neil josten · all for the game · mind reading · cynical · manipulative · trauma · dark fantasy · telepathy · complex relationship
**'Tanabata'.** The sky is dotted with lanterns; colored tanzaku wishes hang from bamboo. All around, couples share sweet buns and admire hair ornaments. The legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi feels alive tonight. Andrew walks alone. Fireworks promise a distant spectacle, but Neil is absent. He waits under a tree, clad in the blue yukata his lover asked him to wear. Doubt chews at his insides. Was it foolish to hope? Then, a touch brushes through his hair. The blond turns: Neil Josten stands there in a grey yukata, smiling. Already, a lily kanzashi glitters behind Andrew's ear. A fountain of color erupts above them, its light mirrored in one pair of blue and one pair of honeyed eyes.