Rewrite The Stars - Rayllum
This is heavily inspired by the musings between myself and @deetheteadrinkingdragon , along with @my-daughter-rayla who started the thread. I dedicate this to you two, so enjoy some Rayllum fluff!
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“Isn’t it beautiful?”
Callum stares at the night sky, entranced. Watching the sky had never been one of his hobbies, but here, in Xadia…
The stars were stunning.
“Yeah,” he answers after a minute, turning his head to give Rayla a sheepish glance, “it is.”
Zym is curled up, fast asleep, next to them, his head snuggled into Rayla’s lap. It’s adorable, and Callum would be drawing the scene if it weren’t for the clear skies above them. They had just passed a village and were sitting atop a grassy hill, overlooking the buildings below. Without trees, the stars were in plain view, and there were so many.
“I’ve never seen so many stars before,” he breathes, mostly to himself. There are so many that he isn’t sure he could draw them all.
“Meira is out tonight,” Rayla mentions, stretching her arms from her position on the grassy earth, “that’s my favorite constellation.”
“Meira?” Callum questions, turning his head to look at her once again.
She meets his confused gaze, looking quizzical at first before her expression melts into something more akin to amusement.
“You… don’t know what constellations are, do you?” She asks, a teasing disbelief in her tone.
“In my defense, I never studied the stars much,” Callum attempts to defend himself.
Rayla just rolls her eyes before returning her gaze to the sky. She hums lightly before pointing, “do you see the petal-like shape that those stars are making?”
He looks in the direction she’s pointing, eyes narrowing before he finds the stars she’s talking about, “...yeah, I see them.”
“Well, that’s Meira. Legend says she was an earthblood elf who was obsessed with flowers. Used them for everything. She invented the tradition of giving flowers to someone you love,” Rayla explains, a fond smile on her face, “when I was really little, I would pretend to be her and throw flowers at people. Runaan hated it, but Tikaal always laughed.”
Her eyes mist up at the mention of the elves who raised her, and Callum frowns. He doesn’t get to hear her talk about her childhood much - mostly because it always brings bad memories - but he hates seeing her upset so he points at a random star, “what about that one?”
Rayla smiles at him, which is a relief, and then glances up and says, with full sincerity, “that one is the jellytart constellation.”
“Rayla, you didn’t know what a jellytart was, why would there be a constellation for it?”
She laughs then, a playful sound, “okay, okay, I may have made that up. Not every star has a constellation you know.” She gestures to another small grouping of stars, “that one is the Great Hunter Maanos. He was supposed to be this super powerful sunfire elf who pretty much invented the modern ways of fighting. See that triangle? It’s supposed to be the shape of his belt.”
“Wow,” Callum breathes.
Rayla smiles again, “the pointed star next to him is supposed to be Leilaana, his lover. Story has it that she, a startouch elf, taught him everything.” Her eyes start to mist up again, “the stories say that she was first known as Lilaan, son of the famous startouch elf Corinth. Her story represents becoming your true self. Runaan would tell me her story all the time, back when I was super resentful of my parents. He told me that my parents didn’t define me, that they had no say in the way I lived and that I should be proud of myself.”
“Rayla,” Callum swallows, lightly reaching out to touch her shoulder. The distance between them had somehow gotten shorter and he almost smacks her in the face.
She doesn’t look at him, wiping at her eyes and seemingly lost in thought.
He can’t think of anything to say - comforting has never been his forte, regardless of how much he shares her pain - so he decides to do the thing he’s best at.
“You know, if you look up and you see that circlet of stars,” he starts, and Rayla looks at him curiously, “that is… uh… the Great Banther, protector of the animals.”
“What?”
“You know! It’s a king, a leader. All the animals look up to the skies and see the Great Banther and know that they are safe,” Callum says all of this with all the sincerity he can muster, keeping his expression neutral even as his lips itch to smile.
Rayla stares at him for a full minute before she snorts, “that… that looks nothing like a banther.”
“It’s true!” He insists, scanning the sky for a minute before pointing in a random direction, “and that one… that one with the interlapping rectangles is called the Dumb Human Who Can’t Make A Box, as named by the dumb human who tried to draw a box but didn’t connect the rectangles.”
He must sound ridiculous because she openly laughs, “Callum, that’s The Lover’s Dance!”
“Well, it is now the Dumb Human Who Can’t Make A Box. Dumb Human, for short,” he says, barely managing to keep a straight face even as she shakes her head.
“You’re a dumb human,” Rayla says fondly, looking over at him again. The pale moonlight catches her eyes, making them sparkle.
And you’re beautiful, he thinks before the words catch up to him and he blanches internally. He can’t just say that out loud so instead he shrugs, “you keep me around anyways.”
“Of course I do.” And then somehow, somehow, her head is brushing his shoulder, her arm languidly atop of his hand, and she’s still staring at the sky so he doesn’t even think she noticed.
It’s a closure that almost makes him blush because yeah, they’re close but they’re practically snuggling together at this point and it isn’t helping his thoughts any.
For lack of word, he just sighs and glances upwards again. Callum has to force himself to relax, keeping an eye on the few constellations that she had pointed out. “Thanks for showing me, Rayla.”
She doesn’t answer.
He glances over at her when a few minutes pass and she hasn’t said anything, only to find her eyes closed, her body relaxed for what must be the first time in days.
He smiles.
“Good night, Rayla.”
And if he has the tiniest of crushes on her…
Well, he can think about that in the morning.