Stardust (Complete)

Passion

They got home late, way past midnight.  Poor Rae had had a hard time, ushering her drunken friends into the car to take home when Fae had finished playing and the Jungle closed for the night.

"If anyone spews, they're walking home," she warned.

The trip was even quicker than Ash remembered it being, and, before she knew it, they were parking outside the house, all six of them climbing out and making their way inside to where it was warm.

Kee switched the light on so that they could see where they were going, and a very drunk Caleb pulled a very sober Rae down beside him onto the couch where they started making out.  They didn't care that they had an audience.

Ash looked away, feeling dirty, as though she was intuding on something private and intimate.  A familiar, unwelcome feeling welled up to the surface of her being, one she had so often forced down into repression.

Envy.

Why couldn't she have someone special, to share something special with them?

"You guys are all free tomorrow night, yeah?"  Kee asked, turning to Ash, Kyra, Rae, Caleb and Edgy, who all nodded.

"Good," she continued, wrapping her fingers around Edgy's hand.  "I have something special."

Without giving anything more away, the two of them disappeared to their room, and, since Rae and Caleb didn't seem as though they were going to let up on expressing their passion for one another, Kyra and Ash followed down the hallway, stopping outside Ash's room.

She went in, leaving enough room for him to follow, an invitation, one he didn't realise.

Kyra was tired, but he decided he could stay up all night talking with Ash, if she wanted him to.  Ash wanted to stay up and talk with Kyra, but she was tired, and she knew he was just as tired.  She didn't think he'd want to stay up.

If he asked her to spend the night with him, she knew she probably would, but, even though he wanted to fall asleep next to her and wake up with her in the morning, he didn't ask.  She was searching for a sign from him, of lust maybe, but couldn't find one.  The thought hadn't even crossed his mind, though, if she suggested it, he wasn't about to say no.

"Did you have a good time tonight?"  He asked her, and she nodded enthusiastically.

"Uh huh."  She smiled up at him, her eyes bright despite her weariness.  "Thanks for taking me."

"You're welcome," he replied, smiling as well as she stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him quickly.

"Goodnight, Ash," he told her gently.

"Goodnight."