When the Stars Burn

Chapter 8: οχτώ

A/N: Without further adieu, the final chapter!

She groaned as the cold and the empty space beside her woke her up. Yawning, she checked the clock on the bedside table and realized it was the wee hours of the morning. She was still sleepy but since she came home, she's found it hard to sleep without him. It wasn't as though she was getting dependent, it was just that she preferred his cuddles over the weighted comforter's warmth. Reluctantly, she forced herself off the bed and dragged herself to the stairs in search of her warmth. The sight that met her drew a smile on her face.

He was in his home office, looking deep in thought as he typed on his laptop. His glasses were perched on his nose bridge and he was wearing the grey sweater she had bought for him for his birthday a year before. She crept silently towards him and she saw how the corners of his lips turned upwards when he noticed her presence.

"Hi," he whispered in a hoarse voice as he looked away from his screen. "Why are you awake?"

Instead of responding, she dragged her legs that felt like lead towards him and inserted herself between him and the desk as she climbed on his lap. She settled herself astride, facing him, and snaked her arms around him while she buried her face in the crook of his neck. "What are you doing?" she murmured against the skin of his neck, her eyes shut as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I'm grading some papers."

"Will you take long?"

"I only have two more."

She sighed. "Okay. I guess I'll leave you to it," she said and untangled herself from him. But before she could move away, he tightened his hold.

"It's okay. You can stay. I love having you here," he insisted.

She grinned and nodded. She laid her head against his shoulder—still cradled on his lap—while tracing invisible lines against his arm. The clicking of the keyboard was their only company as he continued to work while she clung to him.

She finally got him back and every moment spent with him was a reminder of why she loved him again and again and again. Her life was eventful but with him, there was solitude. She no longer longed for fireworks or explosions. She wanted peace. And she had that with him. Her soul was at rest with him. Or perhaps it was because he was her other half. The half of her that she unknowingly spent her whole life seeking for. Her soul was settled, flooded by the feeling of becoming whole at last.

He was her soulmate. The Greeks had it right. The soul will always seek its other half. Four lifetimes of four different worlds was enough to prove that.

"Lei, are you still awake?" he asked softly.

"Hmm?" she hummed.

"I'm done. Let's move to the room? Mas makakapagpahinga ka doon."

She sighed and lifted her head to look at him. She stared at his eyes and realized just how she was at them, she always had been. There was a glimmer in those chocolate brown orbs that spoke more than he ever did. The eyes that always looked at her with love, and they never faltered. She smiled when she remembered something he used to always do.

"Will you sing to me?" she asked quietly. But instead of smiling as he usually did, his face was marred with a frown. She saw the light in his eyes fade, and knew something was wrong. "What is it?"

He exhaled deeply. "I can't," came his curt reply.

Her forehead scrunched. Of course you can. The world bent to your songs, she wanted to say but but her tongue. "What do you mean?" she asked softly.