This and Every Life

by Emmy Sanders

So many stars. Endless. But all I see are twelve. Twelve flickering points of light making up a sword, the tip of the constellation’s blade shining the brightest.

“Did you know when you look at the stars, you’re looking back in time?” He shakes his head, a slow roll against the decking. “By the time the light reaches us, years have passed. Decades, even. You’re seeing something from another lifetime.”

“When I look at the stars, Lee, all I see is you. My past. My present. My future. Every future on every star yet to shine. Always, it’s you.”

a familiar face beside me, wrinkled and handsome, his lips pressing a kiss to my knuckles as he tells me how lovely it’s been, a life spent with me.

There’s pain, and there’s joy, and there’s love. Love. Love.

“Do you believe in fate, Lee?” His eyes hold my own, brown and gold mixing in a hue I’d recognize anywhere. Any time. “I believe in you, my love. Which is why I can say with absolute certainty… I love you. In this and every life.”

I remember the moment I first fell in love. It wasn’t when I saw him for the first time. It wasn’t even the first time we kissed. It was simpler than all of that and infinitely more complex.

I wanted to be caught. Caught and kept close. I wanted to be loved, and I was. For millennia. Time and time again. And I’ll be loved still, for an eternity to come.

“This and every life,” I repeat. My own promise. My own vow. The absolute and utter truth. “I am yours, my warrior. And I will love you until everything goes dark.”

“I am Leandros,” I offer, not yet letting go. “Your name?” He nods his head shortly. “Aster, my good warrior.” “Aster? Your parents named you for the stars?”

“You have stars in your eyes with the way they shine.”

“It is my absolute honor, Aster, to have met yo...

“Soon, my star.” Aster purses his lips at such familiarity, but his eyes tell me he’s pleased to hear it. He nods his head once more. “My warrior.”

A single encounter, and hope sits in my heart. Whatever the next day brings, and the one after that, my future has certainly been changed. Irrevocably. Miraculously. Forevermore.

The pieces wove together over time, stitching themselves into the shape of a constellation, into past and present and future and, most of all, love. There are truths so many of us know, regardless of the opinions, cruelty, or apathy of others. One such truth? Love always has and always will find a way.