Linkon City - Chinese New Year Festival, Evening
The festival was winding down.
Red lanterns still hung from every building, casting warm light across the crowded streets. The scent of incense and festival food filled the air. Music played from speakers, traditional instruments mixed with modern beats. People in traditional and modern clothes mingled, celebrating the new year with laughter and joy.
Nana walked through the festival in a daze, barely seeing any of it.
She'd let her parents drag her here, hoping—desperately hoping—that maybe Xavier would be at such a large public event. That maybe, after a week of failed searches, she'd finally spot those silver hair and blue eyes in the crowd.
But as the hours passed and the crowd thinned, that hope was dying.
Her parents had wandered off to meet friends. Her own friends had left to watch the fireworks from a better vantage point.
And Nana stood alone near the ancient wishing tree—a massive oak decorated with red ribbons where people tied their prayers and hopes for the new year.
I should go to the university tomorrow, Nana thought, staring at the ribbons without really seeing them. No more excuses. No more fear. Tomorrow I'll be brave. Tomorrow I'll—
"Please,"
a voice said nearby, soft and desperate.
"Please let me find her. I've searched so long. I've given up everything. Just... please. One more chance. Let me find my Starlight."
Nana's head snapped up.The voice was coming from a young man standing before the wishing tree, his hands pressed together in prayer, his eyes closed. He wore traditional festival clothes—elegant white and gold robes embroidered with intricate patterns, the kind that would have looked perfectly at home in the Qing Dynasty or even ancient Philos.
And his hair. Silver. Shimmering in the lantern light.
Nana's heart stopped.
No. It can't be. I've been seeing him in every stranger for weeks. This is just another false alarm. Just another man with light-colored hair who'll turn around and have the wrong face, the wrong eyes, the wrong—
The man opened his eyes.
Blue. Pale, endless blue that held galaxies in their depths. Eyes that looked ancient and young simultaneously.
Eyes that Nana would recognize across any lifetime, any distance, any universe.
Xavier's eyes.
Their gazes locked.
Xavier went completely still. Didn't blink. Didn't breathe. Didn't move except for the way his hands fell slowly to his sides, the prayer gesture breaking as shock crashed over him.
He stared at her like she was a ghost.
Like she was a dream that would shatter if he moved too quickly.
And Nana—Nana couldn't breathe either.
Couldn't think. Could only stare back at the face she'd been searching for across sixty years and five lifetimes.
The face that had smiled down at her when she fell from trees. The face that had cried over her four times as she died. The face that had faded into stardust in her arms.
The face she'd thought she'd never see again.
"Xavier,"
she whispered, and even that small sound seemed to echo in the space between them.
Something in Xavier's expression cracked. His eyes widened, his lips parted in shock, and Nana saw the exact moment he recognized her—not just her face, but her soul. Saw the realization crash over him like a tidal wave.
Nana moved first.
She wasn't a fighter. She was clumsy, impulsive, emotional. But she ran like her life depended on it, like all five of her lifetimes had been leading to this exact moment.
People nearby stepped back, startled, as Nana sprinted across the festival grounds. Some shook their heads at the "crazy woman" running toward a stranger. Others smiled, thinking they were witnessing a romantic reunion.
None of them understood. None of them knew they were watching two souls that had been separated for sixty years, torn apart by death and rebirth and cosmic forces, finally—FINALLY—finding each other again.
Nana didn't slow down. She launched herself at Xavier with complete faith that he'd catch her, that his arms would be there, that—
Xavier caught her.
His arms wrapped around her waist automatically as she jumped, her momentum carrying them both backward a step. He held her effortlessly, like she weighed nothing, like he'd been preparing for this moment his entire life.
Which, in a way, he had been. Five lifetimes of holding her. Five lifetimes of this exact embrace.
"Xa—Xavier?"
Nana's voice broke completely. She buried her face in his chest, her hands fisting in the expensive fabric of his robes.
"Oh god. Xavier. It's really you. It's really—"
She couldn't finish. Could only sob into his chest, her entire body shaking with the force of emotions too big for words. Relief. Joy. Grief for all the years lost. Love that had survived death and rebirth and impossible distances.
Xavier still hadn't moved. Hadn't spoken. His arms were around her—one hand pressed against her back, the other cradling her head—but he seemed frozen in disbelief.
Nana could feel his heart racing beneath her cheek. Could feel the warmth of him, solid and real and here. Could smell him—still that same scent that carried hints of starlight and something uniquely Xavier.
She remembered this. Remembered being held exactly like this when they were children in Philos. When he was her knight in the Valley Kingdom. When he was her husband in the Qing Dynasty. When he was her neighbor in 2034.
The feeling of safety. Of home. Of belonging exactly where she was meant to be.
"It's really you,"
Nana sobbed, pulling back just enough to look up at his face. Her hands were trembling as they moved to cup his cheeks, to touch him, to prove he was real and not another cruel dream.
"Xavier, it's really you. I've been searching—I've been looking everywhere—I thought I'd never find you and—"
Her words cut off as she saw his face properly.
Xavier's eyes were red-rimmed, swimming with tears that hadn't fallen yet. His expression was shattered—relief and disbelief and desperate hope all warring for dominance. He looked like a man who'd been drowning for years and had finally broken the surface.
His hands were shaking where they held her. Actually shaking, this man who'd once been the Crown Star of Philos, who'd led armies and ruled kingdoms, who'd been confident and controlled even in the face of death
"Xavier?"
Nana's voice softened, her thumbs brushing away the tears that had started to fall.
"It's okay. I'm here. I'm really here. You found me. We found each other."
"Tell me it's a dream,"
Xavier's voice cracked completely, broken and desperate and so full of longing it physically hurt to hear.
"Please. Please tell me this is a dream. Pinch me. No—slap me! Wake me up! Because if this is real—if you're really here—I don't think my heart can take it if you disappear again."
"It's not a dream,"
Nana promised, even as her own tears fell faster.
"Xavier, I'm real. This is real. I'm Nana. Your Starlight. I remember everything. Philos, Luna, all of it. I remember you. I remember us. And I've been searching for you for five years—no, for sixty years—no, for five lifetimes! Xavier, I found you. I finally found you."
Xavier made a sound that was half sob, half laugh. His hands tightened on her, pulling her impossibly closer, like he could merge their bodies into one if he just held tight enough.
"Starlight,"
he breathed, and the nickname—HER nickname, the one he'd given her when they were children—broke something in both of them.
Xavier kissed her.
Desperate. Urgent. Like a drowning man finding air. His lips crashed against hers with no technique, no grace, just pure desperate need. He kissed her like she was oxygen and he'd been suffocating for sixty years.
Nana kissed him back with equal desperation, her hands fisting in his silver hair, pulling him closer even though they were already pressed together with no space between them.
She tasted salt—his tears or hers, impossible to tell anymore. Felt his body shaking. Felt her own body trembling in response.
They kissed and cried simultaneously, their tears mixing together, their sobs breaking the kiss into fragments before they'd crash back together again.
"I love you," Xavier gasped between kisses, his forehead pressed against hers.
"I love you. I've loved you for over a century. Across five lifetimes. Through four deaths. I love you I love you I love you—"
"I know," Nana sobbed, kissing him again.
"I know. I love you too. I always have. Always will. Xavier—"
She pulled back just enough to look at his face, to see those blue eyes swimming with tears.
"You came back. You found a way to come back to me."
"I traded my immortality,"
Xavier admitted, his voice raw.
"Gave up being a star. Accepted permanent death when this life ends. All of it. Just for the chance to see you one more time. I'd do it again. I'd do it a thousand times. Nana—my Starlight—I'd give up anything for you."
"You idiot,"
Nana laughed through her tears.
"You beautiful, selfless idiot. You gave up eternity for me."
"Worth it."
Xavier kissed her again, softer this time.
"You're worth everything. Worth kingdoms and immortality and the cosmos itself. You've always been worth everything"
"I was so scared,"
Nana whispered against Xavier's lips.
"So scared I wouldn't find you. That you hadn't been reborn. That I'd live this whole lifetime alone. Xavier, I've been searching for five years and I was about to give up and—"
"I've been searching for five years too,"
Xavier admitted. "Longer, actually. Since I was old enough to really start researching. I looked everywhere, Starlight. Every database, every record, every corner of Linkon. I couldn't find you and I thought—" His voice broke.
"I thought I'd sacrificed everything for nothing. That breaking the curse meant you couldn't be reborn. That I'd never see you again."
"But I'm here." Nana cupped his face, made him look at her.
"I'm here, Xavier. We both made it. We both found each other. After sixty years, after everything—we made it."
Xavier's smile was radiant despite the tears still falling.
"We made it."
He picked her up—properly this time, one arm under her knees, the other supporting her back—and spun her around. Nana laughed, a sound of pure joy that carried across the festival grounds. Xavier laughed too, the sound rusty like he hadn't really laughed in years.
Maybe he hadn't. Not since she'd died sixty years ago.
When he set her down, neither of them let go. Their arms stayed wrapped around each other, their foreheads pressed together, breathing the same air.
"Don't let go," Nana whispered. "Please don't let go. I'm terrified that if you let go, I'll wake up and this will all be a dream."
"Not letting go," Xavier promised. "Never letting go. Not for the rest of this lifetime. Starlight, you're stuck with me now."
Good." Nana's smile was watery but genuine. "Because I'm not letting go either. We've been apart for sixty years. That's sixty years too long. From now on, we stay together. Always."
"Always," Xavier agreed, sealing the promise with another kiss.
This one was different from the desperate, crying kisses before. This one was soft, gentle, full of promise and hope and the beginning of something new. This was the kiss of two people who'd finally, finally found their way home to each other.
When they broke apart, Xavier noticed Nana's hand—the one that had once carried a star-shaped mark.
He lifted it gently, pressed a kiss to her palm where the mark used to be.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Sorry you had to die at twenty-three in our last life. Sorry you died alone. Sorry I wasn't there to hold you."
"I wasn't alone," Nana said softly.
"My team was there. And Xavier—" She turned his hand over, revealed his own palm where the crown mark glowed faintly beneath the surface.
"I think part of you was with me. Even across the distance. I felt you before I died. Felt this—" She touched the mark gently. "—reaching for me."
Xavier's eyes widened. "You felt it? I was trying to reach you. Was calling for you across space. I thought—I thought I was too late. That you'd died before I could even say goodbye."
"You reached me."
Nana pressed her palm against his, skin to skin.
"I felt you. And then, after I died... my soul drifted toward you. Toward Philos. Toward where you existed as a star. Xavier, I was trying to reach you too."
"And then we were both reborn," Xavier finished. "Both human. Both with our memories. Both searching."
"Both finding each other, finally."
Nana smiled.
"It took sixty years and five lifetimes, but we did it. We actually did it."
Xavier pulled her close again, resting his chin on top of her head.
"No more dying. No more separation. No more cosmic curses or impossible distances. This lifetime, we get to be happy. We get to grow old together. We get to—" His voice caught. "We get to finally live."
"Together," Nana added.
"Together," Xavier agreed.
They stayed like that as night fell completely, as fireworks began exploding in the sky above them—brilliant colors painting the darkness in shades of joy.
The crowd cheered. Music swelled. The new year celebration reached its peak.
But Xavier and Nana only had eyes for each other.
Two souls that had loved across five lifetimes.
Two people who'd died and been reborn and searched desperately through sixty years of separation.
Two hearts that had never stopped beating for each other, even when one of them was stardust and the other was a constellation.
Finally reunited. Finally whole. Finally home.
And as the fireworks painted the sky in brilliant light, as the festival celebrated new beginnings all around them, Xavier and Nana held each other and cried tears of joy.
Because after sixty years of waiting, after five lifetimes of tragedy, after countless deaths and rebirths and impossible distances—
Their story was finally, finally getting its happy ending.
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⭐⭐⭐
To be continued __