Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

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UNKNOWN COSMOS SHORT STORY 2: Portaled By Peydran

PEYDRAN

Play Stars Dancing by Ren Crieve-Madrano

Curled on my right side, I clutched my arms around me, squinting, slowly breathing one last shallow breath. At least, I hoped it would be the last. I didn't want there to be more; it hurt too bad.

Yes, I, Peydran Crieve-Madrano, was dying. About time, eh? Eight-eight years of life in the Known Cosmos had been mostly good. Except for that really bad one where my left arm got amputated, and I had cybernetic surgery giving me my metal arm.

That had turned out okay in the end because I'd hacked the controlling relay in my brain and could control tech with my mind for nearly seventy years now. Yeah, anything wireless, I could operate it. Didn't care about that when I couldn't breathe, though.

Shallow exhale. Still breathing. Painfully.

What was killing me? Dunno. Time. Old age. Will.

It was time to go home to Ren, my husband. He'd left three months ago, and our son Euri and his band of misfits had followed. Now it was my turn. If I could just figure out how to fucking die already.

Confused? I live in the Known Cosmos. In Andromeda Galaxy on a sphere called Shurwinn. Desert planet, hot sun, lots of telepathic people. And many of them had already left to go somewhere else. I wanted to follow, but I didn't know how. My body knew something, though, because it was getting harder and harder to take those shallow breaths.

For fuck's sakes, was I going to be smothered to death in my own body? What kind of hell was this?

Next shallow breath. My metal arm was around my waist clutching my painful middle, earbuds in my ears, agony in my right side all I could think about.

No, I forced myself to focus on the sound. The one in my ears. My favorite sound.

Something in me relaxed. Just a bit. That sound.

Ren.

His voice, singing to me through my earbuds. The song he wrote when he proposed to me. I let his song fill me one last time.

"Reach beyond the stars. Join with me here. We'll dance beyond eternity, and flow together always."

A wind picked up, howling, blowing, furious, tearing.

I'VE GOT HIM, DAD! declared the mental voice of my boy Euri, but I couldn't focus on it. "Wind of Power" we had named him, and he delivered.

I was tumbling. Tossing. Smashing around. Nearly pulled apart on a wind of power so great it would shred my existence. Wasn't that what I wanted?

"TWO IN HARMONY! MORE THAN A CHORD!" sang my love, and I reached as he commanded.

"Reach beyond the stars! Within you, within me, ALL THINGS CAN BE! We'll be stars dancing, within you, within me."

All of me rose up to meet Ren's song that breached the barrier between realms, and I was blue light, no longer carried upon my son's wind, but pulled forth by my husband's voice, calling me into the Unknown Cosmos.

I became the music.

"Two in harmony! More than a chord! None that exists, and so much more! Within you, within me, all things can be!"

I was harmony to Ren's voice. I felt lips on the back of my neck. I remembered to have a torso.

And legs.

And feet.

There was a hand running down my bare left arm.

I FELT A HAND ON MY SKIN.

I looked down at my brown skin.

I HAD AN ARM.

I spun around, facing him, lifting my left hand to his face for the first time. Skin on his cheek.

Ren's face turned, and lips kissed my palm.

Joy poured out of me as laughter, and Ren's face broke open.

"Hey, Pey'o. Told you I'd be a song and stay with you."

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I grabbed him. No longer old men, we were free of all restraints. My human left arm went around his back and felt his skin. My right hand circled his neck and pulled his mouth to mine. I wasn't wearing clothes. Convenient. I liked the Unknown Cosmos already.

"Ummm, Pey'o, don't stop."

"Not a chance, Ro."

He threw me on the ground and pounded against me, both of us smiling and glowing and thinking of nothing but each other. Lube? Didn't need it anymore, our bodies just made whatever we could think of.

"All things can be," eh? Holy fucks, there were no limits. What was Ren gonna do to me without boundaries?

He felt me wonder it and laughed against my lips. He kissed me all over and reminded me what it was like to be loved. We were whole, and we were free.

"What've you been doing for the last three months, Ren?"

"Months?"

He shook his head and shrugged. "Well, Euri and Shah sort of talked to me on the wind, I think. Then I felt you, and I sang, and here we are."

"Like, you just died, a minute ago?"

Shrugging.

"Hunh. What to we do now?"

Ren got a sneaky grin on his face and sprang. Laughing, I fell backwards and let him devour me again. Okay, that's what we were gonna do? All of eternity? Snogging and shagging? Why not?

"Alright, Pey'o, we're home, we've thoroughly fucked. Now what?"

"I expected you to show me around. It's been months. Hmmm. Has it? Is there time here? Hey, Ro, do you hear Dwin? Rory? The kids?"

Eyes closed, Ren shook his head. We both sent our senses out along the breeze. Focus. Oh, there was Euri.

Hi, son.

Hi, dad. Smiling. Welcome home. You look good. Sound good. Singing, dad?

I nodded. I'd been tone deaf in Andromeda, but no more.

No metal arm anymore either, Euri. Oh, hi Shah, good to see you, honey. Hey, where are you two?

I had the distinct impression of a blue and pink waterfall and two minds being coy.

Okay, okay. Keep your secrets. Hey Ro, I like the look of that waterfall—

But the scenery around us had already shifted. My eyes bugged out, and Ren laughed. We were standing on a tiny ridge, backs to grey rock, thunderous waterfall pouring from above our heads down to a pond below. Ren's hand slipped into mine, and he tugged.

"Waaaaaaaah!" I screamed.

"Heeeeeeeee!" Ren laughed in glee as we plummeted through water and smacked the surface of a pool, plunging down, the weight of the waterfall smashing out heads under. I popped to the surface spluttering, and Ren was bent over, standing in a pond, cackling. I lunged for him and pushed him under the water, but he was no longer there. My arms slipped off of an eel, and a jolt of electricity sent me back pedaling.

"Asshole! Who's the asshole, now Ren?"

My brain was filled with his gleeful laugh and something shot out of the water onto the bank. I made my way to it, and it became a donkey, braying. I lost it, laughing 'til my sides hurt, and Ren was suddenly himself again.

"Damn, honey, you're good at that. What the sands are you doing?"

He shrugged, but I felt his mind focus. Think, and everything shifts.

I thought about my metal arm, and suddenly it was back. Focus. Human arm with skin. Weird.

"What's the limits, Ro?"

Raised eyebrows.

I grabbed both his hands, and our minds melded into one. We reached out, sensing the whole world around us. An entire sphere. It was ours; there were no other minds there, but if we quested out. . .

My heart stuttered. Then overflowed. Filled with her: my best friend, Ryst.

Emotion leaked out my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. Decades since she'd left.

Sunshine, Peydran. Did ya miss me?

Ryst! How?! How do we get to you?

Everything in me scrambled. I felt Nayth too, of course I did! He was right there with her.

Well, I don't really know, Peydran. You see what's around us?

Kinda'. Pink? Puffy stuff? Are you in a watermelon?

Booming laughter. All Nayth with a tinkling sound of Ryst mixed in.

It's the world we're exploring. We just keep popping around. We could try to go where you are? Is that what you want?

Ren shook his head.

Not yet, Ryst. Give us a chance to play. We'll figure it out and catch you up. Go have fun.

Love you so much, Ren, Peydran.

I know. We love you too, Ryst.

See you soon. Sunshine.

And they were gone.

Ren grabbed me by the waist, and we were on top of a white tower, looking out over a pink sky. Far below was a turquoise lake, pebbled with stones that looked like rainbow-colored glass.

"You're good at this, Ro."

He just grinned, and a forest rose around us, tree branches meeting the edge of the roof. We skipped over to it, and ran along a branch to the trunk where a path curved around the tree, always going up. We reached the top of the tree, and Ren leapt, my hand in his. We caught a breeze and rode it, over tree tops, across the lake, and upwards, cresting above hills of grass, roaring over a river, and landing softly on a sandy beach.

I let my feet feel the sand and sent my senses out. I felt her more than heard her.

Our granddaughter Rory sang a comforting tune to her grandson, Pitch, for he'd awoken from a nightmare in tears.

Nightmare? Ren's attention focused with me. We couldn't see the nightmare, only the memory of it as Rory sang it away.

She smiled then, feeling us on the breeze, and told the little one, "Your great-grandpas just came to see you. They love you, and so do I." Pitch fell asleep on her shoulder.

They faded, and Ren and I smiled at each other. They were never far away. They'd hear us on the breeze, just like always.

Ungh.

Something punched me mentally. It wasn't a presence I was expecting. It was kinda' skunky.

Muller?

He'd been a very powerful telepath in Andromeda and a friend of Euri's.

You got two skin arms now, eh, Peydran?

I suppose you're whole too?

Cackling. Mental picture of him with a metal leg and metal arm. Doing kinky things with his husband Slick I didn't particularly want to see.

Chuckling from Ren.

Really, Ren? You're gonna go with that?

More laughing. Okay, yeah, I laughed too. They all liked ribbing me about crap like that and said I'd always been an easy target.

Wait— Muller, do you have your own world?

Eye roll.

Don't give me that bull shit, you've been here for decades.

Shoulder shrug. Time was a relative concept. If you wanted time to pass, it passed. Hunh. I forgot about Muller.

I realized my eyes were closed. There was grass on my bare butt. Uncomfortable, prickly grass. I remembered shorts. I no longer felt the grass. A hand on the back of my neck. Arms around my waist. A hard cock against my back.

My breath hitching. Hands reaching down and stoking me into an inferno. Ren inside me. I forgot everything but him for a while.

The night sky tore open, and we were pulled out. Ren held me to him, smiling at me as stars passed us by. Lights blitzed past us, and I felt Ren's mind focus on where we were going next.

"Blennalach," he called it, and the word was something I knew but had forgotten.

Blennalach, I repeated. Over and over in my mind as stars soared past us. Then I saw it, a green light far ahead.

Blennalach, Ren and I resounded with the word, and it pulled us forward. Our feet crashed through green light, and reality splintered. We landed in a haze of green and purple fog, crowded by presences. Small ones. Familiar and unknown at once.

I sat down, pulling Ren with me. All around us were furry creatures, not much more than mice, but made of every color imaginable. They darted around us, over us, and each sang its own note. Ren's voice joined them, and mine did too. It was a joyful little tune of homecoming and familiarity. As though we'd been there and sung it thousands of times.

That's when I noticed the cabin off to the side. I smiled at Ren and the Blennalachs stepped aside as we made our way to the porch. Was it a cabin we'd been to before? Not exactly. But it was like something we'd been in on our first date, with a twist.

It wasn't wood; it was metal. Tiny bits of a metal I couldn't name, polished into a charcoal sheen and decorated with soft fabrics that blew in the breeze. Ren and I sat on the porch, legs dangling off the side and sang silly tunes with our tiny friends.

We forgot.