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The Meteor Shower (3) : It wouldn't be a star festival without a meteor shower! Right on time, a beautiful array of shooting stars graces the night sky. This time of year is unnaturally clear and it's incredibly easy to see the stars. Most meteor fragments appear to be little white or yellow lights streaming across the sky, but if you watch closely enough you may find that some of them seem to be a whole rainbow of colors. The scientists have reported that it's just different components burning up as they enter the atmosphere, but there's something undeniably magical about it.
Khaz needed a break from the current cosmetics project. He seemed to be hitting a wall...or maybe he just couldn't focus right now. Either way, it felt like he needed a break. The teenager leaned back in his chair, catching his Mauvian's attention, followed quickly by his little sister, to cover for Neit.
Yasmeen had been thrilled to find out Neit was a Mauvian, if a little startled that Neit was his Mauvian, given how much time she spent with Yasmeen. That said, Neit had admitted that she found Yasmeen adorable, and felt that a chibi like Yasmeen probably needed a little bit of additional looking after.
As a result of the attention, their mother looked up from the movie the girls were watching together; it looked like a Studio Ghibli film, specifically Kiki's Delivery Service. It was a cute film, but Khaz just didn't feel like a film tonight. And, clearly, he didn't feel like crafting tonight, either.
"I think I might go see if I can hang out with a friend tonight," he explained. The understanding in his mother's eyes differed from that in Neit and Yasmeen's eyes, but the concern and care was the same. Would he always be hiding the truth from his mother like this? His father, he was fine hiding everything from, but his mother...his mother was the solid rock in the churning ocean that was his life and his identity, and the absolute last thing he ever wanted to see in his mother's eyes was betrayal. Well, that, and suffering of any kind. But Khaz also couldn't see a path forward that would involve honesty about him being magically superpowered and aligned with the so-called "terrorists" who "plagued" Destiny City, a detail that he knew was lies and slander to keep the ordinary citizenry from trusting the good guys. Which kept people like his mother from trusting people like her children. It was an awful thought, and one that required something relaxing, ideally with a friend.
And he knew which friend he wanted to call. And the pretext under which he wanted to do it.
Slipping on his shoes and pulling out his senshi phone from subspace, he texted Halia.
Having heavy thoughts tonight, thought I could use a friend. The weird meteor showers are happening again tonight. Wanna go watch? We could go to the baseball diamond in XXX Park; nobody's there this time of night, not even for the meteor showers.
Khaz settled down to wait on the swing on the porch to wait for Halia's reply. Halia probably knew about the weird meteor showers, given how long she'd been active as a senshi, and how the meteor showers had been going on for as long as he could remember. And, if there was any awkward spots in the conversation, they could easily cover it by watching the skies. Better still, if they hung out Powered down, no one would think there was anything suspicious going on, Halia wouldn't be flagged on account of having a louder energy signature than his (as a super, he wasn't as quiet anymore, either, though Halia being an eternal would absolutely get flagged as the Bigger Problem for Chaos), and they could have a quiet heart-to-heart under the stars with a minimum of supernatural interruptions.
It was a good plan; he'd just have to wait to see what Halia said in reply.
Lena Roze
