ღ✎Authoress's Noteღ✎: Kyo if this hot mess sucks and you want a refund then so be it but I am half conscious and I got this posted before the day ended, staying true to my "A Drabble a Day" promise to myself. XD Feel free to call me out on pulling this out of my ass and not editing, and I'll fix it tomorrow haha.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Paper stars?" Train tilted his head as he looked at you, yellow eyes bright. It was hard to remember that you were dealing with one of the world's best assassins when he looked like a curious cat.

"That's right! If we make one thousand of them, then we're supposed to be able to make a wish!" You pumped your fist into the air with a small grin on your face.

"That's easy! We could crack out one thousand of them in no time. And then I'm gonna wish for an endless supply of food! Man, I can't believe you didn't tell me about this before!"

"I used to make a ton with Saya." Your eyes crinkled slightly at the mention of your old sweeper partner. "We never finished though, I'm trying to remember why..."

Train's gold eyes stared at you, and he scratched the side of his brown hair- somehow not disturbing the spikes on his head. "Well is it all right if you do it with me then? Since it was something the two of you used to do?"

"Yea. You were her friend too, dork." You stuck your tongue out slightly at him and he, being equally as childish, reciprocated the action.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So this is all it is, just some strips of paper and a jar?" Train tilted his head slightly as he looked at it.

"Yep! What, did you think we'd have to blow a ton of money on it? Remember, any good sweeper is chronically poor." You shrugged your shoulders as you sat down on the floor, picking up one of the strips of paper. "Do you know how to make one of these?"

Train just shook his head from side to side. It wasn't like he ever had parents to teach him something like this, plus arts and crafts certainly wasn't part of anything Chronos taught him.

"Well then watch me." You were explaining how to make the stars with a little smile on your face as the decorated paper strip slowly became a little polka dotted star. The smile on your face almost hurt to look at. To someone who had so much blood on his hands, he got the feeling that he didn't deserve to be around someone as pure hearted as you were. After all, while you were on a mission away, he failed to take care of your best friend, and when you came back she was dead. You ended up tagging along with Sven and Eve when he was wounded, claiming that you had the right to beat some sense into him. The four of you have been stuck together ever since.

"Hey, what's wrong? You're staring at me and zoning out."

"Sorry," Train looked away slightly, wondering if he was apologizing for Saya or for staring at you. You blinked once, then smiled. You took his hand in yours, making his eyes snap back to you.

"Well come on, these stars aren't going to make themselves." You placed a strip of paper into his hands, and he deadpanned as he looked at it.

"Are you trying to make a joke?" He held up the strip, which had numerous black cartoon cats on it.

"Oh hey that's a funny coincidence."

"Admit it, you tried it."

"Nope." You shook your head with your usual cheeky smile on your face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We got a lot done, but then there are the few that we- AKA you- messed up." At your words, you and Train simultaneously glanced at the stars that didn't quite make it, before you turned back towards the jar that was half filled with stars. "Hey Train?"

The two of you were going to call it a day on account of Train's stomach (read: black hole) that demanded to be fed. "What?"

"Did you keep track of how many stars we made?"

"You're the pro at this, didn't you?"

"..."

"..."

"Whatever! This happened before, we can just make one thousand more to be sure!"

"... This happened before?" Now he had a feeling that he knew why you and Saya never made one thousand stars. He shrugged his shoulders. Well it wasn't that bad just sitting down with you and making these stars. "Since you're paying for dinner, I'm fine with that."

"Wait why am I paying for dinner? I don't wanna be broke."

"Come ooooonnnn."

"... FINE! But only this once!"

Train sure was lucky that he was as cute as he was oblivious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two of you were hard at work on the stars again the next day. Eve and Sven were out walking around town, Eve was probably staying at the library since she learned she could borrow as many books as she wanted for a low fee, and Sven was trying to find another mission.

"Hey," Train said after a particularly long lapse of silence. Well, actually it was more like two minutes, but that was pretty long for the two of you. "Why did you become a sweeper anyways?"

"Huh? I never told you?" You blinked as you looked up at him. "Lemme tell you as soon as we finish our stars." It took less than a minute for you two to finish.

"I don't really think the story is anything special, but I guess it all started because I couldn't get into college."

"You couldn't get into college?" Train raised an eyebrow. Every time he talked with you, he got the feeling that you were fairly intelligent, but didn't bother to apply it. 

"Well I did, but I flunked out. I had started designing my weapon prototype, and I got so excited working on it that I would be up all night working on it, instead of studying for my tests."

"Why were you designing a weapon in the first place?"

"Well I lived with my parents, pretty close to a really rough city. I thought having something around to defend ourselves would be a good idea- plus I think I played a bit too many videogames."

Train glanced at your weapon, which was a collapsible gunblade, and he had to agree with that statement. Chronos had some weird weapons, but that was because it was Chronos. He couldn't imagine anyone else combining a rifle with a sword and trying to fight with that.

"I went on my first bounty hunt when a thief stole something important to my family. I almost died too, but that's when I met Saya. She gave me some backup, showed me how it was done, and then I ended up tagging along when she left town."

"But why'd you keep doing it?"

"Because I thought about all the other people who lost their loved ones because of some of these creeps. I couldn't just pretend to live a normal life after I realized that."

Train sat in silence, he should have guessed that you had a blindingly pure motivation for your actions. And here he was, becoming a Sweeper so that he could take revenge against Creed someday.

"Anything else you wanna ask?"

The questions rolled off his tongue so easily. Though the two of you had been traveling for a while, you almost never had the chance to sit down and talk with him. You understood that he didn't really talk about himself a lot, but he was interested in your past. These were the kinds of questions he wished that he could've asked Saya. Now, you weren't Saya, you were you, and that was just as good. He wasn't going to let you slip out of his reach either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lazy days continued like that. When you weren't fighting freaky Tao infused apostles or hunting down bounties so you could pay the bills, you were making paper stars with Train. Scratch the five times that you two left your half-finished star jars in the hotel room at least. He was starting to understand why you and Saya never finished making those stars.

Though, as the two of you once again went through the routine of sitting down and folding the stars over some light chatter and stories you had to tell, Train found himself content. His mind wasn't preoccupied by the guilt of letting Saya die, nor the rage from knowing that Creed was still out there. Somehow it was just the two of you, and a half finished star jar. He didn't really have a problem with that.

Maybe you would never get to the end of the jar, just like you'd probably never run out of stories to tell him.

Not that he was complaining.