#(for me i mean fjsdkaldsjfk)

[ellstersmash]

if you wanted the sun

Fandom: The Wayhaven Chronicles Pairing: Mason x Theo West Rating: T for Teen (language) Words: 1639 [Read on Ao3]

mason takes theo somewhere special, for @wayhavensummer days 5 (stargazing) + 6 (date night). extra kisses to @brightpinkpeppercorn​ for the inspiration ♥

“What the hell is this?” Theo climbs out of the passenger side. Hands shoved into her jacket pockets, she slams the door shut with one hip and stares up at the letters mounted above the building.

Mason walks up next to her. “A planetarium.”

“Wow,” she drawls. “Thanks, man. It's tough navigating the world without being able to read a fucking sign.”

He snorts and heads for the door. A wide white path, clean, lawn edged harsh and neat, leads to the entryway.

“I meant what are we doing here?”

That's not an answer he's prepared to give up, but even without it, she follows. Steps as familiar as her heartbeat right behind him, faster, then she catches up.

“They're closed,” she points out in a deadpan tone, leaning against the glass next to a list of white-etched business hours. “See? I have eyes.”

Mason glares at her wearily but she screws her face up to match, then sticks her tongue out to make him break.

And he does. He always does.

“C'mon, you little shit,” he says, and veers off the sidewalk, hugging the whitewashed walls to the back door. Metal, up a few shoddy-looking cement steps, all lit by one long loudly buzzing fluorescent bulb. A shake of the handle tells him enough: the hardware's sturdy but there's no deadbolt to break.

Grip firm, he yanks the door open.

Theo blinks, frowns, then climbs the steps. Her fingers smooth across the shredded wood around a small mangled hole where the latch strike busted free.

“Sometimes I forget you can do stuff like that,” she says, wearing an uncertain expression.

“Surprise.”

“You know, I probably could've picked that and saved the museum a buck.”

Mason shrugs and squeezes past her, swinging backward and hooking a finger in her belt loop as he passes. “In my defense, sometimes I forget you can do stuff like that.”

They wander down the hall past a few Staff Only and storage rooms and into the lobby, eyes peeled for cameras or even a cleaning crew. Despite the sheer size of it, there’s no sign of security. Probably reserved for the museum next door and all its grand exhibits and ancient artifacts, but there’s definitely some shit in here worth stealing.

Dotting the floor are embedded golden plaques with names and companies, ego-appeasers for generous donors, and at the center sits a large elegant model of the solar system. After a cursory search, Theo finds a basic-looking switch behind the membership counter that brings it to life, planets crawling their thrown race around the sun while a few moons whirl around their mother planets.

She hops onto the counter—first attempt a false start that makes her snicker, but the second takes—and thumps her sneakers against it. “Looks different than I remember it.”

Her voice is hushed, though there’s no need. Even so, it echoes around the room. Bounces off the sparkling floors and high ceilings and smooth painted walls. Follows a million paths into Mason's ears.

“Yeah?” he asks. “You come here often?”

She shakes her head, craning her neck to see all there is to see from her vantage point. “City's too far for school field trips. But I came once a few years ago. It's weird being here in the dark.”

“Want the lights on?”

“I don't know, do you want to spend the night in jail?” she shoots back, leaning forward on the heels of her palms. “Because that's how you spend the night in jail.”

Mason hums thoughtfully and approaches her perch. Theo doesn't shy back when he parts her knees to stand between them, knuckles planted on the desk beside her hands. A top-down view of long lashes as her gaze flickers to his lips.

Funny how that doesn’t get old.

“Think they'd let us bunk together?” he asks. “Because I'd be down for that.”

“Bet you would.”

It's late and she's tired, eyes all soft, blinking a little slower and staring a little long. Mason's reaching up for her before he can think about it, not that thinking about it would end any differently. Not these days. It's just more time spent not doing it, so why bother?

Fingers beneath her chin, his thumb sweeps across her lower lip—she follows it with her tongue as if trying to taste him there.

Kissing her is dangerous, but he does it anyway. Real quick, but he sinks back in like he knew he fucking would, all too ready to lose himself for just a minute in this one good thing. Her lips. Her tongue. Her hands climbing up his chest. Her eyes, blue-black, when she pulls away with a hard shake of her head that tells him she got lost, too.

“So, uh…” She clears her throat. “I'm assuming we didn't drive for three hours to break in here just to fool around on the front desk.”

“Sounds like a good time to me.” Mason grins and gives her room, throwing an arm around her shoulders once she's got her feet back on the floor. He tilts his head toward a set of double doors at the back of the lobby. “Wanna catch a show?”

The nod she gives him is almost gleeful.

Inside the theater is pitch black, doors sealed so well not even he can see. Theo digs in his pocket for his phone and the screen bathes both their faces in harsh blue light before she turns the flashlight on and the screen off.

It’s an impressive place. The domed ceiling takes up the whole upper half of the structure, stark white against the dark carpet and soundproofing and circular rows of seats. The projector in the center of the room, almost futuristic in appearance, has its own stand and accompanying instrument panel.

“That’s new,” Theo murmurs, flashlight sweeping back and forth across the panel as she inspects the various labels on each of the sliders and switches and screens.

“You know how to work this thing?”

She turns to him with an incredulous stare. “Do I—? What do I look like, some kind of A/V wizard? No, I don’t know how to work it. Do you?”

Mason looks over the panel. He flicks a switch mounted alone on the side, and the edges of the screen glow faintly as the projector whirs. 

“Lucky guess,” Theo mumbles. Reaching past him, she presses another button, and all at once Mason’s senses are slammed by light and sound and vibration. He staggers, clasping his hands over his ears.

Almost as quickly, it abates. 

“Shit!” Theo hisses through her teeth, hand soothing on his shoulder. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he says. “I’m fine. But let’s not do that again.”

“I think this one’s the master volume.”

She slides the knob all the way down, and they hope that means off but he braces for the worst. Thankfully, this time, it’s only the screen and without the rest, it’s not too much. Just a dizzying sky filled with pinpoints of light spinning silently above them.

“Woah,” Theo says with her eyes cast upward. 

“Well? What do you think?” Mason asks, just to hear it.

But the smile on her face is more than answer enough. She slides his phone back in his pocket and takes his hand instead. Brings his knuckles to her lips. Leads him to the rows of seats and they pick two and clamber over, Mason’s arm settling back around her shoulders. Easy.

The view abruptly changes to one of an astronaut on a spacewalk. As their tether drifts weightless around them, their feet hover above the faraway Earth, all that emptiness in between and nothing to show the scale of such an unfathomable distance.

“You know,” Theo muses, “I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger. Well—” She gazes longingly at the scene. “Ok, longer than that.”

Mason does know. She’s mentioned it sort of in passing, before, though not as a story to be told. “What changed?”

She shrugs one shoulder. “Nothing. Got talked out of it. Bobby was going to school for journalism and wanted us to have more classes together. Said my p— Uh. My writing was ‘too good to go undeveloped.’”

That last bit is accentuated with a snide voice and finger quotes but it still sounds off. In Mason’s experience, that shithead reporter doesn't know how to give a compliment without wanting something for it.

Theo bumps her elbow into his, a sweet half-smile cutting through his growing rage. “I see that look. And you're right, it was total bullshit. He just wanted someone to carry him to graduation.”

“It’s interesting how nothing I learn about that asshole makes me not want to punch him.”

“Yeah,” and she goes so quiet. “But guess which idiot fell for it?”

Not you, he wants to say. Just... another younger stupider you.

Yeah, that won't come out right. He squeezes her hand instead.

The idea of her out there, stuffed into that suit, all that nothing between her and here, makes Mason’s chest tighten in a way he’d rather not think about. But she would love it. And she’d be incredible, he knows, brave and smart and decisive and curious.

“You could go back.”

“Maybe. Probably won't, though. I've lost so much time. And momentum. And shit, I'm too tired to sign up for twelve more years of academia. Besides, if I was up there, I wouldn't—” She shifts next to him and drums her fingers on the armrest, little echoes in Mason's skull. “You know. Wouldn't be here. Doing this.”

Fuck, her heart is so fast. Flying through beats like they're disposable. As a solar flare arcs across the ceiling, she meets his eyes for a split second, skin painted with freckles like stars, and he gets it.