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∙ ⸰ ⊱ 𝚑𝚒𝚖 ⊰ ⸰ ∙
Birthdays.
Her birthdays.
The best damn day out of the whole year.
I'm going to spoil her straight rotten.
And of course, I'm awake, waiting for the time on the screen I keep tapping to go from one minute to the next—one day to the next. Today to tomorrow.
Tapping hopefully one last time, I squint, trying my best to clear my vision as I wait. Paying me back for my unrelenting patience, I watch that date change. I watch as her life breaks through to another year.
Twisting on my side, I find her, brushing a piece of hair out of her face with my thumb. "Baby."
"Hm?" she hums through her subconscious.
"Happy birthday."
A smile. I just want her to smile at me. But the tear climbing over the bridge of her nose tells me a smile is a far cry.
With brows furrowing and balled fists sliding deeper beneath the pillow, she twists to lay on her stomach, muffling her sobs.
Why is she crying?
Hugging her trembling frame with one arm, I bring her closer to me. "Baby, what's wrong?"
"Don't," she mutters, pushing the pained word through her clamped jaw.
"Don't what?"
"Don't make me wish for anything..." she chokes. "All of what I want won't come true." Crying like someone's just stabbed her right in the heart, she mutters more words I can't quite make out, speaking to someone I can't put a name to. "Don't sing to me... She was always so much louder, and now it's so... quiet."
"Baby, wake up." I shake her lightly, inching closer to make sure she can actually hear me; wanting this to just be a sleeping mind trying its best to feign being awake.
"Say it again," she gives me—fools me further.
"What?"
"That I can be happy... for a day."
"Are you awake?"
"I don't know. It still hurts."
She's awake now, all bright-eyed and smiley. The moment I felt her stir once more in my bed and pressed her thumb to my lip, I said those two words again, for safe measure, and she said, Aww, thank you, Eren, in return like I had just lit the entirety of the sun with a single match.
