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namtantam · 5 days

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Heyyy so is it possible for you to write like an epilogue for 'stardust' where Dao has grown a bit and Akk and Ayan have some disagreements on how to teach him disciplines , but they work it out? I just can't stop thinking about their cute family☺️ tysm

Stardust, my beloved. I originally wasn’t sure I’d be able to answer this prompt because y’all always ask for angst and it makes my heart hurt, but then I thought of this idea and became obsessed. I hope you enjoy! Word Count: 2K

For obvious reasons, Dao had always had a fascination with the stars. Ever since he was a baby, whenever they would step outside, his face would turn skyward. His obsession had only grown as he got older and realized the stars were capable of telling him stories—that if he cared to look, they held all the mysteries of the universe inside them.

Now, their house was full of books and diagrams about space and although Akk found Dao’s hyperfixation endearing, it also worried him. Dao had been in their life for almost eight years and never shown any signs of being anything but human, but Akk couldn’t help but wonder if their son’s craving for knowledge about the stars was a sign that he was meant to return to them someday.

One evening, Akk returned home from work and instead of Dao greeting him at the door like he usually did, his excited voice carried in from the kitchen. Akk headed that way, nearly tripping over Cosmo who had darted in front of him in what he could only assume was a murder attempt, and when he finally reached the kitchen, he just stood in the doorway for a few seconds and watched as his husband cooked dinner and their son talked a mile a minute about comets…or something. Dao’s knowledge of space had far outpaced Akk’s by this point. He was going to have to take a class to catch up.

Figuring he should probably step in to save Aye from the rambling, Akk moved into the room. “I’m home!” he said. Aye turned to smile at him over his shoulder and Akk kissed the top of his head before bending down to ruffle Dao’s hair.

“Dad! Dad!” Dao cried excitedly, smoothing his hair down out of habit. It didn’t do much to help. He had the same cow lick Aye had had at that age and nothing they did seemed to be able to control it. “My class is going on a field trip to the observatory to watch a meteor shower!”

Akk immediately tensed, but he did his best to hide the concern from his face because Dao seemed so excited and Aye was smiling down at him like he wasn’t worried at all.

“You are?” Akk asked, his voice several octaves higher than usual. Aye turned to him in alarm, finally seeming to sense that something was wrong.

“Yeah!” Dao cried and then he was off again, talking about different types of meteor showers and how he’d been dying to see one forever, and Akk just stood there in a state of shock.

“Hey, buddy?” Aye interrupted the boy’s tangent. Dao turned to him, eyebrows raised in silent question. “Dinner’s almost ready. Why don’t you go get changed and we’ll eat when you’re done?”

The only thing Dao loved more than stars was food.

“Okay!” he cried and then he scooped up a picture book he had been flipping through on Jupiter and ran upstairs.

Aye waited until they could hear his footsteps above them before he spoke again. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, laughing lightly. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“He can’t go on that field trip, Aye,” Akk said adamantly. “It’s not safe.”

Aye turned his back on the meat he was browning on the stove and leaned against the counter behind him with his arms crossed over his chest. “Why not? His teachers will be there. And it’s not like he’s going to wander off—not when the place has telescopes. I just ordered him a new one for his birthday by the way. I’m not even going to tell you how much it cost.”

“Aye,” Akk said, stepping closer. “A shooting star is what brought him here and it’s what can take him back. What if he wishes to go to space? To the stars? How do we know our wishes will keep him here if he asks to go?”

“He’s just a kid, Akk. He doesn’t want to leave. He just wants to learn more about where he came from.” They had never bothered hiding the truth from Dao. They figured plenty of parents told their kids outlandish stories about where they came from—storks and enchanted cabbage patches and babies washed in by the sea. No one would think twice if they heard Dao saying he came from the stars. It was part of his story and he deserved to know it.

“You don’t know that,” Akk countered.

“If we tell him he can’t go on that field trip, it’s going to break his heart,” Aye said with a heavy sigh. Akk knew that was true, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

“I’ll tell him,” he said. “I’ll be the bad guy.”

Aye turned back around to give the ground beef another stir. “Before you do that, how about the three of us go stargazing tonight? There’s no meteor shower, so you don’t have to worry about any errant wishes. We can talk to him, feel it out. Please. Before you say no.”

And although Akk was reluctant, he finally agreed. Aye turned around to smile at him. While he was distracted, Cosmo hopped onto the counter, stole a chunk of ground beef out of the skillet, and then ran away, all before Aye ever saw him.

✨

Dao was overjoyed when Aye told him they were going to camp out underneath the stars that night. He scarfed down his dinner much too quickly and then was bouncing off the walls until finally, Akk and Aye gave up on cleaning the kitchen and led him out into the night.

Aye threw a blanket onto the ground and the three of them laid down together, Akk and Aye each on one side of their son. Cosmo, who had followed them out of the house, curled up on Dao’s stomach and when the boy’s fingers tangled in his fur, he purred.

“Oh, look! Look at that one!” Dao cried, pointing at a star that looked just the same as any other star in the sky. He began telling a story about it that he had learned in one of his books and Akk couldn’t help but wonder if he’d just picked a star at random to assign that story to or if something inside of him knew.

Akk glanced over at Dao. He looked different in the moonlight. The lightning-shaped fractals on the left side of his body, which were almost invisible in the daytime, came alive at night. They shone with a pearlescent glow as if some stardust still lingered in his veins. It wasn’t vibrant enough for anyone outside their family to notice, but some nights, Akk would stare at his son’s skin for hours. It was beautiful and haunting all at once. The night called to their star child just as their star child called to it.

“I came from up there, didn’t I, Pa? Tell me the story again!”

And so Aye retold the legend of Dao’s birth. The words were well-practiced by now. The two of them had perfected their delivery over the years and no matter how many times they told it, the magic never faded.

“Once upon a time, Dad and I had a big fight and although we still loved each other, neither of us had the courage to apologize. So instead, we each made a wish on a shooting star that the universe would bring us back together. And then the universe sent us you.”

Dao giggled just like he did every time. “And thanks to me, you made up?”

“We did,” Aye agreed, leaning over to kiss the top of his head.

“What were you fighting about?” Dao asked, looking back and forth between the two of them as if he wasn’t quite sure who to ask.

“You know, I can’t seem to remember,” Aye said, feigning ignorance as he turned to glare pointedly at Akk. “What about you, Akk?”

Akk rolled his eyes. Had he not apologized enough? “Something stupid, I’m sure,” he said.

“Something stupid indeed.”

Dao quickly lost interest in their conversation and turned back to the stars again. “Do you think if I asked a shooting star for something, it would give it to me like it did for you?”

“I don’t know,” Aye said, glancing at Akk because that was, after all, exactly what he feared. “Maybe. That’s why you need to be careful what you wish for.”

“If you ask to see the stars up close, the universe might not let you come back,” Akk said. “Do you understand?”

He was a little worried his words might frighten Dao, but luckily, he didn’t seem bothered by the prospect of being whisked away to the heavens and never returned. Instead, he laughed.

“Why would I ask to go to space?” he chuckled, looking over at Akk as if he’d said something utterly ridiculous. “I don’t even have a space suit!”

That wasn’t the answer Akk had been expecting. “What do you want to wish for then?” he asked.

A mischievous grin appeared on Dao’s face, but he tried his best to hide it in Cosmo’s fur. Well, that wasn’t worrying at all. Akk and Aye exchanged a look.

“Dao, honey,” Aye said. “Why don’t you tell us what you want and maybe we can get it for you?”

“You can’t give it to me,” Dao insisted. “Only the stars can.”

Akk shook his head, still not understanding. “But what is it?”

Finally, it seemed Dao could keep the secret locked inside him no longer. He released Cosmo and giggled. “I want a little sister!”

“Oh.” Akk didn’t know what to say other than that. It was both better and worse than what he had expected.

“I think we’ve got our hands full with just you,” Aye said after a brief pause, ruffling Dao’s hair to soften his words. Then all three of them turned their attention back to the sky.

It was over an hour later before Dao agreed to come back inside. Aye finished cleaning the kitchen while Akk took Dao upstairs to get him ready for bed, and then together they tucked him in. He wasn’t scared of the dark like a lot of kids his age. He didn’t need a nightlight. Once they turned the lamp off, the only light in the room was a faint green glow emanating from the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling. He was asleep almost before his head even hit the pillow.

It wasn’t until Akk and Aye themselves crawled into bed that night that they talked about it.

“Maybe you were right,” Aye said with a small laugh. “Maybe we shouldn’t let him go. Those shooting stars can be dangerous.”

But Akk couldn’t stop thinking about a little girl with Aye’s curls, Akk’s eyes, and Dao’s chubby little cheeks. Aye seemed to realize that.

“Akk,” he warned.

“Would it really be so bad?” Akk asked. “We’ve talked about having another kid.”

“Yeah. In a normal way. Not via shooting star!”

“But what would it hurt to try? You, me, and Dao wishing all at once…It just might work!”

Aye stared at him as if trying to decide whether he was joking. “You’re serious?” he asked, his voice achingly hopeful.

Akk nodded and took Aye’s hands into his. “What do you say? You think we have another miracle left in us?”

Ever so slowly, a smile stretched across Aye’s face. “A baby girl?” he asked and Akk could tell that he had already fallen in love with the idea of her, just like he had.

✨

Dao didn’t end up going on his field trip. Instead, the three of them stayed home and wished together upon a shooting star that the universe would make their family whole.

There was a flash of lightning, a buzz of electricity that made their hair stand on end, and then, in the distance, the sound of a baby crying.

#omg the way i SCREAMED at the end #this is the cutest #i love them

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