@nestflown sent: 💋 for nil owo <3 // send 💋 to kiss my muse.
he’s always liked the stars - the way they glitter, flicker in and out, a jittery sparkle upon his machinery. he has not yet had the chance to see all that’s out there, but he dreams it sometimes, imagines what it must be like to find himself floating amongst that nebulous ocean.
more than the stars, even, he likes the way they shine on grayson, steady little pinpricks of light in the depths of his gaze. NIL watches them, sometimes, more than he would care to admit, how solid their hands are as they fit puzzle pieces into place and how their hair sweeps over their forehead without them noticing, barely brushes their nose when they’re focused. the moon casts silver on the cut of a cheekbone where he sits beside NIL, chin propped on his hand and eyes glued to the projector screen he’s set up before them. it’s a movie he’d wanted to watch, something he had insisted on showing NIL. he’s trying to pay attention to it, he is, but he’s distracted. his thought patterns are disjointed, a constant circle back to the same original path he had set out on.
“ they fit you, ” NIL says, realizes he’s spoken an incomplete thought aloud. grayson turns to look at him, eyebrows lifted. “ the stars, i mean. constant, bright. as you are. ” it’s more serious of a confession than he realizes, and he stills, eyes shifting away and back to the movie as he tries to backtrack. human customs, confessions, still escape him, but he knows comparing one to the night sky, blue as the sea and just as endless, firmly crosses into the romantic category. he sees grayson blink in his peripheral, but NIL pointedly avoids eye contact. “ i apologize. that is not something friends usually say to each other. ”
but there’s a hand, then, at his collar, knuckles brushing the warm metal at his throat. NIL's optics snap back to grayson, an inquisitive chirp between them from the back of his palate. he’s tugged forward, just enough to sway, and a mouth presses to his own, warm and very soft. NIL’s eyelids flutter, and his hand skims grayson’s waist, settles carefully to the side and over the blanket they share. it’s over in an instant, the time between one heartbeat and the next, but the imprint remains on his lips, warm and phantom.
“ not too much, then, ” he murmurs, and grayson half-smiles, a little crooked. NIL’s gaze dips, tracks it, and grayson tucks his head beneath his chin, settles close.
the stars wink, looking on.
