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"You've eclipsed me," said the Moon to the Sun. The rays warmed its back, crawling bright yellow-red over the cold grey surface, lighting crevasses, craters and old scars. A soft red glow, like slow warm fire from below. Like stepping over the Gate's threshold after a long journey back—
Night was a shinobi's time, because the moonlit world hid secrets so much easier than a sun-bright one; the one that called back to roads under familiar leaves once the night sky blushed and awoke above them. Something about the boldness of its presence, the burn of whiteyelloworange, that made you unable to look to it with eyes wide open, lest it burn your shadows away and blind you. The Moon knew this, surely; for what other reason would it rush aside whenever the Sun came near?
But then there were eclipses, those rare day/nights when the Sun wrapped arms around the Moon and the two melded together; when the Moon openly took pleasure in what warmth the Sun gave. (It was a secret walking beside the road of expected events, the road of life, the road of *their* lives.)
But the Sun was always an impulsive one, who didn't always have the patience to wait for such rare events. He grew tired of chasing the Moon across the sky, frustrated and exasperated at the Moon's half-hearted hesitance to let him stay close.
The Sun smiled, closing his eyes, and let his heart turn into light.
—He would never abandon his duty, of course, not when everybody depended on him to live, but who's to say he had to trap his consciousness within himself, and always stay at arm's length away from the elusive Moon?
Fly, fly, fly, let your heart go free, all the way across the sky. Go forward, don't look back, and you will find your home. Everything you set your sight on... is yours to love. He is waiting. Fly far and high if you dare, if you believe that this is what you truly want.
The Sunlight grinned, creeping up behind the other's back, and tickled his Moon mercilessly. Golden fingers, poking themselves everywhere; golden smile, pressed into the other's back; golden laughter, ringing across the silence of the night.
"I'm here to stay," he whispered cheekily, clinging tightly onto the startled, squirming Moon. "And you can't get rid of me."
The normally cool and calm Moon blushed in a manner never seen before, and tried to hide from the eyes of the Earth, while the Sunlight laughed and laughed at him. Unwilling to share what was their warmth, their light and their life, he covered half his face with the plain fabric of night. Every once in a while, at the insistent prodding of his Sun, he'd uncover it a little more to humour the inquisitive Earth, and then swiftly mask himself again.
Sometimes the Moon would pull the darkness all the way up and relish in the privacy it gave. While the Earth pouted at the lack of entertainment in the sky those nights, nobody would ever know what went on at the Moon's other side, where the two were closest. Sunlight pressed himself against the Moon, who only smiled, closing his eyes, and let him.
As silly as it sounds, I give you my heart, the Sun murmured. Because I love you.
And set on permanent collision course, the Stars could only watch as the Sun ascended to shine warmly above the treetops, the Moon close on its tail. And under its warmth, roots withered and gave way to new sprouts, shedding old skin and shrouding the Earth in vibrant new growth.