TakaoXIll!Reader- Stars

Takao sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"Hmm?" ____ hummed and glanced back. "Nothing, just...thinking."

"Sort of a strange place to think." Takao said. "I thought you went straight home, I was worried about you."

"Sorry," ____ mumbled, returning her gaze to the setting sun.

Takao had found her outside the wrought iron gates of Shutoku High, the school they attended together. She sat with her knees pressed to her chest, hugging herself.

"You seem a little off, everything alright?" Takao settled down next to her.

"I guess," She shrugged.

"Ah..." He looked down. "So what exactly were you thinking about?"

"Honestly speaking? My...'illness'." _____closed her eyes.

"Oh, can I ask why?" Takao looked at her again.

"It's hard. I mean, when I was little I always dreamed about being some kind of superstar." ____ smiled at the memory. "I wanted to be famous, someone that people would know throughout history."

"But when I started getting really sick and they finally diagnosed me, reality set in." Her smiled twisted into an ugly frown. "And I realized that I could die before I was an adult, kind of like a college kid when they graduate."

Takao cracked a small smile, then reverted back to his frown.

"I know i'm better now, but it's terminal!" ____ clasped her hands over her ears. "I'm okay for now, but when I turn 30 i'm just going to start getting weak again."

"I can't paint, I can't drink a lot a pop, I can't drink or eat anything with even a little alcohol, I was barely allowed to rejoin the basketball team, and I have to take these stupid liquid supplements that taste like chalk." _____ sighed loudly, pounding the ground. "And them when I do tell people, everyone looks at me like i'm a circus freak!"

"I'm sorry, I wish I knew how to help you..." Takao looked up, the sky was getting darker, a few shiny dots appeared above him.

"It's ok, it's not your fault." ____ did her best to smile. "But, being as sick as I am, I won't be able to live this life I need to."

"'Need to?'" Takao scoffed. "You don't need to change the world to be remembered, y'know?"

"Yeah, but I'd like to be known as something more than just another cancer-stricken girl, I wanna be known for being friendly or charming or funny, something like that."

"But you are more than that to me, you're my friend." Takao grinned. "I'm sure some many other people don't think of you as just a sick girl."

Takao reached out to touch _____'s arm, but she batted it away.

"So what? That may be good enough for you but not for me." She scowled, staring straight at the mostly-disappeared sun.

Takoa's eyebrows dipped, almost in anger.

"Why isn't that enough for you? Nothing is ever enough for you." Takao did his best to keep from shouting. He remembered when Shutoku's girls basketball team had placed 3rd in the Interhigh. The rest of her team was elated to have come that far, but ____ scolded herself for not taking first. Every time she got a B on an assignment, she punished herself for not getting an A.

"This is all you get. You get me, your team, Shin-chan and your family. That's it, that's your life."

"Even though you want the kind of life that will be printed on the front page of the New York Times, you might not get that." Takao continued. The sky was getting darker and darker. "But- that's okay, because the people who matter see you as special and important and meaningful. Your life does have meaning, even if it's not a headline."

______ considered this, then sighed.

"Yeah, maybe. But i'll still try." Her frown blossomed into a grin. "I'll be famous one day, you'll see."

Takao smirked.

"Maybe one day you'll be climbing the charts or writing a best-selling novel or making blockbuster movies, or-"

"Or all three!" _____ cheered.

"Ha, maybe one day, maybe." Takao whispered, then looked up.

"We should get home, it's getting late." He said, standing up.

"Yeah, let's head back." _____ took his outstretched hand and helped herself up."Can you walk me home."

"I'd be glad to," Takao bowed playfully.

The walk home was silent, but serene. Just as they rounded the corner to _____'s apartment building, ____ looked up to the twinkling stars.

"Someday, i'll shine like one of them." She beamed.

"I think you already do."