walk beneath the stars
CN: anxiety, spiralling
[a little birthday writing for Noel (papp_n_paper on twitter). Tony belongs to them, November belongs to @constantlytiredghost. this takes place at the end of our Stormchaser run.]
Found my friends, I'm not dead, here we go again
What's the time? How long has it been?
Help me come alive, sail across the sky, take me further
Can we last all night again?
Hayley Kiyoko - Found My Friends
„Well, who won?“ Tony’s voice was a whisper, but they made up for that by increasing the volume, so it carried down from the crow’s nest to the deck where Wilhelmina was standing.
“Uh…” Wilhelmina adjusted her glasses. “I couldn’t really tell,” she mumbled. “You were both pretty fast, so I think…” She trailed off.
“So it’s a tie,” Tony said. Wilhelmina could tell November was nodding even from the distance, because her big hat was bobbing along with it.
Wilhelmina exhaled in relief. She had almost expected them to be disappointed by the lack of a result, even angry at her for not paying closer attention. Which, at this point, was a stupid thing to think. If they wanted to find a fault in Wilhelmina, they had had so many chances, so why still wait? Wilhelmina had been forced to accept that Tony and November (and Kobalt, and maybe even the rest of the hired group and the crew but she did not want to think about that, she did not want to consider that) actually liked her. And still, she couldn’t shake that feeling, that dread of waiting for the other shoe to drop, like it so often did. In the end, she always expected to be excluded, and usually she made it easy for herself and everyone else by shutting them out, pushing them away, making herself hated before anyone else could hate her of their own volition. She couldn’t do that here, though. Not with these people. Not with people who made it so hard for her to hate them. Not with Tony, and not with November either.
“Hey, Wilhelmina!”
Tony’s call ripped her out of her thoughts and sent that little shock through her body that oh so often preceded an unconsciously called bubble of Darkness forming around her. But she could keep it together this time, though the shadows must be covering her entire face now. She realized she’d been spiralling again.
At least Tony and November didn’t seem to have noticed.
“Do you want to come up here as well?” November asked.
Or maybe they had simply ignored it.
Wilhelmina shook her head.
“Oh, are you scared of heights?” November asked, but Tony already shook her head. They had asked her the same question.
High places didn’t scare Wilhelmina, especially not after what had happened during the storm – what scared her was being up there in a close space with two people, and no polite way to leave if she didn’t know what to say or how to behave and what if she stepped on one of them while scrambling over the edge of the crow’s nest, what if she poked them with her horns accidentally, what if she was a general nuisance? No, she preferred to stay down here, at a safe distance, where nobody could take any issues with her.
She heard quiet whispering exchanged between Tony and November. Good. Let them have fun together without her. That was much more probable anyway.
Then Tony called again: “Wait a moment, Wilhelmina.”
She looked up and saw Tony had stood up. They stepped up to the rim, their wide dark cloak billowing in the wind. Their eyes gleamed a bit lighter, and then they put one foot forward into the air, where it found purchase. They stepped forward, and one foot in front of the other walked downwards like on an invisible staircase. The sight was mesmerizing in itself.
Finally, Tony came to a halt directly in front of Wilhelmina, levitating one foot off the planks of the ship. They smiled at her and held out a hand.
Wilhelmina instinctively took a small step back and then felt her face darken in embarrassment.
“Come on, it’ll be fun.” Tony’s smile didn’t waver, and they didn’t pull away their hand.
Wilhelmina bit her lip and then took Tony’s hand.
It felt like moonlight touching her skin. A feeling of lightness came over her as Tony pulled her up to them, like she wasn’t flying but rather submerged in a weightless space where she could float, like ink dripped in water. It felt like time had slowed and she was falling, but in slow motion. And then she wondered how many of those sensations came from Tony’s magic and how many from Tony grasping her hand and wrapping their other arm around her shoulder to pull her up into the air. Wilhelmina felt heat rise to her cheeks and for once she was happy for the involuntary magical shadows clouding her face.
“Everything alright?” Tony asked.
Wilhelmina nodded mechanically.
Tony took a step forward and upward. As she was pulled along, Wilhelmina reflexively moved her legs as well, even though logically she knew that there was no place to put her feet. She could feel her heart beating faster and hoped Tony didn’t notice. She wished she didn’t have to be so close, but –
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”
Wilhelmina looked up at Tony in surprise and only now noticed that she was holding their hand in a tight grasp. She felt the cold of the shadows join the heat on her cheeks.
“Sorry, I…” She trailed off. What was she supposed to say? That she was still kind of expecting them to let go at just the right moment for her to crash on the deck and break and never get up again? That that was what she was always secretly waiting for?
“You don’t have to apologize, Wilhelmina.” Tony’s voice sounded a bit hesitant now as well. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have talked you into this. Do you want to go back down?”
Her first instinct was to nod, but this time she shut that down. She considered it for a moment. Looked up to the crow’s nest that was already so close. November was leaning over the rim, waving her hands at them, smiling. Wilhelmina swallowed down her fear and shook her head, directed her gaze at to the side for distraction. From here, she could see over the railing of the ship, at the clouds below it, and beyond those the starry sky stretching to infinity.
Four more steps and they arrived at the crow’s nest. Tony set her down inside. As soon as they let go of her, Wilhelmina felt the weight return to her body and stumbled. November held out her arms to support her. When she had regained her balance, she sat down, back against the wooden planks, knees drawn up to her chest.
Tony floated down as well now, sitting closer to November. “That was a lot nicer than last time we both got up here, don’t you think?” they said to Wilhelmina.
She nodded her head. Last time had been the storm. She had felt just as weightless then, but in a frightening way. She had also held on to Tony just as tightly.
“It’s beautiful up here, isn’t it?” November said, her hand holding her hat as she raised her face up to the stars.
Wilhelmina nodded again and noticed that she was shaking.
November looked over to her “Are you cold?”
“I guess I am,” she lied. “I’m sorry, I left my coat in my room. Maybe I should head down again – “
Before she could even get up, Tony had undone the clasp of their cloak and thrown the wide fabric over everyone in the crow’s nest like a blanket.
“Better?” they asked.
Wilhelmina nodded, a bit perplexed.
“Oh, this is so comfortable,” November said. She edged closer to Wilhelmina, so the cloak was easier to share, and Tony did the same. An internal scream was building up inside her mind, and it was begging to be let out, directed at Tony and November, demanding to leave her alone, to keep their distance, to let her leave and go to her room and lock herself in, so she could… do what? Sit there, all alone, in a sleepless night, paging through the books that barely interested her? Would that really be that much better? Or would she just imagine what it could have been like if she had stayed? Worse, would she imagine November and Tony being happy without her? Would she imagine them doing what she didn’t dare to do?
She held the scream in. And tried to relax a bit. And only now noticed that neither of them were touching her, keeping a bit of distance, like they knew it could become overwhelming for her. Searching for a distraction, Wilhelmina looked up at the stars.
“You know the constellations, don’t you, Tony?” she said, trying to keep her voice steady.
Tony’s eyes gleamed in the darkness, like they were two stars themselves. “Yes, do you know about them as well?” There was that sound again in their voice, that genuine admiration, that was so strange to Wilhelmina. The thought of disappointing them scared her, but still, she shook her head.
“Barely. Astronomy was one of the few subjects my parents weren’t interested in. They said it’s better to keep your eyes on the things in front of you. But,” she said, a bit panicked now. “You could show them to us. If you want. I’d be interested.” And then she shut herself up.
“I’d like to know as well,” November said.
Now Tony seemed a bit flustered, but excited as well. “Well, if you’re interested, let me see, where to start… You see those two star clusters, kind of round?” they called out then excitedly and pointed up into the sky. “We call those Where Selûne Looks Back, though I think they have a different name that’s more commonly known.”
Wilhelmina followed their finger with her eyes and looked up at the oval constellations. “I think I’ve heard them called Eyes of the Watching Woman,” she said.
“Yes, that’s it.”
“Wait, where?” November asked.
Wilhelmina pointed up as well. “To the west, right next to that big star.”
November leaned in closer to better follow Wilhelmina’s pointing. Her shoulder bumped against her arm. She shivered, and not just because November’s skin was colder than hers, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Oh, I see!”
Tony continued talking about the constellation, it’s meaning and significance in culture and navigation. Then they went on to the next star cluster, showing them Auroth the Ice Snake, the Centaur, the Sleepless Knights, and many more.
As they pointed out one after the other, the three people in the crow’s nest moved closer and closer under the cloak. November put her hand in Wilhelmina’s, and Tony wrapped their tail around hers, seemingly without noticing. And for once, Wilhelmina didn’t feel uncomfortable. She listened closely to their words and held on to both of them.
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