Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

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RORY

The Joon family decided to settle on Uno permanently. Funny thing: once they got to the city, got away from their old life and met separatists who were used to quirky people, they stopped feeling like they needed to hide. Once they got comfortable, they suddenly liked Nineton and the life it had to offer.

There was a neighborhood about ten minutes from the hospital with townhouses for families, and Slydar's siblings all bought places there. Slick moved in with Dav to help out with little Tyke, but most everyone spent as much time as possible at the hospital to be there for Slydar's dad.

Slydar and I kept our hotel room across the street from the hospital where Muller was in hospice so we could stay close by, and the days ticked by as we went back and forth visiting, taking food, and crashing back to sleep. Everything felt like it was moving so quickly that we didn't know what to plan for the longterm.

When Muller's augmented leg got infected, he went downhill rapidly. Cancer. Infection. Ready to be done.

The only request Muller made of his family was for everyone to come to a party in his room on his fifty-second birthday, so of course, we did as he asked. We watched old videos of Muller and Slick skating, the kids being brought home and growing up, and their twentieth wedding anniversary party at the skate park earlier that year.

Muller died that night.

"I don't like anything about this, baby, but I'm glad my dad isn't suffering anymore. Does that make me a bad person?" Slydar asked once we'd said our goodbyes.

"No, Sly, that's what we do for people we love: we let them go when they're ready."

Tears down his cheeks. Chest quaking.

Ronnie says it's not over. That there's another world.

I nodded. That's what the Known Cosmos Earth Press is about, Sly. All my work. Yeah, we get gifted people to come here to Five Spheres, but it's also about telling people that there's an Unknown Cosmos too.

Can I still talk to him?

His body's gone, but he isn't. He's a telepath, you're a telepath. Try.

I can't. It hurts too bad.

I pulled him closer.

My dad always said he heard his Aunt Ryst on the breeze.

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I sang for him, "I heard you on the breeze. Just like always. I feel how near you are. You are all love and all things. . . . Grampa Ren wrote that song."

"It's beautiful, babe. Sing it again."

And so I did, and he cried, and I sang another of Grampa Ren's songs, "Your Song."

"I'll be a song, a song so beautiful, you weep. From every tear drop something new is born. I'll be a song, and stay with you, and fill you, for always."

SLYDAR

A few days after he passed, we had a little family memorial for my dad in the tiny yard of my brother Dav's place and buried the cremains under a small evergreen tree we planted. It was autumn, so good for tree planting. At least, that's what the gardener down the street told us when we asked.

We didn't do it alone, either. Rory's Uncle Ronnie and Cyn came, and so did Euri and Shah, the couple who'd helped my dads meet on the telepathic plane all those years ago. They told the same stories I'd heard my whole life about how Euri met Muller in the Cavern of Lights and then how Shah decided to match make Slick and Muller when she'd had enough of everyone being lonesome.

We laughed about the time Dad got a case of the sillies and set up a hoverboard at the edge of the roof then skated down the slope and managed to land on the hoverboard without killing himself. Ronnie didn't believe us 'til we showed him the video, then all bets were off, and we had a good 'ole time cookin' out in the backyard and reminiscing about the old days.

I think Dad woulda liked that; us just hanging around in the yard, tellin' stories, laughing and goofing off with the kids. That was always what he thought was the best thing about being alive, so why not enjoy it for him even though he wasn't with us in the same way?

We said goodbye to her family, and Rory and I went back to the hotel, but she had work to do. So, I headed to the skate park to jam for a bit to give her some space, and while I was there, I met a cool girl with spiky black hair and even spikier telepathy, and she told me they were hiring. Jenta was her name, and her girlfriend Mal gave me cupcakes to take home to Rory.

I found her on the phone when I walked through our door, but her back was to me, so I just listened for a minute.

"I know, Mr. Tintuck. I know it's been a long road, and this is a little different than you were visualizing, but the test group results are crystal clear. The flashy artwork draws the eye, and that's how you sell Smashers From Below."

Pause. Nodding.

"Yes, let's see how the first run goes, and if you want to change it, that's something we can consider down the road. Thank you for your patience with the process."

Pause. Frustration building. Pushing it down.

"You've been a great client, and it's a product we are proud of."

Lies. Every word.

"Sunshine greet you on every shore."

I sat a cupcake in front of her.

"Hey! Now that's better!"

She picked it up and bit into the pink icing. "Oh, chocolate. Yum! And hi, baby. Have fun? What's the cupcake about?"

She kissed me with sugary lips, and I lingered. I lingered some more. She laughed against my mouth.

"I'm game."

I took of her clothes, gave her a good time, and handed her the cupcake when we were done. 'Cuz I'm a gentleman. Not gonna come between a lady and her cupcake. Unless I'm the cupcake. Which I often am.

"I got a job at the skate park, and I saw some apartments on the way home. Wanna go see them tomorrow?"

"So, we're staying? On Nineton?"

My heart skipped a beat.

"Did I fuck up again, Rory?"

She laughed.

"I should've asked. Fuck. I'm hopeless."

"All you did was get a job, Sly. If I complain about that, then I'm an idiot. What're you gonna do at the skate park?"

"Lessons. Directing traffic. Calling ambulances. You know, same 'ole."

"Is this what you want? Nineton?"

"I'm not going home. Should we go to your world? Do you want to go home, Rory? This whole thing has been all about me and my family. What about you?"

Head shaking.

"No. It was time for me to grow up and move outta my parent's house. I'm almost twenty-one, and I'll graduate next spring. Let's go look at those apartments. Are they nice?"

"Like everything else here, they look like they're made of moonstone, but I didn't go inside yet."

"What's nearby?"

And so we looked at the neighborhood, found little restaurants and coffee shops and all the little things of life. The next day we rented an apartment, and I started work at the skate park.

We settled into life, and three weeks after we moved in, the haunting started.