he pleases. No matter how many times you tell him that you don't feel romantic attraction, he teases you, saying that you are a liar.
And you will admit to only yourself that you truly are a liar.
It's almost midnight now, and you are watching your beloved moonflowers bloom. You look at Jonathan where his frame fits perfectly in front of the lighted rock in the sky. Even in the shadow of the moon, his eyes glow with the color of the glowing plankton of the ocean and the twinkling of every star. You sit beside the flowers and open up a book of poems.
But you decide against reading them, so you talk to Jonathan instead.
"I can tell that your intentions for coming to this planet are not honestly for business. So could you, if you please, tell me what your plans are for my earth?"
He walks over and sits beside you, his body facing the opposite direction of yours.
"I studied the earth for a thousand years, and you still fascinate me. I decided to visit this beautiful earth."
Your heart skips a beat as he shifts closer to you. But then you glare a thousand wildfires into his eyes.
"I would break you in an instant for what you have done to my sisters."
He pulls back quickly and looks offended.
"That was not me. It was a galaxy that I am not, and we have since then destroyed it. We are not proud of it, and I... I deeply apologize on the behalf of it."
You pause.
"I, too, am sorry for thinking it was you who caused us pain."
He smiles a devilish smile.
"Then I suppose we are even?"
You chuckle, and he inches closer.
"Being even is not really a necessity to me."
The gap between the both of you shrinks slowly with each second.
"But I am a necessity to you."
"No, only the tides need you. I do not."
You hear his breath waver when you lick your lips. He presses the side of his body against yours, holding your head in his palm as he caresses your eyebrow with his thumb.
"You want me."
You swallow and pause, tilting your head into his gentle touch.
"That is a possibility," you say in a breathy whisper.
The gap between the two of you closes, and you feel as if his lips are a thousand flowers blooming. You think you actually made that happen.
He slowly trails his arm up your body to join the other one around your neck, and you lift him so that he sits in your lap. He kisses you hungrily, and you pull his torso flush against yours, swallowing his gasps and groans. He swipes his tongue across your teeth, and you make sure to explore every part of his mouth—his teeth, tongue, the roof of his mouth, his cheek.
He turns into a pile of putty in your arms, groaning and grasping at your cloak. He relies on your arms to keep him upright while he moves against you. You separate from his soft lips and kiss down his jaw and his neck. You grab his hair and tilt his head aside, and the groans and whispers of your name are more beautiful than anything you've ever heard. His voice and his gasps are more beautiful than a dozen sea shanties, and his kiss is an addicting poison.
You undress him from his soft shirt, and he unhooks your cloak and takes off your shirt underneath. You see the faint freckles on your arms glow in the shadow of him, and you notice that your flowers have bloomed. But neither of those things matter because Jonathan's eyes glow fiercely in his shadow, and you will not admit to your arousal twitching.
You hold him and continue to kiss down his neck, biting and marking him, because his marks glow. His body is fascinating to you, and you tilt him back to kiss down his chest. He grabs at your shoulders, and you watch how his muscles contract as if he were trying not to fall. You look up to meet his eyes, and he has a glowing knuckle in his mouth as he pants, and his eyes glow brighter when he meets your eyes. He tangles his free hand into your hair, and you grin evilly up at him. You watch his chest shakily fall and feel his heart skip a beat.
You lift him up and lay him on the ground in front of you, crawling between his legs with your hands trailing up and down his chest and his sides. His arms lay limp on the ground above his head, grabbing at nothing, and you move to kiss him again. He tangles his hand in your hair, and rakes the nails of his other hand down your back.
You again nibble at his neck and mark his collar bone, watching the bites glow blue and fade back to his skin. You move your lips down his chest, keeping eye contact with him as he keeps his hand in your hair. You free him from his remaining clothes and hold his other hand to the side.
You rake your eyes over his body, and, good god, he is incredible. You kiss his hipbones and the inside of his thighs, watching as he twitches and… glows? His erection is glowing and you will admit that it's fascinating.
"David," he whimpers from above you.
"Yes?"
He tightens his grip on your hair as you take him in your hand and keep your mouth right above the head.
"David, please," he begs.
You consider it for a while, but then think against it.
"Hm… no."
You release him and bite his thighs again, and he sets his head back on the ground.
"David…" He reaches for himself with the hand from your hair, but you grab that hand, too. He whimpers and bucks up into nothing, while you lick at his hips. He mutters profanity and throws curses at you but they are all only empty threats.
When he stops struggling, he gives in to the ground, his muscles tired, and you lick a stripe straight up his aching length. He bites his lip hard and arches his back while trying to find proper footing, and his breathing becomes heavy. You tangle your fingers together with his, and his fingers dig into your knuckles as you take him into your mouth.
You lower your mouth until your nose nearly touches his skin, and you pull back up, sucking as you go along. He watches you, and his lip glows a faint blue from where he's biting it. You give him a headrest made of plants so he can watch you better, as you swirl your tongue around the head and search for his sensitive spots. You let him grab your hair to control the pace.
It doesn't take all that long before his back is arched, his whole body is completely glowing, and he's releasing down your throat with a shout of your name.
After his breathing goes back to normal, he rests on his forearms and looks you in the eyes as you grab at his chest and pump yourself as fast as you can. He glances at your hand and looks back up at you, licking his lips, and you feel your eyes flutter shut, but you force them open and stare into his glowing eyes. He spreads his legs ever so slightly, and you spill in short spasms over his stomach and chest. His cheeks are flushed with the glow of the moon, and he reaches up and wraps himself around you, his lips feeling like fire against yours.
You both kiss for a long time, just two figures of light in a dark world partially illuminated by the moon and the stars. Your heart's rhythm falls back to the beat of the earth, and you hear his fall back to the pace of the planets and stars. You see the flowers surrounding you, all colored blue and white. His body fades back to darkness, but his eyes stay as bright as they were when you gave him pleasure.
You are not sure of what that means.
☆
The next night, he makes the stars fall in the sky, and the moon glow brighter than you've ever seen it. You ask him why he does this, and he only shrugs, and looks at you with those bright beautiful eyes.
☆
He starts calling you Dave, so you call him John.
It's only fair, right?
It's not like you're giving each other petty nicknames like lovers and humans.
You keep telling yourself that he started it, like a mature adult.
☆
You will not fall in love with him. Your brother always warned you about love, and you will not love him. You are stubborn. It is strange thinking that the earth would fall for space, that they would have an unbreakable bond, and that they share their love through the stars, the earth, and intimacy.
The arms around your shoulders should not count as intimacy, and the way he kissed you so passionately should not be so wonderful.
You left him to talk to your sisters and you went alone to erupt as many dead volcanoes you could. It is wrong that you should be feeling jealousy pool in your stomach when you come back to see him still talking to one of your sisters.
Now you will admit that you are in love with him.
And if he leaves, that will probably help you stop.
☆
You take him at night to the top of the highest mountain and show him the earth.
"I have something to tell you," you say slowly.
"I do, too."
You take his hands in yours and sit on the ground.
"Shall we say it at the same time?"
He smiles up at you and says, "Alright."
You count down from three.
"Dave, I may be in love with you."
"You need to go back home."
The silence that comes afterwards hurts you in your stomach and in your head and in your chest.
"What?" he finally says.
"You cannot stay here."
Your stomach feels empty and you feel as if your heart is being removed from your body.
"Dave, I've loved you for centuries and now that I'm here, you want me to leave?"
"You've only met me."
"Why do you think I make the stars shine for you, and not the humans that pollute your earth? Why do you think I studied you for a thousand years? Darling…"
You comb your hand through his hair, and ignore the brightness fading from his eyes and the sparkles in his tears and the moon and stars softening their glow.
"I am a fool for making you go." You rest your forehead on his. "Love is dangerous, and we both are trapped inside it."
"I do not agree with love being dangerous."
"If you stay away from me long enough, and you see that we want each other still, do come back."
He holds you close to him.
"How long?"
"We have an infinite amount of years ahead of us."
"Leaving you is a nightmare."
"You still have the option to wake up if you love the daytime."
You ignore the tears that mix with his when you kiss him.
☆
The earth is quiet for months later, except for the rustling of the trees, and the occasional howl from a lone wolf. The moon shines fully every night, with the stars shining brighter than that one time he made them shine for you. You see bright explosions in the distance. The moon should not be full every day, and its face should not look sad as it does.
You scream a distress call to only yourself, and maybe your brother and sisters and the ocean heard it. In a split second, they surround you where you're on your knees with your hands pulling at your hair. They try to pry off the roots from you, but you force the trees to move them away.
You surround yourself with the trees and the flowers, blocking everyone out.
☆
The humans' numbers become scarce with each decade, being destroyed by their own experiments, trying to survive by grouping together. You don't care, though, because no creature really can destroy you and the sky is brighter tonight than usual. You see a sparkle becoming bigger and bigger with each second. You stand on a cliff, and it lands beneath you.
The breeze carries you down and this time, you don't send out a distress call. The trees and flowers thank you.
Then emerges a figure from the rocks only defined by its nothingness and void and the specks of light throughout it. Its back is to you, but it then turns around at the sense of your presence.
"Dave?"
You smile at him when he turns into his human form and comes towards you.
"John."
"How long has it been?"
"I was not keeping track of the time."
He wraps his arms around your neck and you pull him against your body while he rubs his nose against yours.
"It feels like it has been a thousand years."
"I have been in love with you ever since."
"Oh thank heavens."
You kiss him.
☆
It is a beautiful sight to see your moon on his knees with your hands tangled with his. His eyes have not stopped glowing so bright, and when he looks at you, his cheeks are tinted with a small light. His knuckles glow brighter every time you squeeze his hands, and his eyes glow brighter with arousal. The glowing freckles on your hands match his knuckles.
Your eyes flutter shut when he moves his head faster and faster, his lips all over you, and when you release, he looks you in the eye, and you squeeze his hands tight, with his name just a whisper on your lips.
☆
You made a house for the both of you, in the tallest trees you know. It is decorated with dozens of John's favorite flowers, and you leave out a wall to stare at his beloved stars, and you watch him as he spells out your names in the sky. You end up giggling like small children and kissing each other until you've kissed every visible place on his skin.
☆
He is the moon and the night sky and the twinkling of the planets and stars. He swears that he only shines bright for you.
You are the earth and the trees and the flowers and the desert. The stars up above only shine for you, and you are incredibly pleased to love the night sky as much as it adores you.