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MOONSTRUCK.

It was a word that Axel had come across long months ago. Being unable to think or act normally, especially because of being in love.

Now, looking at the woman next to him, as starlight danced across her skin, and as her eyes shined under the light of a thousand stars, he was sure he had come pretty damn close to being moonstruck.

Maybe it was too early to throw the word love around, but he had always believed in soulmates.

He had always imagined that there would be a person that he would meet, and a part of his soul would love the person since the beginning of everything, almost like they were from the same star, with the same kind of stardust in their souls.

Maybe there would be someone out there who had the same ancient dust from galaxies sewn into their being too.

And maybe, just maybe, his soulmate didn't have to be human.

"Why'd you bring me here?" she turns around, her green eyes wide with awe as she looks up at the specks of glitter looming above their heads, "It's beautiful, isn't it? To look at them from earth?"

"It is," he murmurs, but for once, he doesn't look up at the stars.

He looks at her.

In a way though, he was looking at the stars. The ones that shined in her eyes, the ones that glimmered in her hair of sunshine gold, the ones that tumbled past her lips as words- everything about her. The angel of the stars.

"Well?" she turns to him, eyebrows still raised, "You didn't answer the question."

He takes a small step closer, slipping his hands into hers and intertwining their fingers.

"I told you that I'd tell the stars about you," he says, his lips lifting into a smile as her expression contorts into one of surprise, "Didn't I?"

"You did," she admits softly, tilting her head at him with an amused smile, "but what are you going to tell the stars about the angel of stars?"

"Our little story, maybe," he says simply, lifting the hand he was holding to his lips and gently pressing a kiss to her knuckles, "and that you've got hair like rays of the sun, eyes greener than the prettiest shades of the earth-" he pauses when he notices something.

"Wait- have those flecks of grey in your eyes always been there?"

As soon as he says it, her eyes widen, and she abruptly looks away.

"Not really," she mutters, gently pulling her hand out of his grasp, avoiding his eyes as she turns back to the sky.

He frowns at that action but doesn't comment on it. "Is it an angel thing, then?"

She hesitates, biting her lip for a second before she answers. "In some ways."

"Well," he pries, tilting his head in her direction- but she refuses to look at him, "Are there other angel things I should know then?"

She hesitates again. Then,

"I'm two hundred and thirteen earth years old."

"You're what?" Axel's sputters, as his jaw drops comically. "Two hundred and thirteen?"

Stella lets out a little smile at that but bites her lip to prevent it from widening. "Yes."

"You don't look-" Axel holds himself back from finishing the sentence.

"I'm aware," her smile widens again by the tiniest fraction, "How that works, is a little beyond human understanding."

"You could always, y'know," he shrugs, trying not to sound too interested, "explain it to me?"

Her eyes remain skyward for a few moments, letting the sounds of the night fill the lull in their conversation before she lets out a tiny sigh.

"There are dimensions beyond those known to humans," she begins softly, "Humans do not know of dimensions beyond time, because they aren't able to control them. You use your three-dimensional world to your convenience because you are built to sense and manipulate only three dimensions."

"Time, however," she lifts a hand, and for a second, things around them freeze, going deathly silent, "morphs with space. Humans can only see it on large scales as the fourth dimension, so unless you learn to see the flow of time right in front of your eyes and harness it like I just did, you cannot see beyond it."

She drops her hand and things unfreeze again, making Axel look around bewildered.

"I come from a different dimension, altogether," she finally turns to him, her green eyes distant, "Dimensions beyond the fourth have relative time, which is why it seems like I don't age. We draw our power from the same dimensions we come from, and it allows us to travel across the universes."

"That's..." Axel isn't even sure what to call it, "Wow."

"Yes," she gives him a small smile, "They hear you, by the way. They hear all of us, even if they don't respond. They're much wiser than you'd ever give them credit for."

"What, the stars?" Axel gives her a bewildered look.

He had never thought that talking to the universe meant that his tales were now spread across the expanse of the cosmos, simply because the stars were listening.

The thought alone was splendid.

She nods, with a shrug. "Yes. My wings were born from the light of the stars, so I hear you. It's how I knew you even before we met."

Axel blinks

I knew you before we met.

Wasn't that it, though? Wasn't that what it felt like to have a soulmate?

To know someone without having ever met them, and for your soul to recognize them before you do?

He knew her before they met too.

He knew her through the stars, just the way she had heard him through them.

All because the light from a thousand suns like their very own birthed the gold in her wings.

"Can I see them again?" he murmurs finally, "Your wings?"

She looks between his eyes hesitantly for a second, the flecks of grey in the seas of green almost imperceptibly larger than they were seconds ago, before she sighs, closing her eyes.

"As you wish."

And then, they bloom- quite literally unfurling from her shoulders, as if they were appearing out of thin air. Gleaming, golden, and as white as snow.

He hadn't ever seen them up this close, only a finger's breadth away from him- the soft feathers ruffling gently in the night's breeze, almost inviting to be touched.

"You can touch them," she says softly, almost as if she was reading his mind.

Slowly, he reaches forward, and his fingers brush against the soft white of her wings. Tiny zings run up his fingertips as he strokes them gently, a smile rising across his lips.

"Isn't it extraordinary," he murmurs, "that the universe was created nearly fourteen billion years ago, with galaxies and planets set into motion- only for our stories written in the stars to collide and turn into one?"

She smiles up at him and for a second, her wings glow a tad bit brighter. "It is, isn't it?"

"The universe seems to have a brilliant way of working," he retracts his hand, stepping closer, "because it brought you, to me."

"Not necessarily," she says softly, but her eyes flicker down to his lips just as he does, "We're all on our own cosmic journeys through eternity, and our journeys seemed to collide, is all."

"Yes," he murmurs, gently lifting a hand to cup the side of her face, "but we stopped for a moment when we met, like travelers on a little break from eternity. That's what makes it so treasured."

And then, for the second time, he kissed her.

Her lips are soft against his own, and she melts into his hold just the way he melts into hers, wrapping her arms around his neck while his curl around her waist pulling her closer.

There's a tiny whoosh of air, that brushes past Axel's hair as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss, until two large wings wrap around his frame, pulling him closer than he already was.

Tiny tingles of energy run down his spine, as the feathers brush across his clothed back, as her fingers run down his chest, coming to rest on his torso- and he can feel the tiny shiver that runs down her spine when he pushes his tongue into her mouth intertwining it with hers.

When their lips part just for a moment, she says something that nearly makes his heart stop.

"Don't get too attached, Axel," her words are quiet but he can feel her lips move against his as she says it.

"Too late," he murmurs, pulling away till their foreheads were resting against each other. He looks between her eyes of green and deepening flecks of grey, before giving her a hopeful smile, "After this, how about I take you out some time? Court you with the ways of the earth?"

Stella's heart breaks just a little bit at the optimism and hope in his expression.

There wasn't going to be an 'after this', she thinks to herself sadly, she was going to return home after she helped them. That was always the plan.

So, she reaches forward placing a finger on his lips looking up at him with big imploring eyes.

"Don't," she pleads quietly, "Please. Don't talk about your future just yet. Live in the moment."

His smile falters. "Why not?"

She shakes her head, trying to take a step back, but he doesn't let her- his smile dawning into a look of realization. "Oh."

You're not staying.

He doesn't have to say it, but the look on his expression speaks enough of sad understanding.

"Why?" his face contorts into a pained frown, "Why would you leave? You promised you wouldn't, didn't you?"

She did, and that promise couldn't be broken.

Only, there were loopholes in how the promise could be fulfilled that didn't require her presence around him.

She couldn't stay among earthlings. She had to return home.

Stella doesn't respond to his question, as she unwraps his wings from around him, tucking them back into hiding.

She only stands on her toes, leaning closer to him, as her tiny hand cups his jaw, and she presses a small, lingering kiss to one corner of his mouth.

"You should get some rest," he can feel her breath against his lips, and it makes them tingle, "Next time, you can tell me about the stars, okay?"

He can only muster a sad smile in response.

"Next time, I'll tell the stars about you."

Axel isn't sure when the resignation and sad sense of defeat in him morphs into determination.

She didn't want to stay? He was going to give her reasons to not leave.

It didn't matter if she chose to leave someday in the future, but he wanted time. With her. A year, maybe two.

He'd prefer a lifetime. His lifetime at least. From what she told him, she could control time- she could spare him of it in her presence, couldn't she?

When someone came along, and it felt like that someone was your soulmate- you couldn't let them breeze past. And Axel certainly wasn't going to let Stella get away from him that quickly.

He wanted their little breaks from eternity, to last an eternity together if it could.

His thoughts however came to an abrupt standstill when he turned into a certain corridor.

Everyone was supposed to be asleep.

But the tiny sliver of light that had escaped from one of the doorways said that there was someone awake in the dead of the night- and it wasn't just him.

He takes quiet steps towards the door, as the hushed voices become louder and louder.

"-I put you on the team with one of my best computer analysts," Corban's voice sounds angry, "to make sure you can help. But what did you do?"

"Boss," Axel frowns at the familiar voice- not being able to place it for a second, "I'm really sorry Boss-"

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Elijah," Corban mutters irritatedly, "You gave my team a signal that led them straight to the jaws of a criminal-"

"That signal was a fake."

"-and- what?"

Elijah sounds hesitant. "I knew... from the beginning that there was something wrong with the signal. Something was connecting our unit and a random warehouse of the Noxia- and even though it seemed valid initially, it didn't sit right with me."

"And you thought it was smart to keep this to yourself?" Corban sounds angrier as Axel presses his ear closer to the door- making sure he's not in the way of any of the light to avoid shadows.

"I... it was the only lead you had sir," Elijah says, "I thought it was odd, but I thought it would lead to somewhere new, but now..."

"What?"

"I did some digging sir," Elijah sounds more reluctant than ever, "some of the uh.. well, research.. goes beyond what I am authorized, but that's what made me find that the signal was...fake."

"I see," for someone who had just been told that rules had been breached, Corban abruptly sounded strangely calm, "What else did you find?"

"That signal was created from someone in our unit," Elijah says quietly, "Someone created a signal and made it seem like there was a signal connecting Kyrell Blackwood's gang to our unit's computers. It is very evident that it was placed there to throw us off course."

Silence fills the room after that, as Axel presses himself closer to the door as discreetly as he can.

"I want you to do more digging," Corban says finally, his voice cool and calm- in contrast to the anger that he had heard a few seconds ago, "And I want you to report your findings only to me."

"B-But-" Elijah sounds confused as he hesitates, "Shouldn't we tell Mr. Falcon too, sir? The case is about him, anyway isn't it?"

"No," Corban's voice sounds firm, making Axel narrow his eyes, "Not a word to him."

"W-Why not?"

"Because he's gone soft," Corban huffs, "Ever since Miss Stella has arrived, he's gone soft. The man he was before he met her was much more stoic, completely different- and no one can tell me otherwise."

Axel grits his teeth as he pushes himself away from the door silently.

And as he turns around to make his way back to his room with the new information buzzing in his head, he could've sworn he saw another figure slink away through the shadows.

A figure that strangely resembled Winston.

Thank you for reading! Don't forget to vote and comment :)

I've come to realize that I've been mostly focusing on the mystery aspect of this book, rather than the chapters about them, so I will work to give you more Axella content- I'm not sure I can add too much of it, but I will try o.O

that is all for today, be well xx

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