15
Some things are hopeless. Leo was determined to not talk about the incident at the bridge.
Trees became steel and windows, skyscrapers mingled with the stars in the night sky, and grass became cement and lamp posts sprouted from the ground like weeds.
She talked about everything–everything that was unimportant and dull to talk about–anything but about Ruin.
Not without some honest effort from the stars, who tried to suggest conversation topics that would lead Leo to open up.
A hint here and there about seeing other stars replied with a bereft 'no, no other stars.'
Little nudges about her history inside the dreams with a resounding insignificant and brief 'not much to say.'
Quark was giving up hope. As he should—Leo was being hopelessly stubborn. They walked through the threshold of the steal-sprocket fence into a park that was more concrete than trees, and she hadn't said much yet. Pulse placed their hand on Quark's shoulder, signifying it was time to relent.
Pulse decided on a whole new route to take: “What's the music like in your world?”
After countless attempts of prodding her, Leo was apprehensive —rightfully—while she tilted her head at Pulse. “What would you like to know?”
“I want to know the sounds, the music. I got to listen to, what's his name... David Bowie? He sounds like Black Star, but you also mentioned 'Emo Punk?' What is that?”
It was a genuine question. Leo tapped her lips with her pointer, wondering how someone with only a rudimentary knowledge of music could explain her favorite songs to the galaxy's musical savant.
The trio kept walking, making their way to the center.
“It's more niche than you might be used to. Given, I don't know how the rest of your choir sounds.”
Ghosts were sparse tonight. Some looked to have been drunk, and sounded it too, others having a lovely incoherent chat as they went the opposite direction of the three, passing them with a roaring laugh.
“My friends and I were as punk as white, sliced bread, but we listened a lot to Fallout Boy, My Chemical Romance, All American Rejects, the whole list. My personal favorite was Coheed and Cambria. They just had that right sound for me. Fuck, how do I even explain it...”
She circled descriptors—trying to find the right one to fit her favorite band.
They approached a house-sized fountain in the middle of the park, tiered for cascading waterfalls of orange glowing and teal-shaded water.
It smelled of chlorine and tasted of roses.
Leo sat heavily on the fountain's plinth, giving an exasperated huff.
“I'm so sorry, I just can't explain. Coheed and Cambria have that unique quality, from their singer to the guitar, it all resonated with me to where I don't have the words....”
“Then that's good enough.” Pulse, with their most dashing of smiles, sat next to her and elbowed her in the arm. “I understand completely.”
“Oh don't try to coddle me. I know I'm doing a poor job at explaining...”
“What, do you think I didn't come from your place before?”
Leo looked at them incredulously. “You are one of the musically inclined people I know.”
“But I came from somewhere. I can learn music very well, but I started not having that experience. I have a knack for it, sure, but… Well, take Quark for instance.”
Quark froze in the spotlight. “M-Me what?”
“I mean you're a bit of a savant too, I gather,” Pulse explained to Quark's embarrassment. “You should listen to him sometimes with the stuff he notices. He talks a lot out loud, and he makes a lot of observations that would skim past anyone else. Right Quark?”
Quark was glowing pink of pure luminescence. Leo laughed.
“Oh don't be so shy, doll,” She teased him. “God, ain't he the cutest when he blushes?”
Pulse couldn't resist. “Outright Adorable.”
“You two are horrible...” Quark tried to use his hair to cover his cheeks, but the glow extended down his neck and into his chest.
“Oh sweety, don't be embarrassed!” Leo tugged on his sleeve. “We say it out of good nature.”
“You need to give yourself some credit here.” Pulse reminded them, tugging on his other sleeve. “You are a very dashing thing.”
“You guys...” Quark shuffled his feet, looking over his shoulder so he didn't face them. The two tugged on him more, urging him to sit with them.
“Come sit with us?” Pulse said. “Don't be so distant.”
“Uh-uh,” Quark shook his head, whipping his hair around so it flopped between hues of cyan, lavender, and pearl. “You guys will trap me and make me blush more!”
“Of course we are,” Pulse teased again, with a tricky grin this time. “You are most dashing when you glow pink like that.”
“You are an evil little flirt!” Quark pushed on their shoulder, tipping them back a ways.
“I am not!”
“Yes, you are! Saying those kinds of things just to get me riled up...”
“But you like hearing them, right?”
Quark, foolishly, didn't say anything.
“Oh he loves it,” said Leo.
“N-No!”
“Yes, you do!” Pulse turned their face a bit.
Something happened in Quark then.
He panicked.
This was the Cosmic Darling, cupping the face of a little non-special Dwarf star, and as platonic as the touch was, it made the poor thing surge in a blinding fear.
Did he like the touch? Yes. Too much. He liked the touch so much it made him flare into a pure magenta glow that spread over his shoulders, gasp, and push Pulse hard enough to knock them backward into the fountain.
Going fully under beside his calves down which hung over the ledge, and shooting back up with a startled breath of air.
Poor Quark was humiliated, shocked, and devastated. Mortification struck him stupid. Pulse looked at him trying to sputter out a coherent apology, repeating 'I'm sorry' like he was begging for mercy.
“Oh, you're going to get it now,” Pulse said.
Quark let out another yelp as Pulse yanked him into the fountain with them.
Now, Quark's hair clung to their face, their clothes sopping and water steaming off him.
He shouted a 'hey' in indignation when Pulse gave them a splash.
Quark splashed the water again. Pulse returned the favor.
They played in the water until Quark was laughing so hard his eyes were almost welded shut.
Leo was still dry.
Then, suddenly, she wasn't.
The two stars teamed up against the common foe and threw water at Leo, who was laughing at their antics with snorts and wheezes. She jumped in, re-invigorating the water wars.
Quark was thrown into the water every time he tried to make a quick escape. One time, Leo tackled him, wrestling him down with a wet, fat kiss on his cheek. “To keep you nice and toasty,” she would tell him, and the blush would creep back over his skin. He’d splash her back in defiance.
Pulse’s laugh was, to Quark, musical. A brightness he could see, a song he could taste– sweet, earthy, with a flare of tang.
Pulse was laughing so much they didn’t notice all the times Quarks eyes lingered on them a little too long, or the fact he would be hanging on a little too tight as they picked him up out of the water and dunk him under the pouring spouts.
It’s because they’re warm, he reasoned. Because the water was sapping the heat out from the core and Pulse wasn’t affected like that.
A lie that Quark couldn’t keep up. It was because Pulse’s skin was soft–their jacket was thrown over the plinth, dripping onto the concrete.
It was made with a fine attention to detail–it was created out of love.
It was made with the spectrum of orange and red and made a new gold out of it.
A body of a dancer; to be strong and elegant.
Toned, fine-tuned, precise, perfect. This was the vessel in which the universe creates music, after all.
Those pesky daydreams of his came to surface, imagining moments where Pulse would cradle him in their arms and sing all their favorite songs.
Once or twice, Quark got so distracted by it; he didn't notice Leo and Pulse had conspired to tickle him.
Leo, of course, was a fine addition to the play, adding that extra flare of mischief and fun.
‘I want this moment to last forever,’ Was a wish that could never be granted. Shivering, teeth clacking, and his lips taking on an awful shade of blue, Leo decided that it was time to end the battle between them, and initiated a truce.
She didn’t react to the cold, but her fingers were taking on a color that wasn’t normal for her at all. Pulse was still warm–had protested slightly, asking for a few more minutes in the water. “C’mon now, Quark is going to freeze his ass off at this rate!” That got them to come out.
All of them retreated into the heart of the city in search of some dry clothes.
Shivering and languid, a plopping of water hitting concrete, wet shoes and bare feet; He could feel how pitiful he looked trying to rub his arms as his sweater dripped, leaving a breadcrumb trail from the fountain.
Pulse’s cowlick hung down in front of their face, dangling there as water fell off.
Quark tried, and failed, to not stare at Pulse again.
Thinking they could focus on Leo, whose clothes hung heavy off her body and showing details he had never seen before, failed again in not starting.
Then, the ground became particularly interesting to look at.
Besides some giggles that breaks out from them, they wander the streets, window shopping without paying attention to what's behind the glass. Quark and Pulse get caught up in their thoughts, reminiscing and cementing on their favorite parts of the water fight.
Leo broke the silence. “I never had that much fun with Ruin...”
It was sudden, unexpected, they could see she wanted to say more but was hitting a wall that wouldn't relent for her. A wall she built, and was trying to at least take out a few bricks.
Quark tilted his head. “Oh?”
“Like, we had fun,” she restated. “But like that? I realize now that he was always sort of... well, more laid back, I guess?”
“You guess?”
“It's hard to remember back then. I know I kept journals on him, I know I had kind things to say about him. I know we used to have good times, but... Something happened between us. He wasn't always a Black Hole, he was someone special to me. I thought he was.”
After a quick, wordless exchange With Pulse, Quark, he asked “What happened to him?”
Leo shook her head. She was fighting the wall to forsake details, but she remained vague. “A lot of things. Too many things. I had to break up with him in the end. That was the final straw.”
Pulse and Quark had the same questions in mind. They wanted to ask a few more. 'Did he break the pull?' 'What did he do to break it?' But Leo was beginning to draw away; her eyes started to look beyond into the void of the skies, so Pulse quickly anchored her back down to earth.
“What should we do now?” They asked. “Do we still have time?”
Leo thought about it. “We should. Can you guys suggest anything?”
“I want a warm bed to lay in right now,” Quark shivered and blew into his hands. “I am so cold right now.”
A smile; a hint of peculiarity, twitched one corner of her mouth.
“Yeah, let me warm you guys up real nice. Follow me.”