𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 | ᴍᴊᴊ sʜᴏʀᴛ

𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘

𝘋𝘌𝘊𝘌𝘔𝘉𝘌𝘙 24𝘛𝘏 1996
𝘊𝘈𝘓𝘐𝘍𝘖𝘙𝘕𝘐𝘈

𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶,
𝘖𝘯 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺

Tonight was one of those nights. Michael had been tossing and turning all night and no matter how long he laid there with his eyes closed, sleep would not come to him. His mind was running a mile a minute. Usually, it would be thoughts of his work that was keeping him awake but over the past few days it had been his best friend.

Solace hadn't mentioned what happened between them at all—at least not to him—and he took that as his cue to leave it alone until after tomorrow. He didn't know how she would react to finding out he was in love with her, and he didn't want to ruin Christmas if it turned out that she didn't take it well.

He had a feeling that she felt the same as he did, but that could've easily been the same delusion that'd kept him from realizing he was in love with her all these years.

Time would tell.

Michael sat up and rubbed his hands down his face. He never thought in a million years that he'd be losing sleep over the woman he'd been calling his best friend. He reached for the bottle of water on his nightstand realizing that there was little to no water in it. He drank what was left and turned the lamp on standing to slide his feet into his house shoes.

He knew Neverland like the back of his hand so there was no need for him to turn on the lights to get to the kitchen. The bottom of his house shoes scraped across the hardwood flooring with every step that he took and as he made it to the living room, he realized that the door to the family room was open and a light was on.

Who else was up at three in the morning?

He picked up his feet so his shoes wouldn't give him away and he walked slowly through the door seeing that it was the kitchen light that was on. When he took notice to one of the four chairs missing from the island table, he realized who it was in the kitchen.

Walking further into the family room, he leaned against the table watching his goddaughter struggle to grab a cup from the cabinet. When she finally had the glass in hand, she lowered her arm and used her other hand to quietly close the cabinet door.

"Applehead." Michael called softly as to not startle her, but it didn't matter as Shyori gasped dropping the glass and it smashed on the floor breaking into several pieces.

She pressed both her hands into the middle of her chest like an old lady and turned to look at him. "Mimi, you scared me!" She whispered.

"I'm sorry I wasn't trying to." He walked around the pillar, and she turned around facing him. "What are you doing up?"

"I just wanted some juice." She pointed to the jug of apple juice on the table.

"You wanted juice at three in the morning?"

She nodded and he shook his head closing the refrigerator door that she'd left open. She started to sit in the chair so she could get down, but he stopped her.

"No!" He grabbed her arm before grabbing under both of them and picking her up. "There's glass on the floor and you're barefoot. You never walk around broken glass without any shoes on."