#i eventually fixed the problem with cocoa powder but wow

[catwingsathena]

One night, before going to bed

I set up my sweet tooth to be fed

I thought, “what do I want?”

Tried my hand at fondant—

But I think I made Oobleck instead.

[porcelain-cats1]

The Moon and the Stars

Space is cold, dark, and lonely. Rachel knew this well having to sit alone on her moon like a pearl in a freezing ocean. Her only form of entertainment was when she could collect moon dust, weave it into thread, and stitch up the damaged stars she came across. They were so warm, not too hot like a sun, nor as cold as a moon. When she held a star in her hand, the feeling could be easily compared to a cooling cup of hot cocoa. It was so comforting and cozy, she wished that she could hold it forever, but it would die if it were damaged for too long and stars are so full of life and energy that as soon as she was finished fixing it, it'd zip off into the void. She had tried stitching slowly but the thread was so cold compared to the warmth of a star that it would quickly fade. So stitching a star would only last about a minute or two, but every opportunity she had to hold a star in her hands was one she'd cherish.

She wouldn't have felt so lonely if she could at least make something of her own, but she was only good at sewing. Thanks to her precious moon, she always had a large supply of thread to sew with. Well... until the moon started to receive damage.

Some cracks were easy to fix, they only required small stitches. Unfortunately, others were much larger. This wouldn't have been a problem if some of the pieces weren't knocked out of reach when a comet flew by and grazed her moon, but because they were, she was continuously losing large chunks of it. If she had the strength to leave the gravitational pull of her moon, then she would have gone out to collect the lost pieces, but by the time the gravity had lost enough strength for her to be able to do so, her moon was very small and the pieces were nowhere in sight.

She started to think, "If I'm so worthless that I can't protect a single moon, is it even worth this lonely existence?" Her knees were hugged to her chest and her eyes were glassy as she sat there on her moon that had become so small that it was almost unrecognizable. She decided that she would wait for a comet to hit her, wiping her from the face of the cosmos.

So, that's what she did, she waited. She waited for what felt like weeks but could have very well been months, she couldn't tell the difference anymore. Eventually she got what she was waiting for: a comet. But it didn't hit her, instead it drove itself straight through her moon, digging itself into the core and splitting it in two. While she knew that this was going to happen eventually, she had hoped that her moon's destruction would take her with it.

She gripped the half of the moon that she had been sitting on, crawling over the side to look where the center used to be. What she saw was a star, it had become badly damaged from the impact. She stared at it with a cold expression before slowly reaching out to pull it close to her chest. Her eye produced a small tear before the lack of gravity gently lifted it off her cheek. She had no more thread for this star, she couldn't save even a little thing like this. Just when she could feel the warm light being drained from the star, she felt something warm on her shoulder, a gloved hand around the size of her own.

"Are you alright?!" asked the voice of a young boy, he sounded panicked and out of breath, but since he likely wouldn't have lost much energy getting here, his exhaustion was probably because he had become so worked up. Rachel protectively hugged the star even tighter to her chest before turning her head to look at him, he appeared to be around her age. When she didn't reply, he started looking around at the damage that had been done and his eyes widened. He gripped the scarf around his neck tightly as he swallowed the obvious guilt and nerves that had built up in his throat. "I... I thought this was a particularly large, dead comet... I didn't know that there was a person here..." his voice was shaking a little. Rachel turned her head back to face the moon and shrugged, "Its alright, everything dies eventually anyway." The boy quickly looked up from nervously playing with his scarf to look at the back of her head, his mouth slightly opened as if he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what.

He hesitated, "What was this that you were sitting on?" Rachel was a little surprised that he didn't recognize a moon, but she couldn't really blame him since it had become so small. "My moon," she replied, feeling the tightness in her own throat return as her eyes started to tear up again. "You... you mean the actual moon? You own the moon?" he asked, his voice carrying a hint of interest, "Did you make it yourself?" She shook her head, "No, all I can do is sew, I've never made anything of my own." The boy's eyes glittered with intrigue as he floated around to the other side of the moon half she was on, his hands gripped the edge of it as his arms pushed him closer to her face, "You can sew?!"

She tightly gripped the star in surprise as she instinctively pushed herself backwards, floating away. Realizing his mistake, the boy quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the floating rock. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said as he tightly held his hands together near his chest, "I just really need to know something." She wasn't sure what he could possibly want to ask of her, but she wasn't going to turn him down, "What is it?"

He gestured toward the star she was holding, "That's mine, I've sent many like it into space. Some of them are meant to stay in place while others, like the one you're holding, are shooting stars that move around space." Rachel rested her chin on her arms, wondering where he was going with this. "Anyway, shooting stars don't last long, they move so quickly that if they hit anything, they break. But sometimes..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out some thread, Rachel's eyes widened a little as she noticed that it was her own. "Sometimes they come back with this holding them together," he said, holding up the thread, "Have you been fixing my stars?" Rachel nervously blushed a little, she didn't want people to approach her about this, she had thought that no one would know about that, she didn't even think that other people existed in this dark and empty universe (which apparently wasn't that empty after all).

She nodded slowly which ignited an excited giggle from the boy's mouth. "Wow! Thank you so much! That's really nice!" he went to hug her but when she backed away a little he paused, "Uh, s-sorry, I just get super excited..." He looked at his feet and tapped the toes of his boots together, trying to distract himself from the awkward situation. "It's alright," Rachel replied, feeling a little bad. He seemed friendly and sweet, and proved to be mature enough to apologize for what he did to her moon, albeit still a little childish when playing with his clothes or getting excited over little things she said. The boy looked up, he clearly hadn't expected a response. "I... oh, thanks," he stared at her for a few seconds before glancing at the moon pieces, "If you can sew then can't you fix this too?" Rachel shook her head, "I don't have any thread, I used all of it and there's nothing left." The boy looked around, as if some would appear if he looked hard enough, "What did you use, anyway? To make the thread, I mean." She removed one of her hands from her hold on the star and pointed at the moon pieces, "I wove moon dust into thread, but there's none left, not that it would have been strong enough to fix this anyway."

Her throat felt rough, but not because she was on the verge of tears, she had calmed down by now. She had never talked to someone this much in such a short amount of time. While physically painful, it was somehow comforting.

The boy didn't hesitate before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handful of bright, shining powder, "What about stardust? Could you use this?" Rachel's eyes widened a little as she reached out to accept the stardust into her cold hands, the now lifeless star floating from her arms. As soon as she was holding it, she felt warm and not so lonely. She quickly wove the dust into thread, much to the amazement of the excitable boy. "Woah it's so pretty! It looks like gold, huh?" he chirped, his eyes sparkling. Rachel nodded, "What's your name, by the way? You never told me." The boy smiled, "My name's Eddie! What's yours?" She hesitated, "...I'm Rachel." Eddie giggled and held his hands to his helmet, as if he were placing them on his cheeks, "That's such a pretty name! Rachel~! Rachel~! Rachel~!" He said her name in a singsong voice, slowly spinning upside-down in the antigravity. Rachel's face turned pink and she quickly turned around to start sewing her moon.

It took a few minutes to sew such large pieces together, but the fact that the stardust thread was so strong meant that Rachel could confidently make each stitch without worrying about it snapping. Eddie had his knees hugged to his chest as his eyes fixated on Rachel's work, following her finger movements with the needle until she was finally finished. She placed her feet onto the surface, it felt warmer than before, less like a moon and more like a star. Feeling the warmth on her toes, she let the faint gravity pull her down until she was sitting comfortably on the moon once again, right where she should be. She looked up at Eddie who still had a growing expression of fascination on his face. "Thank you very much," she said. His expression melted before turning into a cheerful grin, "It's no problem at all! I can bring you more if you want!" He spun around and gestured to the many stars that were around them, "As long as I make stars, I can get you tons of stardust!" Rachel looked around at each warm light that floated in space, her eyes glittering at the infinite amount of warmth she could have.

Eddie was still in his own little world when Rachel suddenly stood up and grabbed his scarf, then pulled him closer until he was standing alongside her. "Wh-what?" he asked as she stared into his eyes. Her eyes were a little overwhelming to look into, they were filled with an array of blues and small, silver specks. Eddie felt that if he stared for too long, he'd be pulled into some sort of void, or maybe that was just the blood rushing to his head. Rachel smiled and gently removed his helmet before kissing him on the cheek, "You're a sweet boy, please come back whenever you want to."

Red slowly crept across Eddie's face as he nodded slightly, "M...mhm... I can... do that..." After a few seconds, his conscious suddenly jumped back to full attention, "W-wait! Did you j-just-?!" He made a string of stutters that couldn't possibly be recognized as actual words before covering his face with his scarf and pushing off into the antigravity, slowly spinning while curled in a ball.

Rachel let out a small laugh.

It felt warm, like a star.

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Here is some concept art for your viewing pleasure: