Work Text:
She always looked at the stars with boundless adoration in those big eyes of hers, like a mother looking down at her newborn, or like a child looking up at her parent, with wide eyes filled with wonder. He guessed it made sense; the stars were her creation and her creators after all. She’d been born from them, leaving nothing but emptiness as she came into existence, and honored their sacrifice by etching new ones into the void.
Karkat stared at her for a moment, taking advantage of his unnoticed arrival to indulge on just… looking at her. Her black hair looked like a messy halo around her freckled face, with twigs and blades of grass tangled in between its curls. Her lips were parted, leaving her large front teeth poking out. The simple dress she wore was streaked with dirt, looking damp with midnight dew and slightly tattered at the hem, where little brambles had gotten caught in the fabric. She was a mess, but she looked absolutely lovely nonetheless, like she was one with the grassy plains where she lay.
It pained him a little to do so, because he would have adored nothing more than to leave the scene undisturbed, but he decided to announce his presence with a quiet cough before he started feeling like some sort of creep.
She blinked at the sound, tearing her eyes away from her beloved night sky and towards the old and weakened god of blood.
“Couldn’t sleep? Or did I wake you when I snuck out?” she asked, whispering as if any loud noises would scare away her silently twinkling stars.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘sneaking out’ when you crashed into every single item of furniture you own, Harley,” she made a face at him, and he couldn’t help but chuckle at the way her nose crinkled. “I’m just being honest. You know I have a no-bullshit policy I like to follow at least 80% of the time. Next time just get a lantern or something, night-vision is not part of your power package.”
“It was too much of a hassle! Besides, look at the bright side! Now that you’re awake, you get to stargaze with yours truly.”
Jade patted the ground beside her, and he dropped down onto it with a moody grunt he did not actually mean.
“Alright, Harley,” he said as he lay down beside her, faintly hearing the murmur of immortal blood rushing through her body, “tell me about what you’ve been working on. And you better not subject me to any more idiotic names for these stars. You can’t just name one ‘dog’ and get away with it.”
She huffed, rolling her eyes at him before focusing back on her precious babies. “Oh shut up, will you? Canis is such a good name!” He mumbled something along the lines of ‘unoriginal’ and ‘lackluster’, and she promptly ignored him.
Raising one finger, she pointed towards the brightest star in the sky; a green one Karkat knew very well.
“That one’s going to be called Virira… I think it fits!”
“Vir… wait. Are you calling it green fury? Seriously?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow as he turned his head to look at her.
“Well, yeah! It makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean… yes, it’s a bit literal, but I think I should stay faithful to its… er, origins. You know?”
She wasn’t looking at him. In fact, it was pretty clear she was avoiding his gaze completely. Hell, he could even hear her heartbeat change, immediately giving away the surge of emotionality she was experiencing.
It wasn’t difficult to identify why she felt that way. He knew the star’s story by heart. He’d been there when it burst into life, wiping out everything that had once been in a blinding flash of light and presenting the old gods with their doom in form of a beast.
It wasn’t a story he liked to remember.
“Harley, you don’t have to give it that name. It bothers you. Like, it’s really bothering you,” he stated, looking her firmly in the eyes. “Don’t deny it, I can tell. And if this is you trying to punish yourself—“
“It’s not!” she interrupted, sitting up straight almost defensively. “I just feel like it’s important to have a reminder.”
Karkat scoffed. “A ‘reminder’. Of what, exactly? The time you were completely berserk? Need I ‘remind’ you that you still feel like the universe’s biggest shitstain ever because of it, and wrongly so might I add? Quit the self-flagellation crap, it’s not good for you.”
“I’m not self-flagellating, I’m just making sure I don’t forget what happened so it doesn’t happen again!” She stared at him, and she stared back. Finally, he shrugged and mumbled for her to do whatever she liked, taking the changes in her heartbeat as a sign to stop the conflict from escalating.
A tense silence fell over them as they both stared at the problematic dot of light, which Jade broke soon after.
“I just… I just think it would be like closure,” she said, quiet and toned down. “Like titling a story once you’ve finished it, you know?” He nodded.
“I suppose that makes some sense… as long as you start moving on and stop dwelling on the past. It’s not like you could have controlled it.”
Jade nodded and silence fell again.
Once more, it was her who broke it, but this time with one of those dazzling smiles she never ran out of.
“Wanna name that little star over there? You know, so you don’t have to criticize my name choices?”
He thought for a few moments before settling on the perfect name. One that would perplex and annoy astronomers everywhere eons from then.
“Perite”
Jade punched him. Totally worth it though.