#airglow eclipse

Eclipse was acting weird. Or, weirder than usual- considering how the fiery Mation always seemed a little, albeit charmingly, odd. Any time he was around he seemed either distracted, or stiff. Coming from the lethal lithe predator that he was, it seemed unnatural.

You asked him if he was alright one day, having grown concerned when he made an odd sound you hadn't heard before when grabbing the cup you offered him out of your hands. He’d shaken his head, voice echoing through your mind that he was fine, just a tickle in his throat. Moon had side-eyed him with a smirk, causing Eclipse to growl and elbow him in the side.

You shrugged it off then, believing that if Eclipse wanted to say what was going on, he would tell you eventually. You learned to be patient with him, as he had been with you for all that time. Surprisingly.

Today, you were returning home from helping Sun as usual, the bright yellow Mation opted to stay later today and shooed you off despite your protests.

"Can't have you exhausted no no no! Shoo, off with you little light. I will follow after." He had said cheerily.

Walking through the entrance, you made sure you weren’t tracking anything into the carved out home from the bottoms of your feet, then made your way into the kitchen. You were about to grab a snack from the absurdly tall countertop for absurdly tall sentient Mations when someone cleared their throat behind you. 

Turning, you were met with Eclipse’s tall form shadowed in the stone hallway, looking at you with his bright orange candle light eyes with strange ferocity that you'd come to know as, the plotting gaze.

“Are you busy at all, Pipsqueak?” 

You shook your head, “No, just got home and have no more plans for the day- per Suns orders. Why do you ask?”

A split second passed before Eclipse grinned widely, his sharp pointed teeth glinting in the low light shining from the carved details in the walls, mimicking his own ember-like glow.

“Perfect,” he rumbled, “care for a little stroll then?”

You blinked, “What’s the occasion?” He’d been weird for the past few days and now wanted a stroll, who was he, Moon? Eclipse was usually so prideful and forward about when he wanted something, meaning you heard about it beforehand. This was, less grandure than what he normally conjured though you didn't truly mind in the slightest.

Eclipse chuffed, shifting his weight and stepping over to you, long legs eating up the distance in mere seconds despite his slower cat-like gait, “No occasion, just, well wondering if you’d like to join me?”

Again, odd.

Thinking for a moment, you agreed, opting to follow on your own two feet behind him instead of letting him carry you. Something that gave the Mation the flicker of a pout across his face. But he didn't complain. Instead he simply led you into the jungle, not too far from home, but not particularly close either.

“Not planning anything nefarious are you?” you asked once out of eyeshot of the cliffs and any other eavesdroppers, “you know Sun would kill you.”

Eclipse laughed, head tilting back slightly as his voice spread through your nervous system like a current of electricity, lighting up signals like little fireworks.

“No, not this time Pipsqueak, I have something else in mind.”

“I thought this was a stroll?”

“It is.”

“Then what else is it?”

Eclipse paused near a moss covered rock, looking back and down at you.

“This.”

He moved his hand across the rock, and you watched in awe as the moss- well actually it wasn't moss it was a plant you had studied that resembled similarities to the local moss species, but this plant receded when touched almost like a living curtain. And behind it, was a dark tunnel leading somewhere.

Eclipse held out a long clawed hand out to you, gaze somewhat mischievous, though when was he not.

“Trust me.” He said with a wink.

You rolled your eyes and took his hand, much larger than yours. Made of bones much stronger than yours, capable of fully encompassing- and potentially crushing your hand with a mere squeeze. But Eclipse wouldn't do that. So, you let him pull you into the darkness alongside him. His pace an easier one for you to manage with your 'Short adorable little legs.' The curtain fell back in place behind you, hiding the light from the stars above and you watched with reverie as Eclipse started to glow brighter, allowing you to see where you were going despite his night vision.

It was something he always did for you.

You walked through the smooth stone tunnel for a couple of minutes, careful not to trip on any hidden outcroppings that lined and scarred the floor like old soothed wounds before entering a large cavern. Stopping in your tracks, you felt your jaw fall open at the sight.

Crystals. Of every shape, size and color, from ginormous shafts and pillars of whites and silvers and blues, to tiny spikes of purple and reds, oranges bubbling around grey stone and yellow starbursts dotting the ceiling. Swirls of colors you didn't even know existed naturally surrounding you on all sides. As if you stepped into a kaleidoscope of blown glass. It was… magical, and you couldn’t look away.

A voice, a low toned, very close to your ear sounding voice echoed through through the air around you.

“I’ve been wanting to show you this for a while now,” Eclipse murmured, breath brushing your ear and making your hair drift ever so slightly, “Just…couldn’t figure out how.” 

You slowly turn to look up at his bent form, finding him squatted down to put his face close to your head level. Meeting his eyes, only inches apart, you whispered, “It’s beautiful…I…I can't even…"

You blink, gaze flitting back over the crystals, "It's…Honestly I have no words." And few words came, just a moment or two of relishing the colorful wonders before you, before you turned your head to face him once more. Finding all his eyes, still trained on you. Pupils having grown in size than their usual vertical slits. "…is this why you’ve been acting weird lately?”

He paused as if thinking over his words then chuckled, eyes crinkling around the edges in amusement, “I suppose I have been acting a little odd lately yes. But, Pipsqueak” His voice dropped an octave, low rich earth untouched and unprovoked with the heat of the core of a gentle star, eyes piercing into your own with vibrant and yet ever familiar intensity, “you don’t make it exactly easy.”

“Make what easy.”

Eclipse leaned forward a hair, pupils sharpening slightly more into slits before they grow again, larger this time. More black, than orange. As if his eyes on their own accord wanted to suck in as much of you as they possibly could.

“You make it really hard, to not kiss you.” 

Your breath caught in your throat, staring at him. Of all the things to say.

“…You want to kiss me?”

“Is that what I said~?” He tilted his head, breath fanning your face once more while his eyes dropped down to your lips, voice coming out in a lower sultry tone, “or is that what you want me to say?”

“I think you want to kiss me,” you said, a small air of flirtatious confidence rising within you that often came out around the fiery being, “I think you want to kiss me badly.”

“Well then,” one of his many hands trailed up your arm, making it way behind your neck to cradle the base of your head with the gentle tap of his claws along your skin and top. Claws that would never pierce you.

“What would you do, if that was true?”

You shivered. Him and his voice, every time. Your own eyes trained on him, his orange ringed pools of darkness that swallowed you whole, the feeling of his other hands coming to be placed on your lower back, hips, shoulders, “well I wouldn’t stop you.”

That was all he needed before his pupils grew till there was barely any orange left in his eyes, before his mouth was on yours, pulling you into him and wrapping you up into a tangle of arms while pressed into the warmth of his chest.

He kissed you with fervor, quick and fierce but with no lack of sincerity. Electricity crackling between you as you could have sworn you felt fireworks explode in your brain, reaching up to cup his face and bring it down to yours, closer, more- he had to be closer, with a kiss this full of meaning. He kissed you like you were the very thing he needed to live, like if he didn’t have you, he had nothing. So he held you tight, chasing your lips and nipping them with low echoing chuckles that bounced of cave walls and crystals, tilting your head back mid-kiss with rumbles vibrating from his chest that you could feel more than hear. He kissed you as long as he could, before you both had to break away, lungs burning for air as he rested his forehead against yours. Inhaling a slow controlled breath.

The crystal cave was your space from then on, a little shared haven of color between the both of you. But without fail, Eclipse always said his favorite color was the one that bloomed from your skin like a newly born star whenever he kissed you, illuminated by his glow and framed by his shadow.

You were starting to get the pattern down now, after much trial and error. Methodically making knot after knot with the strings made of leather and root, adding stone beads of various colors and shades when the pattern called for it. Sun had taught you this, after you had asked him to on a rather laid back day, the Mation beaming at you and happily instructing your hands. And while you had originally struggled with the complex knots that liked to slip through your fingers if you didn't grip them tight enough, it had become a favored past time when your day did not require any labor from you. A hobby even.

It added peace to your day. A small smile painted by the skin of your lips as you sat curled at the top of the cliff. In view of the edge but not close enough for the risk of falling to be of any concern as you slid another smoothed over bead into a knot and pulled the ends taught, the strings digging lightly into the creases of your finger joints. Today hadn't been particularly taxing and your muscles were grateful for the small break Moon had given you before noon. Something had been on his mind, you think, humming softly as you tied two more knots after the bead. Moon had not shared, and you did not pry this time unlike before. You knew better now. The more you push, the more walls were built, and the thicker they were.

A breath of hot air is felt over your shoulder and caresses your skin as a low voice speaks, "That's a new one."

You squeak, grip tightening on your small project in your hands as you whip your head around, eyes landing on the infuriating set of four eyes level with yours, "Eclipse! God damn you- stop doing that."

The fiery orange Mation grins, those now familiar teeth poking out beneath rough lips as he shakes his head from where he crouches on his haunches behind you, his rays tilting and swaying slightly with the movement. He flicks a claw at your nose. "No. It amuses me."

"Well it pains me greatly."

He rolls his eyes before all return to you, pupils sharp as ever even when nudging your arm and nodding his head to the project still clasped between your hands, "You'll break the strings if you keep pulling them like that." He taps your hand, and you note how he's angled his finger to press more of his digit to your skin rather than his claw. That's… new.

"The knot won't be tight enough to stay unless I do." He huffs a little, rolling his shoulders at your response. As if it pained him to hear it.

"That's why you double the knots."

"It'll still slip."

"I beg to differ."

You snort at that, eyes narrowing slightly as you return to the strings and beads in your hands, winding the fibers around your digits as you tie another knot into place. "Right. Okay."

"You do not believe me." You feel the hair raise on the back of your neck from the slight dip in his tone, going from gravel to the thrum of deep earth below the crust of the planet. You swallow, "Sun taught me this a few days ago and said I was doing-"

"Sun gives praise freely and was focused on the memory of the pattern rather than the integrity of the strings." He cuts you off, and you hear him shift as he comes around to your side, claw brushing one of the strings as he purposefully gets in the way of you making another knot, eyes boring into you. Preventing you from ignoring him.

"You start the knot too far away." He taps where your fingers are, strings wound around them like coiled snakes, "You pulling it up as harshly as you are wears away at the fibers. It'll snap before you finish little Beastie." Always that nickname.

You side eye him, humming a note as you sit straighter as if pulled a string from the top of your head like a puppet. You feel your back pop and its clear he hears it from the way his pupils grow and shrink for the briefest moment.

"…I didn't take you for a weaver."

"I'm not." The grin on his face pulls wider at the edges, stretching his face apart to the edge of crazed. He's fucking with you- "But that doesn't mean I haven't dabbled in the past, having lived with my older brother."

That… gives you slight pause. You figured considering how stubborn this man could be that any invitation to learn would have been refused, and you had doubted Eclipse would've had enough interest to learn by watching his brother in secret.

"You- Sun taught you to make bands." You speak slowly, head turned a little more to face him. You watch as his eyes seem to almost glow brighter.

"He did." He smugly states, the grin unmoving as if etched into the very making of his face, "So…"

You chew the inside of your lip, glancing between him and the remaining beads and thread before sighing. Shoulders dipping the slightest amount and you know without even looking he's turned smug to the highest degree.

"How do I do it then." It's a reluctant statement rather than a question when it leaves your mouth, refusing to look at him still while rolling a dark bead between your fingers.

Two of his hands come close, and cover your own, varying shades of orange flowing and you can faintly see the glow of his bioluminescence even in broad daylight. Even after the time spent with them, the sheer size difference between yourself and Eclipse is still daunting. His hands can completely envelop yours and his claws are much larger than your human nails could ever hope to achieve- not that you'd want that. You feel it especially when his fingers curl over yours and pinch the string using your fingers. A puppeteer to your limbs. He shifts behind you more, chest pressed to your back with the edge of his cummerbund pressed to your spine, warmth starting to curl and seep into your muscles. You fight off the shiver that threatens to run down your spine as he hums.

"If you want to keep them from fraying then don't make the knots so low on the string," He says, guiding your hands to make the start of another knot, this one closer to the others you've already made, "Make them closer. The knots won't be misshapen even if it feels they might become so." He pulls your hands apart from one another, the knot shrinking in size until it can no longer be pulled any tighter. You blink.

"Ah, I suppose I could've inferred that on my own-" "If you had quieted your stubbornness? Yes." You grimace, shooting him a glare from over your shoulder where his head hovers. He is very close.

"You could have just said-" "Ah but then you wouldn't have needed a demonstration." His tone dips rhythmically in an almost singsong way, and it sinks into your ears as he shifts so his knees press to the ground on each side of your legs, "Besides. You don't truly mind."

You feel the muscles of your jaw clench but your lips remain pressed together where they are. It's not that you disagree, but rather the fact he had to point it out. He always has to point it out. You didn't mind, he knew it and you knew it and honestly are you even surprised he took the first opportunity he got to be this close to you? For all the back and forth you do, he was just as lured to your prescence as you were him. Even if you acted prickly at his attention and he insisted of having your attention upon him.

Guess he was not a unaffected by your size difference today, similar to your own mental predicament. Your heartbeat was most likely motivating him.

"…I don't hear you disagreeing~" You roll your eyes to save face, attempting to start tying a new bead onto the string but his hands tighten, locking your hands and arms in place and halting any movement. Effectively caught in the net of his whims, "Beastie."

"Eclipse."

He growls, teeth brushing your ear. It appears he's had enough, secondary arms looping around your torso and squeezing, "That's my name~ though I'd prefer you to be using that tone with the words 'Thank you.'"

"Thank you." You feel him pausing. Success. When it came to him, agreeing on something small was the best way to manage. It fills you with a smidgen of satisfacton as you peer at him from the corner of your eyes to find him blink once at you. The flash of some undefined expression crosses his face before his lips curl back into a tighter grin.

"There. That was all I wanted."

"Liar."

He gasps mockingly, and you expect him to squeeze you tighter in response. But all he does is lean closer- and press a tiny kiss to your nose, "You're adorable when frustrated."