He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out slowly. The stars above him shimmered, twinkled, the whole nine yards. This whole Phaethon thing made him more curious about them. Much more curious about them. He didn't know for sure that he really had any tie to them, but he sure-as-hell wasn't just... a normal person. As far as he knew, normal people did not have actual, non-hallucinatory conversations with cats, have actual honest-to-God magical powers, see monsters, any of that. At least, not without the aid of mental illness or... substances.

Was he mentally ill?

Loren's feet swung idly where he sat on his windowsill. The screen lay on his bed behind him. He'd gotten good at just popping it out without leaving any marks. His parents didn't usually appreciate him removing the screen. Said it would damage... something. The something was never actually explicitly stated, and he learned after awhile that it didn't actually matter. So he'd stopped asking. And he'd kept popping the screen out to sit on his windowsill on nice nights.

It was a little humid, he thought.

He looked down at the pen in his hand, holding it up so that it caught the light of the bedside lamp also behind him. The white and gold and little touches of berry red made him smile, despite himself. He hadn't had it long, but already it felt like an extension of himself. He'd adapted to that other form of his quicker than he thought he would, honestly. He didn't normally appreciate sudden changes, but this was one that didn't feel like a change so much as an old friend. His eyes went to the phone that he'd gotten with it, and he reached for it. His fingers found the button on the side that he hadn't really noticed before and, naturally, pressed it.

The blood rushing in his ears coupled with sudden blindness and disorientation was not expected nor, admittedly, altogether welcome. Luckily, it didn't last long, and then he was looking up at the stars again. And out at the stars.

They were everywhere.

Everywhere.

The first thing he noticed was just how many of them there were. Sure, he was used to growing up in the city and had not taken many trips out to the countryside, but... this was something altogether different. It occurred to him, then, to look down. The grass was long, to his hips easily. A hand running over it told him it was soft, cool to the touch. Almost like Easter grass, but less crinkle-crunchy. Amazed, he trailed his fingers through it, and then again, and again. He had to resist the impulse to crouch down and surround himself with it, to roll around in it. Even still, there was a brief flash of a grin as he, well, petted the grass. Then, something about the area around him caught his attention. And the sky, too, really.

Sure, he could see so many stars, but... there was a weird glow on the horizon. Well, not so much a glow as it looked like a floodlamp. A really big floodlamp. It was getting brighter. And warmer. A wind kicked up around him, flattening the grass and also Phaethon himself to the ground. Looking up, he found himself rooted to the spot as he watched the source of the light come into view. It occurred to a distant part of his brain, then, that whatever he was on was rotating. And that "floodlamp", well...

That was the sun.

Bigger than he'd ever seen it. He didn't get much time to marvel at it however, as he realized that it was still getting warmer, hotter. Reaching unbearable levels, the grass already seeming to shrink away from it. The brightness as the sun engulfed the sky caused him to throw one arm up in front of his eyes as his other hand frantically searched along the phone for that button that he'd pressed. The heat was already making it hard to breathe, and Phaethon could feel the fine hairs on his arms and face singeing. His skin felt tight, hot, and he knew he was getting burned. Marvel turned to alarm turned to panic as he fumbled for the button. Just as acute discomfort was turning to pain, his thumb found and pressed it.

The darkness and disorientation and coolness was welcome.

He found himself where he had been before, sitting on the windowsill in his bedroom. Looking reflexively up at the sky, his eyes reflexively scanned the night sky as his lungs gulped in air that wasn't oven-hot. His skin still felt tight, hot, and touching his fingertips to his face made him wince. He felt as if he had the worst sunburn of his life. Given his complexion, he typically burned very easily, so that was saying something.

Loren again, he got up and walked very gingerly around to his bed where he'd laid the screen down on his mattress. Putting it back in the window took far longer than it normally did, as his fingers felt like he'd been holding a hot pan and were, accordingly, very sensitive. Once he locked the screen into place, he closed the window, as the breeze--previously pleasant and welcome--felt like sandpaper against his skin. Cold sandpaper. He looked around his room, noting the time--3:00am--on his alarm clock. He couldn't really start turning on lights and moving around. His parents would definitely wake up, and he wasn't sure what kind of state he was in or how he was going to explain it.

Well, he could just... go to the bathroom, he supposed. He'd get light and privacy that way. Stumbling through the dark to the bathroom near his bedroom, Loren closed the door quietly and flicked on the light. The first thing he saw in the mirror was that, well, he looked sunburnt. Not horribly sunburnt, mind, he didn't think he'd blister, but it was certainly surprisingly mild a redness for how tender he felt. On the one hand, that was a relief, so he wouldn't have to explain anything to anyone. Taking a breath, he splashed some warm water on his skin from the sink, and that seemed to take some of the heat off. Flushing the toilet for good measure, in case anyone had woken up anyway, Loren then stumbled back to his bedroom. The sheets were not the most comfortable against his still-tender skin, but it was bearable.

Staring up at the ceiling, Loren wondered what the hell that had been, where the hell that had been. Why was the sun that big? That hot? That fast?

He pondered that well into the early morning, until the sunrise peeking through his open window found him asleep in a haphazard sprawl.