A couple minutes later, Lucia and I finished constructing the telescope without too much trouble.

“And this piece seems to go here?”

I remarked with a smidge of uncertainty in my voice before clicking the last piece into place.

“I guess it does, though I could’ve sworn that piece was supposed to go somewhere else.”

“That’s probably because you’re looking at the instructions upside down, Lucia.”

“How do you know? I mean, it’s not like the thing’s exactly readable.”

Lucia asked, slightly perplexed before rotating around the booklet of directions she had in her hands.

“Common sense? Aren’t most telescopes built atop of tripods and not the other way around?”

“Well, most of the original ones were. Though, nowadays, a good amount of them are built to look like some sort of weird mechanical scorpion.”

“Why’s that?”

“I dunno, maybe some guy thought it’d be more useful that way?”

Lucia remarked before shrugging her arms a little.

“…So does this mean that we mucked up the whole thing?”

“Nah, it looks like we were building one of the older models, considering that the whole thing hasn’t buckled under its own weight yet.”

Lucia said after giving the telescope a couple taps.

“Phew, I was not really looking forward to rebuilding the entire thing.”

“You and me both.”

Lucia replied nonchalantly before folding up the directions and placing them in the wooden box they came with.

“Anyway, now that we’re done building the telescope, wanna see the thing I wanted to show you, Otto?”

“Well, yeah. It’s kinda the whole reason why we were building the telescope in the first place.” 

I said nonchalantly before moving a tad closer to Lucia and the telescope.

“Great, then just give me a moment to adjust this to your level and the thing’s all yours.”

Lucia remarked after fiddling with the lenses and legs of the telescope.

Then she gestured for me to take control of the device.

“Ah wait, are you sure that you actually want me to use the telescope first? I wouldn’t want you to miss out on seeing the star because I got to use the thing first.”

“Nah, don’t worry about that. I’ve already seen the thing that I want to show you, so it’s not like it’d be the end of the world if I didn’t get to see it again tonight.”

Lucia said casually while pushing me closer to the cylindrical device.

“Okay then uh, would you mind showing me how to use this thing? I’ve never used one before.”

“You’ve never used a telescope before, Otto?”

There was a hint of disbelief in her voice.

“Honestly, I never really even looked up at the sky much before you came along.”

“You frighten me sometimes, Otto.”

Lucia said before helping me operate the telescope.

“Alright, so the star I want to show you tonight should be somewhere north of the purple one.”

“How do you know where everything is? You’re not even looking through the telescope.”

I asked incredulously. 

“I’ve been stargazing ever since I was 5 years old, so I know where most of the major skymarks are.”

“Skymarks?”

“You know, landmarks but in the sky.”

“And who exactly came up with that?”

“Yours truly.”

“Figures.”

I said before maneuvering the telescope a smidge to the left with a bit of help from Lucia and pressing it a bit closer to my right eye.

“So, what are you seeing now, Otto?”

“Aside from the purple star I saw a few seconds ago, it’s just what you'd expect to see in the night sky, a bunch of white dots in front of a black backdrop.”

“Are you sure that you didn’t see anything else that’s out of place?”

“Well, I guess there was one other thing I thought was a bit odd. To the far right, I think I saw a star that gave off a dim purple glow? Though, I think it could’ve just been my eyes messing with me.”

“Nope, your eyes aren’t lying to you! Zoom in on it, that’s the star I wanted to show you.”

“How do you zoom in exactly?”

“Rotate the circle attached to the left side of the telescope clockwise.”

“Got it.”

I said while twisting the copper cylinder attached to the telescope.

“You’re rotating it counterclockwise, dummy.”

“Ah, my bad.”

I replied before correcting my mistake and zooming in on the star.

The more I zoomed in on it, the more vibrant the star seemed to get.

It was like I was slowly getting sucked into some sort of purple void.

But at the same time, for some reason I also felt as if I was also getting repelled by it.

“That’s really… something. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Happy to hear it.”

Lucia said in a jovial tone.

In turn, I just nodded before slowly backing away from the telescope.

Afterward, Lucia took hold of the telescope and began to adjust its lenses and legs again.

All the while, I couldn’t help but be a bit curious as to why Lucia was so knowledgeable about everything related to the solar system.

Perhaps she has some sort of long lost sibling who is connected to the moon in some way?

It would explain the expression she makes everytime she looks up at the stars.

Or maybe it could just be that she likes how the night sky looks.

“Uh, Otto did you hear me? Are you gonna help me put this thing away or not?”

Lucia asked, snapping me out of my stupor for what felt like the 15th time.

“Huh? You’re done with it?”

“Yeah, for about a minute or two now. You got something on your mind?”

“Kinda, I was just trying to figure out how you know so much about astronomy.”

“Ah that.”

Lucia said while starting to take apart the telescope.

“I’m pretty sure it’s due to my mom quizzing me a ton about astronomy facts when I was younger for no reason other than to make sure my brain was functioning.”

“Why did she choose to quiz you on specifically astronomy facts?”

“To this day I have no fuckin idea why.”

Lucia remarked before shrugging a little.

“One thing’s for sure though, I’m pretty thankful that she chose to coach me on specifically astronomy.”

“Why?”

“Well first off I’m actually interested in the subject and secondly it lets me have something to show off to you other than my magic.”

“So… I’m half the reason why you know so much about astronomy?”

“Yup! I love seeing that dumb expression you get on your face whenever you see something weird or incredible in the night sky.”

Lucia said with a smug look on her face.

…Lucia how did you manage to make me feel extremely grateful and embarrassed at the exact same time?