One Month Before Nana's Graduation
Nana had been nervous all morning.
Meeting Xavier's parents. THE parents. The people who'd raised the Crown Star of Philos reborn as a human baby.
Who'd watched their son grow up with memories of lifetimes they couldn't understand. Who'd supported him through his "obsession" with finding a girl who'd died sixty years before he was born.
"They'll love you," Xavier said for the third time, his hand steady on the steering wheel as they drove through Linkon's upper-middle district. "Starlight, you're worrying for nothing."
"Easy for you to say! You've been telling them about me for weeks!" Nana twisted her hands in her lap. "What if they think I'm not good enough? What if—"
"Not good enough?" Xavier laughed. "Nana, they think you're a saint for putting up with me. My mother's exact words were 'what kind of miracle girl would love our strange, star-blessed son?'"
"They didn't say that."
"They absolutely did."
Xavier squeezed her hand. "Relax. We're already planning the wedding. My parents are just excited to finally meet the girl who made me stop moping around like a tragic hero."
"You do mope a lot."
"I'm mysterious and brooding. It's different."
Nana rolled her eyes but smiled. Then the car turned into a neighborhood that made her jaw drop.
Large houses. VERY large houses. With manicured lawns and security gates and the kind of architecture that screamed
"generational wealth."
This was the kind of area where Skyheaven residents had their "ground properties" for when they wanted to pretend to be humble.
"Xavier," Nana said slowly. "Where exactly do your parents live?"
"Here." Xavier pulled into a driveway that led to a house that could only be described as a manor.
Three stories, elegant modern design mixed with traditional elements, surrounded by gardens that probably required a full-time staff.
Nana stared.
"Xavier. XAVIER. You said you were a broke graduate student!"
"I am a broke graduate student."
"YOUR PARENTS LIVE IN A MANSION!"
"It's not a mansion. It's just... a large house." Xavier parked, turned off the engine, looked vaguely uncomfortable. "Look, my parents are successful. My father's a neurosurgeon, my mother's a biotech researcher. They do well."
"THEY DO WELL?!" Nana gestured wildly at the house. "Xavier, this is—why are you living in a cramped apartment eating instant noodles when your parents live like THIS?".
Xavier was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "Because money doesn't matter. Never has, never will. I could live in a palace or a box under a bridge—it makes no difference if you're not there. Wealth, status, comfort—none of it means anything when the only thing I care about finding is you."
Nana's heart melted completely. "You—you actually chose to live poorly just because—"
"Just because being rich or poor didn't change the fact that I was searching for you. The apartment is close to the university library where I do my research. That's all that matters."
Xavier cupped her face gently.
"Starlight, I've been a crown prince with entire kingdoms at my disposal. I've ruled empires. Material wealth means nothing to me anymore. All I wanted—all I've EVER wanted since I became human again—was to find you."
Nana kissed him, soft and sweet and full of love for this impossible man who'd given up immortality and lived like a pauper despite having wealth because neither mattered compared to her.
"Okay," she said when they broke apart.
"Let's go meet your parents. But Xavier, you're buying better food from now on. No more instant noodles."
"But instant noodles are efficient—"
"No."
Xavier smiled, that rare full smile that made him look young and carefree.
"Yes, my love."
Mrs. Shen opened the door before they could knock—a elegant woman in her fifties with kind eyes and silver-streaked hair pulled back in a neat bun.
"Xavier! And you must be Nana!" She pulled Nana into a warm hug before Nana could even bow politely. "Oh, you're even more beautiful in person! Xavier showed us pictures but they don't do you justice!"
"Mother, you're overwhelming her," Xavier said, amused.
"Nonsense! Come in, come in! Your father's been pacing all morning, so excited to finally meet the girl who made our son smile again."
The interior of the house was just as impressive as the exterior—high ceilings, elegant furniture, art pieces that probably cost more than Nana's yearly tuition.
But it was also warm, lived-in, with family photos covering every surface.Photos of Xavier at every age. Baby Xavier with his distinctive silver hair and blue eyes. Toddler Xavier staring intensely at books. Five-year-old Xavier in formal clothes looking uncomfortable (the photo from the medical anomaly article). Teenage Xavier looking serious and somehow ancient despite his youth.
"Nana!"
Mr. Shen appeared from what looked like a home office—a tall man with gentle features and kind eyes behind glasses.
"It's wonderful to finally meet you. Xavier talks about you constantly. 'Nana said this, Nana did that, Nana's art exhibition is next month'—we feel like we already know you!"
"Dad, I don't sound like that," Xavier protested weakly.
"You absolutely do, sweetie," his mother said cheerfully, leading them toward the dining room. "Now come, I've prepared lunch. Nana, I hope you like traditional cooking. Xavier mentioned you favor red bean buns?"
"I—yes, I love them. Thank you for having me, Mrs. Shen."
"Call me mother Mei. We're practically family already!"
Lunch was delicious and surprisingly comfortable. Xavier's parents were warm, funny, and clearly adored their son despite—or perhaps because of—his strangeness.
"Xavier was always different,"
Mei said, passing dishes around.
"Even as a baby, he'd look at us with these ancient eyes, like he understood everything but couldn't communicate it yet. The doctors called it a medical anomaly, but I think—" She smiled at her son fondly. "I think you were just born remembering things no one else could."
"I was," Xavier admitted quietly. "I'm sorry I couldn't explain properly when I was young".
"You explained eventually," his father said. "When you were twelve and finally told us about Philos, about being the Crown Star, about searching for someone you'd loved across lifetimes—well, it explained a lot. The nightmares, the way you'd stare at old books like they contained secrets, the obsession with finding historical records of ancient kingdoms."
Nana blinked. "Wait. You told them? They know?"
"They know everything," Xavier confirmed. "I couldn't keep lying to them. They deserved the truth, even if it sounded insane."
"We thought he might need therapy at first," Mei admitted with a laugh.
"Our son claiming to be a reincarnated star-prince? But then he showed us the birthmark—the one that glows when he's emotional—and we realized something truly unusual was happening."
She turned to Nana. "And when he described you—the girl he'd loved across five lifetimes, the one he was desperately searching for—we understood. Our son wasn't crazy. He was just... cosmically heartbroken."
"Cosmically heartbroken," Nana repeated, tearing up. "That's—that's a perfect way to describe it."
"We're just glad he finally found you," Mr. Shen said warmly.
"The wedding is in three months, yes? After your graduation?"
"Yes, sir. June 15th. We've already started planning—"
"Excellent! Mei, we should help with arrangements. Venue, catering, flowers—"
"Already on it," Mei said, pulling out a tablet that was apparently full of wedding planning notes.
"I've been researching venues since Xavier told us he was going to propose. There's this beautiful garden venue that does traditional and modern ceremonies—"
Mother, we haven't actually finalized—"
"Hush, Xavier. Let your mother help. This is my only son's wedding, I'm going to be involved."
Xavier and Nana exchanged amused glances. His mother was a force of nature.
After lunch, as Xavier's parents cleared dishes and debated flower arrangements, Xavier took Nana's hand.
"Want to see my room? Fair warning, it's embarrassing."
"Now I'm even more curious."
Xavier's childhood bedroom was on the third floor—a large space that felt more like a research library than a teenage room.
Bookshelves lined every wall, filled with texts on ancient history, mythology, archaeology, astronomy. A desk covered in notes, maps, printed documents.
And on every surface—photos. Hundreds of them. Printed photos, holographic displays, sketches. All showing the same face.
Nana's face.
Or rather, variations of it. Aged-up projections of what she might look like. Computer-generated images based on historical descriptions. Sketches Xavier had drawn from memory of her in previous lifetimes.
"Oh my god," Nana whispered, walking slowly through the room.
"Xavier, this is—"
"Obsessive? Yeah, I know."
Xavier rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.
"I started collecting these when I was about fifteen. Tried to age-progress what you might look like now, based on how you looked in past lives. Created search algorithms to find matches in databases. It was—"
He laughed self-consciously. "It was a lot."
But Nana wasn't horrified. She was touching each photo gently, tears streaming down her face.
"You did this for me. Spent ten years of your life in this room, searching."
"I did this because I had to. Because every moment without you felt like drowning. Because—" Xavier's voice caught. "Because I'd already lost you four times. I couldn't accept losing you a fifth."
Nana found a photo album, opened it. Baby Xavier, solemn-faced. With a caption in childish handwriting: "I will find my Starlight."
Another photo at age ten: "Still searching. Won't give up."
Age fifteen: "She has to be here somewhere."
Age twenty: "Please let me find her soon."
And finally, one week ago—Xavier and Nana together at the festival, his arm around her, both of them smiling like the world had finally made sense. Caption in adult handwriting: "Found her. Finally home."
"You documented everything," Nana sobbed, hugging the album to her chest.
"I needed to remember why I was searching. Needed proof that you were real, that this wasn't just delusion."
Xavier moved behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, rested his chin on her shoulder.
"My parents would find me in here at 3 AM, surrounded by printouts, eyes red from staring at screens. They tried to get me to stop, to 'move on,' but I couldn't."
"I'm glad you couldn't." Nana turned in his arms. "I'm glad you're obsessive and determined and refused to give up. Because otherwise we might have never found each other."
She spotted more photos on his desk—baby pictures from his first year. Silver hair from birth, blue eyes that already looked ancient, the crown-shaped birthmark visible on his tiny palm.
"You were such a beautiful baby," Nana said, picking up a photo of newborn Xavier.
"Look at you. All serious and intense even at one day old."
"I was probably thinking about how to start searching for you."
"Probably." Nana studied the photo, her expression turning wistful.
"Our baby would have looked like this. The one we lost in the Qing Dynasty. Silver hair from you, maybe my eyes—"
Her voice broke. Xavier's arms tightened around her immediately.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect them. Couldn't protect you. That day still haunts me—holding you as you died, knowing our child was dying with you."
"It wasn't your fault."
Nana turned to face him, cupped his face. "Xavier, it was war. It was betrayal. It was impossible circumstances. You did everything you could."
"But it wasn't enough."
It was. You loved us. That was enough."
Nana kissed him softly.
"And Xavier—we get another chance. This lifetime, we can have that family. We can have children who'll grow up safe and loved and alive. We can—"
She smiled through her tears. "We can give them the life our first baby never got."
Xavier's eyes were swimming with emotion. "You want children? With me?"
"Of course with you! Who else would I want children with?"
Nana laughed, wiping both their tears. "Xavier, I want everything with you. Marriage, a home, babies, growing old together. All of it. Everything we've been denied for five lifetimes—we get to have it now."
Xavier kissed her desperately, pouring centuries of love and loss and hope into it. When they broke apart, both were crying and smiling simultaneously
"Okay," Xavier said, his voice rough with emotion. "Okay. We'll get married in three months. Buy a house—something between here and Skyheaven, close to both our families. And then—"
He pressed a hand gently to Nana's stomach, though she wasn't pregnant yet.
"Then we'll start our family. As many children as you want. Our own little dynasty."
"A dynasty of star-children,"
Nana teased, but her hand covered his, holding it against her stomach.
"I love you. Across five lifetimes, through four deaths, through sixty years of separation—I love you."
"I love you too, Starlight. More than the cosmos. More than immortality. More than anything."
They stayed like that for a long moment, surrounded by years of desperate searching, holding each other and planning their future. A future without curses or tragedy. Just love and life and the family they'd always dreamed of.
Downstairs, they could hear Xavier's parents laughing about something. Mei called up:
"Xavier! Nana! Come see the venue photos I found! There's one with a oak tree that would be perfect!"
"Coming!" Xavier called back, but he pulled Nana close for one more kiss first. "Ready to plan a wedding?"
"With your mother helping? This is going to be chaos."
"But fun chaos. Family chaos." Xavier smiled. "The kind of normal, wonderful chaos I've dreamed about for a century."
Hand in hand, they headed downstairs to join his parents, to plan a wedding that would finally—finally—have a happy ending.
No wanderer attacks.
No cosmic curses.
No dying one day before the celebration.
Just two people who'd loved each other across impossible distances, finally getting their chance at forever.
.
.
.
.
.
⭐⭐⭐
To be continued __