.

"Noah, you're smart-"

"As I've been told."

"I'm serious!"

"What makes you think I'm not?"

"Ugh! You're hopeless," Ruby pouted, crossing her thin arms over her chest. She huffed, making a show of turning away from her brother. She suppressed a low gasp as she lay on her side, the previously comfy warm roof against her back felt like fire against the bare skin on her arm.

And the view it gave wasn't half as nice as the one Noah got.

On second thought, maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

She shifted her weight slightly, propping her weight up by her elbows in hopes of lessening the burn on her arm. It only led to skinning her elbow.

To heck with it, this hurts.

Grudgingly, yet careful to avoid Noah's -amused?- smirk, she shifted her frame again so that she was back in her original position; flat on her back, one knee crossed over the other.

Typical Ruby.

She shot Noah a sideways glare when a low chuckle reached her ears, "Laughing at another person's misery isn't a very lovable trait, you should know that, right?"

"And jumping off this building would probably kill me," Noah replied offhandedly, glancing by his side. A formidable 150 story plunge greeted him.

Though the perch was precarious, it overlooked a large part of the city and provided a majestic view of the sky all the way till where it meets the edge of the Earth. Over the course of time, Noah and Ruby had on more than one occasion shared the small platform together. By silent agreement, although neither of them had ever brought it up or even casually mentioned it, the high up perch had became a sort of hide out for them.

It was one of those things that was taboo between siblings. Everyone knows about it, but no one has the heart or intention to bring it up for fear of jinxing it.

It's just more logical when you look at it their way.

He glanced back at Ruby, "One of those basic lessons in life, don't you think?"

"One that you obviously missed though. Even if you don't die, you'll be scarred for life. Or if you want to belief Uncle Tech," she cleared her throat, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Noah scoffed, "The person who coined that up had probably never been shot before."

"You don't know that."

"Hey, I've never been hit by a meteor either, but I know it hurts." He pointed out with an almost lazy gesture towards the sky. As he did so, his sleeve slid down his arm, and Ruby felt her throat tighten as –guilt?-flooded her system at the sight of the all-too-familiar jagged scar on his upper arm.

"All wounds heal." She recalled Uncle Tech's reassuring words in her ears that night, not two months ago.

"But some scars don't fade." Auntie Cassidy had whispered to her later, her warm hand gently petting the top of her head.

"Earth to bumble bee," Noah waved a hand in front of her face, bringing her back to the present. "You spaced out again."

Ever so casually, he lay back down, both hands linked behind his head and in an attempt to hold his head up higher. He kept his sleeves rolled up.

Typical Noah.

Silence.

"Noah?" Ruby tried again, suddenly remembering what she had intended to ask earlier.

"Hn?" Noah murmured back in reply.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

She paused, trying to put it in a sentence. "They said... that we should always aim for the stars right?"

Noah clicked his tongue, "If you want to belief that clichéd line anyway. Uncle Seth said that if you aim lower, you seldom get disappointed."

Ruby ignored him, and instead stared up at the sky above them. "Why did God create the sky?"

Noah wondered if she was joking.

But she did have this kind of wispy strange thing about the way she asked it. The ones you get when you're experiencing something that you'll probably remember for the rest of your life.

God knows that Ruby can do that just too well.

"Think about it," she smiled distractedly, still staring at the endless amount of blue and white at the sky and deciphering shapes out of the clouds, "we were told to shoot for the stars. We can't even see the stars because of the sky."

Noah nodded.

She continued, "Was the sky meant to keep us in?"

She mimicked Noah's posture; hands linked behind her head, eyes staring at the sky thoughtfully, "Or was it meant to keep the rest of the universe out?"

Silence.

She glanced sideways at him, slightly stunned by his response –or lack of response, to be precise. Considering that Noah La'More had always succeeded to fail at every attempt to keep silent for more than ten seconds, this was certainly an improvement for his favour. He kept his eyes glued over the horizon, lips set in a thin line.

Ruby inwardly grinned in triumph, he was actually pondering her question.

She took the rare moment of silence to quietly examine her brother, wishing that she had her sketchbook with her right now. Ever since Auntie Mairi had given it to her for her last birthday, she had taken up sketching any scene that she finds interesting in its pages. The first picture itself had been one of her favourites; Auntie Mairi dancing around the room wearing one of Auntie Quick's sombreros.

Now, this image was too good to pass up.

She took in the way he left the top buttons on his shirt undone, propping up part of the collar flimsily against his neck. She mentally traced it up towards his jaw line, up between his still-thin lips and towards the symmetrical line up the bridge of his nose. The lighting enunciated the adorable way his messy light blue fringe stuck-out over his eyes.

It was no secret, besides his uniquely coloured hair, it was Noah's eyes that struck people the most.

They weren't the same blue or violet hues that Celeste, Isaac and Ruby had inherited from Sapphire or Dusk. It was as if they had been in a strong genetic war before he was born, and his eyes couldn't decide what colour they wanted to be. They ended up being a mash of both colours. A pool of light blue streaked with violet.

Ruby loved Noah's eyes. And she knew many girls in their school did too.

But thankfully, what Noah made up for in brilliance, he suffered a drastic lack of indifference towards admirers or attention. To put it bluntly; Noah La'More is just plain oblivious.

Ruby didn't mind any of that though. It just meant she got to keep him to herself.

Obviously there's no downside to that.

"You're mentally sketching me, aren't you?" It was a statement, not a question. He didn't even spare a glance in her direction to realize.

"So, what if I am?" she giggled. She prodded his leg with her foot, only now realizing how long he had pondered her question. "Do you have an answer yet?"

Noah finally tore his eyes away from the distance and glanced at her quickly, just long enough to meet her eyes. Then, he lifted his gaze heavenwards, towards the overturned blue salad bowl above him, as if searching for an answer among the fluffy white clouds and various blue hues.

Finally, his lips curled upwards into a soft smile.

Have you ever heard of an angel's smile being able to tilt the border of light and darkness?

Because Ruby was sure that that smile could easily do that.

"You know what Rubs?" Noah finally replied. He recoiled from his position, lifting himself up so that he tittered dangerously close to the edge of the roof by his knee. Before Ruby could react to the sudden change, his hand reached out towards her and gently tousled her dark locks. When he pulled his hand back, she could actually feel how messy he had made it.

"Sissy," Noah interjected before she could even start speaking. Slowly yet surely, he leaned further out, half of his upper body suspended straight off the roof. He glanced back at her and said clearly, his tone clearly indicating that this was his final answer:

"Sometimes… you think about these things too much."

Letting his words hang in the air, he turned…

… and leaped clean off the edge.