Stay?

My eyes widen as Nero holds on to me.

What’s the meaning of this?

“Nero…” I frown. “Are you ill?” And can he even get ill in the first place?

Nero tenses against me, but I listen to his wish, and I don’t let go. “Not exactly…” he mutters. “It’s…my emotions.”

I nod, slowly, as if I have a clue as to what he is referring to. “Your emotions, right. Of course.”

He gasps, and straightens up ever so slightly. “You knew?”

“Um…” I look away and force myself to smile. “That is…” Would lying be of use here when I’ve just given him a speech about the importance of being honest with one another?

Another meteorite collides with the pod. Nero’s grasp tightens around the sleeves of my uniform as he whimpers, and says, “Please, Aster, I can’t—”

“No,” I find myself blurting the word without giving it much thought.

He pulls away and blinks twice. “No?” And I wonder what is wrong with my brain for associating my current view of Nero with the image of those kitten videos a scientist had shown me back on the ship a few days ago. But he looks so harmless in this light it’s borderline terrifying.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. So,” I sigh. “You’ll have to give me an explanation. Unless it’s dangerous, then tell me what I can do to save you, or help you, and then we’ll talk about the details later.”

“I don’t like small spaces.” Nero motions at the world around us, or rather, the walls that keep us out from its reach. “The darkness, being trapped, it’s…” he bites his lip. The fog around him rises, then falls again, turning to shades of dark violets, lighter purples, along with another myriad of beautiful shades that I find hypnotising, while they dance between our figures like something out of a dream. “I’m afraid,” Nero confesses as the lights flash on, then go dim again and fade, until they are fully killed by what I assume is a magnetic storm interfering with the pod’s system.

“Oh,” is the only thing I find to say.

His shoulders deflate. “I’m aware, it’s a burden…”

We stay silent for a moment, before he decides to speak again.

“If you start hating me like they did, then I’ll hate you twice as much.” Perhaps I should feel threatened, however his words are spoken in a tiny voice drained of any violence—for once, I actually want to protect him…in the weirdest of ways.

I clear my throat. “I…won’t judge,” I say as I hold up a palm between us. “You’ve no need to worry. However, Nero, may I ask you a question?”

He nods against me.

“How have you dealt with these feelings when you were literally trapped in a confined space for the entirety of your existence up until today?” Stating what kind of destiny we and the human kind have forced onto him aloud is giving me regrets, and a certain yearn to set him free to atone for all that we took from him like monsters without hearts.

It wouldn’t be too late to let him go.

I could tell everyone he escaped.

But to what avail? It’s either he perishes and saves us all, or we die together.

He wouldn’t even be able to enjoy his time here.

“Aster?” Nero’s voice brings me out of my thoughts.

I softly urge his face away from mine. “You’re too close.”

“You stopped responding.”

His statement makes me frown, and glare at him in a sentiment of both amusement and irritation. “I’m not a machine. I was thinking, that’s all. Now,” I scoff—it’s forced, again, like everything I try to do but fail miserably at doing; yet what does he know? He couldn’t possibly tell the difference between genuine, lies: he was bathed in dishonesty from day one. “Answer my question, or I’m taking a nap and leaving you with your troubles if you don’t want to speak.” My statement comes out wrong. I meant to say I was listening, yet instead here I am dangling an emotional bribe over his poor head that has done no wrong.

Nero buries his nose into my chest. I ignore the beating of his heart and what it does to me. I ignore the questions that run through my mind. Has it always been this fast? Or is he simply just that scared?

He shouldn’t trust me that easily.

I’m not a good man, and I make for a terrible prince.

I reach up to pet his hair. To my surprise, he doesn’t resist, and only leans into my touch.

Nero’s reaction makes me smile. Docile, I think.

Has he always been this…

Polite.

Cute.

Irresistibly—

“They drugged me until I felt nothing,” Nero tells me. “The only time I had to deal with real emotions was on the day your people brought me to life. And then…they found what they called a solution to my problem.”

The blood in my veins grow cold.

No. I shake my head. No, that’s too cruel, they couldn’t have—

“But my body evacuated everything they gave me with a speed they said they’d never seen before. So…” Nero whispers the words against my neck. “Now that there’s no one present to administer anything anymore every other minute, I feel again, Aster.” He distances himself from me, yet keeps his fingers locked around my elbows. “Aster,” Nero looks up, into my eyes. His gaze is the universe, and I cannot bring myself to ignore it any longer. The stars, the galaxies and all our knowledge—they are in him: he is everything.

“I don’t know how to make my worries go away, but…” Nero leans in and wraps his arms around me. “It is easier to ignore when we are close like this.” And as his voice cracks, with his fingers trembling against my back, it becomes impossible for me to refuse his advances. For I know what it feels like, to be this way.

Lonely.

Afraid.

“O-of course,” I mumble against him, while I pull him into a deeper embrace. “We can stay like this for as long as you wish…” I owe him at least this much for what we’ve put him through.