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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.
Trey stood, champagne glass in hand, and watched as bright lights fell through the sky, tails streaking behind them.
Even here, at a roof top bar during a party thrown by one of his mother's associates, he could see them, and the little flashes held him, staring, for a moment. The fashion show had been a resounding success, because of course it had, and the photos after had gone smoothly. The party that had been set up was the height of fashion as well, everything the very cutting edge of what was new and trendy, from drinks to decorations. Trey had sailed through all of it with the ease of a shark in water, ignoring all the smaller fish as uninteresting, and unappetizing. He'd smiled and flirted, drank and listed to important people tell boring stories that seemed entirely beneath him. None of this mattered the least bit, next to the secret war he knew lay behind everything. Still, he'd feigned being attentive, nodded at the right parts, and gone on his way, secure in the knowledge he'd left a positive, and lasting, impression.
More than one woman had tried to get his attention tonight, and not a small number of men, either. Each one, he'd managed to flirt in that professional way that made them feel appreciated without promising anything, all while his mind was elsewhere, remembering the young man in his pool and the cocky himbo he wanted to beat the smile off of. These people were pale in comparison, flat and boring. They just couldn't compete, not when he knew what else was out there.
Staring up at the sky, he was struck suddenly by how... shallow it all was. How vapid and... inconsequential, in the greater scheme of things. He forgot the drink he held, his other hand in the pocket of his pants, and just watched the stars fall, each one a different flash of startling color that streaked across the sky before winking out. They were beautiful... and made him feel weirdly lonely, here surrounded by beauty and people having a good time. What was he working so hard for? As a senshi, he knew it was to gain the same Rank and prestige as any other General, and finally be in control of his own career, his own schemes... but as a person?
Once, he'd told himself he did this so that Joellen's attention stayed firmly on him, and his little brother could live his life free of it. Free of the expectations and the demands, free to do as he pleased. It had been so incredibly important to him, to be able to gift that to the one soul in this world he loved more than anything else... who was no longer there. It had been, what, four years now? The thought was startling, and distressing. Had it really been so long? Sometimes it felt like no more than a year had passed.
Rowan had gone missing, and in all that time, he hadn't seen or heard anything... even as a member of the Negaverse.
Truly, what was he doing this for any more, when the driving source behind it was gone?
Looking up at the sky, watching the falling stars that were so distant, as far from this place was his brother was from him now... Trey had to admit he wasn't sure.
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