for the minific ask meme: hurloane and o (space/stars)?
“I really hope you appreciate all I do for you,” Sloane called down as she balanced on a thick branch, standing on tiptoe to reach a higher bough.
From below, she heard Hurley laugh. “You’re gonna thank me for this in a minute.”
“You do realize Candlenights isn’t for almost another month, right? Why do you want to decorate now?”
“So we can enjoy having the decorations up for longer! Hey, can you hang a few stars on the lower left of the tree? It’s looking barren.”
She sighed and climbed down to the lower branches. In the past, Sloane’s plans for the Candlenights season had included robbing department stores of their swollen holiday profits and sleeping away the lengthening nights. Hurley, who had strung garland around every inch of their home from the bedroom to the garage (the garage!) and who had organized a gift exchange with friends for the next three weekends, felt rather differently.
“This isn’t even the right kind of tree,” she said, navigating the spindlier branches as she moved around in the canopy. “Why do you want to decorate the cherry tree.”
“My family and I used to decorate all the trees around our house. Big and small. We never cut them, just hung ornaments on them wherever they stood. It made the whole neighborhood bright.”
“Hey, am I done? How does it look?”
“Yeah, you should come down!”
Sloane dropped out of the tree and landed on her feet. Hurley had taken a seat on the ground leaning against the trunk, and she joined her there. Both of them looked up to see the star-shaped ornaments dangling down above them, some of them lost in the pink foliage that kept blooming, impossibly, in the middle of winter.
“Well,” said Sloane. “It’s nice, but it’ll be hard for people to see them at a distance in the dark.”
Hurley hadn’t stopped smiling all night, and that comment didn’t cause her grin to waver. “You see the stars best in the dark,” she replied. And with that, she clapped her hands together and sent out a small wave of magical energy.
In an instant, the tree dazzled. The star ornaments began to glow like fireflies interspersed amongst the blossoms. They glowed to dispel the darkness of the surrounding evening, encircling them in a golden glow and setting the tree, the night, on fire.
She must have looked surprised, because Hurley gently nudged her and asked, “So you do like it, huh?”
“Yeah,” she answered quietly. “Yeah, I do.”
“I was hoping you would.”
But it wasn’t the lights that had amazed her. Sloane had seen a number of Candlenights trees in her life, in stores around the season and through the windows of homes. All were bright, nothing new. What stuck out now was the realization that, every time up until now, she had been alone when she watched the lights on those trees flick on. It had always been a solo experience.
Now, with another against her, with Hurley’s arms around her waist, the light pouring down from the stars above her was not just light. It was, too, warmth.
(Hope you like this one! Sorry it’s a bit short.)