of all the stars

c33

Kat left first, and since she was Acacia's ride home, that took two of them away from the party.

It was about 10 when they left, and now as the clock dawned the numbers 10:58, Hana was yawning as they played cards with Shori and Andi.

Lyra looked tired, but she would never admit that she didn't want to stay up as late as possible to celebrate Ki's birthday with her.

"Another round?" Shori gathered up all the cards to the middle of the table.

"Sorry guys I'm going home." Hana whispered, standing up slowly from the wooden chair.

"Get some sleep girl, you look tired." Andi laughed as he sat back in his chair.

Ki could tell that his feet were resting on Shori's lap from underneath the table... how comfortable he must've been.

A few times she considered doing the same with Lyra, but not knowing how Hana would respond immediately stopped her train of thoughts.

"You coming Lyra?" Hana placed her hand down on Lyra's shoulder, causing Lyra to glance up to her.

"Oh... um..." She quickly looked over to Ki, almost as if trying to read her face to give her the answer. "No, not yet. I'm gonna stick around a little longer, I'll be over by 11:30."

"Alright. No guarantee I'll still be awake, but you know the garage code." She shrugged.

"That's okay." Lyra laughed. "Go to bed."

"Well goodnight everybody. Happy birthday Ki." Hana gave a slight smile as she waved out to the table.

"Thanks." Ki smiled back.

"Night Hana, nice meeting you." Andi waved.

Hana backed out of the room slowly as the four that were left around the table all shared an awkward silence.

Shori looked at Ki, and then to Andi, and then to Lyra, before coming back to Ki. They shared an awkward glare as the two siblings knew what the other two at the table didn't.

"So..." Andi looked over to Shori conspicuously. "We still doing another round?"

Shori's glare remained on Ki as he answered his fiancée.

"Actually... no I'm getting tired too."

"Really?" Andi said, almost as if surprised.

"Yeah."

"That's okay. Me and Lyra will just find something else to do." Ki shrugged, leaning back in her chair.

Lyra looked at her in question, and then back to Shori, as if sensing the tension between the siblings.

"Do you want to... uh... go outside?" Lyra awkwardly suggested.

"Sure... yeah." Ki responded quickly, thanking Lyra in the back of her mind for taking the initiative.

"It's dark." Andi stated pretty suspiciously.

"So?" Ki turned towards him, sending him the most 'shut the fuck up' glare she could manage.

"Um... nothing. Have fun."

————————

It was unusually warm for late October... warm being 40 degrees.

That was still considerably colder than Ki would've liked it to be.

But Ki would've jumped for just about anything that Lyra said, so here she was out in the cold, hoping she didn't shiver too much in her characteristic leather jacket.