For You's Bedtime Story

This is "For You."

This is a love story.

Sometimes, he felt he would have preferred to leave this place. It didn't matter if you were a prince of a forgotten city in the middle of nowhere. His parents' faces were fading fast from his memory, and he couldn't quite recall what he was meant to do. To be. None of the aristocrats expected anything from the young man except that he wait at his golden castle until it killed him. He always felt like he was supposed to be something more than the boy peeking out from the front window and looking over his kingdom.

In this small town, everyone had their own agenda. The planets gathered around him at all the parties, but nobody ever came close. The other stars always insisted on having lunch at their place, and frankly, they were a little too high maitenance for him anyways. He would never be the biggest star in Hollywood, so he stuck to his corner of the universe.

He felt a little lost. He felt a little misunderstood.

The only resident with whom he could identify was an older man named Pluto. Ever since he had an affair with that asteroid, his title of "planet" was removed as was custom, and he spent the rest of his life an outcast. The two kept in touch, but even the Sun was apprehensive to get too close.

And then he saw Luna. That subtly feminine glow. They way she smiled in the darkness.

And the way she looked at him invited the prince to come closer.

The way she saw the potential of the human race. They way she said man's footsteps on her skin felt like a message from God. Her breakup with Earth, how he had called her cold and pockmarked. Scarred. How she had never felt loved the same way since.

The way she bit her lip when she was concentrating. The way she sobbed when she watched the Holocaust from above. The way she still painted with color. The way she painted with red and it didn't remind her of blood.

Her lips quivered when she was stuck in a crowd. She preferred to be hidden in the background... Unless it was night and she could comfort the lost children looking to the sky for help. He tried to make her laugh because he thought it was the prettiest sound he'd ever heard. The way she couldn't breathe when she laughed too hard. The way she wrote poetry.

And the way he felt so confident that he would make a difference. When he didn't realize all that he already did. His charisma. The way his laugh lit up a little something inside everyone. The way he wasn't scared to die. How he made her feel more exquisite than anything else in the solar system.

The way he listened to life. The way he wasn't afraid of breaking the rules. When he kissed every blemish, every imperfection on her skin and told her he loved her. The rebellious side. How he held her hand when she cried. The time he told her why. Why, why, why.

She shivered at his touch, even though she had never felt so warm.

And when they kissed, another star was born.