Secrets the Stars Keep

Chapter Four

After scouring the internet for the best apology options, Eirene finally settled on one. She spent hours putting the entire thing together and even made a few walks to the library to utilize their computers which could really only be described as ancient. As she put the last piece into place, she sat back on her heels and admired her own handiwork.

Her back felt like it needed to crack fifteen times over and her hands were sticky, stained, and chopped up from the entire ordeal, but the apology was complete. Phase One: finished.

Still, Eirene figured the next phase would be more difficult. Phase Two of her apology was to somehow get Astraeus to agree to see her so she could give him the damn thing. He'd not shown up to school since their fight and only had contact with Mousaios. Both had taken to ignoring her recently.

She huffed out a sigh and then stood slowly, shaking out pins and needles from all over her body. Then she trudged into the bathroom where she welcomed the warm shower stream and scrubbed herself quickly in the interest of making it to school on time.

When Burce dropped her in front of the rather large building, big gift in hand, she was surprised to see Astraeus there. After further inspection, her heart sank. Astraeus was there. Looking all cuddled up with Courteny and laughing at something she'd said. As soon as her eyes settled on him, his head snapped up.

Courteny seemed frustrated at the lack of attention and yanked on his arm a few times. Eirene could feel the tears pooling and looked up at the sky with closed eyes, willing them to soak back into her eyes. By the time that she opened them again, Astraeus was standing in front of her with an unreadable expression.

"Eirene, I promise, it's not how you think."

"It's fine. You don't owe me an explanation. Here."

She placed the gift in his hands and made to storm off into the school. She didn't make it two steps before Astraeus had his hand on her hip and had spun her around to face him again. "Don't pout, astrofengia," He heaved out a sigh and ran a large hand down his face. "you are, and always will be, the only girl for me. If you ask for an explanation, I'll give you one. If you don't ask, I'll give you one, because I know it's eating you up inside. No other girl exists when I'm with you."

His words made butterflies flutter around Eirene's heart. And the sincerity on his face did nothing to help her situation either.

"Now, what is this?"

Eirene immediately began blushing and reached for the object. Astraeus held it far above her reach and made a face at her. "No, no. You gave it to me. It's mine."

"You don't even know what it is."

"Then tell me."

"No."

A deep chuckle reverberated through him and hummed throughout Eirene's entire body. "Why?"

She let out a huff of pure exasperation and covered her face with both hands. Her muffled reply came a few seconds later. "It's an apology gift."

"Thank You, astrofengia, but what is it?"

"I made a paper hyacinth. I painted every layer a different shade of the color of your eyes."

When Astraeus didn't say anything in response, Eirene made another pass at the gift. As soon as her hand got close, he yanked the flower from her reach. Her eyes met his and for the millionth time she took careful note of every blemish on his face, every color in his eyes, every freckle on his nose. She was surprised at the roughness of his voice when he answered her.

"Why a hyacinth?"

"I uh- I remember you telling me your family is from Greece. The hyacinth is apparently one of the Greek apology flowers. As the story goes, Hyacinthus was a beautiful Spartan youth, beloved by the god Apollo. Hyacinthus loved athletics, and one day the two decided to practice throwing the discus. Apollo went first, sending the disc flying up to scatter the clouds. Hyacinthus ran laughing after it, thinking to catch the disc, but instead it hit him in the head, killing him. A tragic story, but supposedly, Apollo promises to remember him forever and creates the flower Hyacinth from Hyacinthus' blood as an eternal apology to him."

"Hmm." Once again, Eirene found Astraeus looking at her with an odd look on his face. As if he had a secret he was dying to tell her. The look was gone just as soon as it arrived and he gently took her hand in his, bringing it up to his face for a soft kiss.

"Apology accepted." Eirene blinked at him like a deer in the headlights for a few seconds. "Hmm." She subconsciously leaned in a little closer and got a quick sniff of his cologne which sent her head spinning. "Oh! Yes, yes of course." Astraeus stared amusedly at her for a few seconds.

----

After the most boring physics lecture that he'd ever had to sit through for the fifteenth time, Astraeus was bouncing off the walls to see Eirene. Now that the stress of their previous argument had dissipated, he could finally get back to doting on her in the way that he craved.

He'd tried to listen intently when she'd told him about the hyacinths, but he'd witnessed the story firsthand a few millennia ago. Besides, Astraeus was a little too focused on the way that her lips formed the words to hear even really what she was trying to say anyways. The apology was still beyond adorable and incredibly thoughtful.

Mousaios slid up next to him as soon as he'd left the classroom and made a suggestive face at him.

"You're in a good mood," He slapped a firm hand against his back. "I'm assuming that means that you and your 'astrofengia' made up finally." Astraeus was far too happy to be annoyed with Mousaios' mocking tone. He knew it was all teasing fun anyways. "Yes, finally. Now back onto the plan of making her fall in love with me."

"You do realize that's gonna be way more difficult than you think it is, right?"

"I do, but I have a plan."