No Matter What

29

It's been a month since the tragedy at Childe's workplace. I can tell it still weighs on him, but that's because he hasn't truly given himself time to grieve. He's been out of a job ever since, and the only thing on his mind is revenge—finding the ones responsible for killing his friends.

Even with Childe now unemployed, we're doing just fine financially. He has enough savings in his account to retire twice. That, on top of the income I receive from the funeral parlor, money will never be an issue for us.

Childe hasn't truly stopped working, though. Even though he's not getting paid, he hasn't ceased from finding creeps and getting rid of them because even though the pay was good, Childe never did it for just the money. Lately, however, he's been a lot more focused on the revenge part.

The night after Childe and Lyney discovered the massacre, Childe and I went back to the scene with the funeral car to collect the bodies and allow them a proper burial—well, cremation. The six of us held a small funeral at my workplace in their memory.

Childe and I are currently in the process of adopting Lyney and Freminet. They've been staying with us, sleeping in the guest room. Apart from that, it's been quiet lately. The security system hasn't gone off for any strange reason and we haven't had any scares.

Today is Childe's birthday, and because he's been so stressed and occupied with his search, Xiao, Lyney, Freminet and I decided we needed to treat him, take him out to get some fresh air.

The four of us wake up early and try our best not to wake Childe. We set up the living room with balloons and wait. Childe is an early riser, so we have to rush, but thankfully we make it in time before hearing the bedroom door open. The four of us gather together, and as a sleepy Childe descends to the bottom of the steps wiping his eyes and yawning, we all shout "Happy Birthday!"

"Shit—" Childe says, stumbling back a bit. "Oh my god..." He places a hand on his heart and let's out a breath of relief, before a giant smile spreads across his face. "You guys... I almost forgot it was my birthday, wow." He laughs. "You didn't have to do all this."

"Of course we did," I smile. "You deserve to be celebrated." I turn to Freminet, who looks shyly back at me. "You wanted to give him the present, right?" Freminet blushes, then nods. He picks up the present and holds it out to Childe from the sofa since he's in a cast for his broken ankle.

"You got me something?" Childe coos, approaching Freminet. "You guys didn't need to do this, wow, thank you..." He ruffles Freminet's hair before taking the present from his hands.

"Open it," Xiao says, looking eager. I smile at the excitement in his eyes.

Childe rips at the paper, revealing a uniquely designed wooden box. His eyes widen, then he looks back up at us. "No fucking way," he says, before chucking the paper to the side and opening the lid of the box to reveal an expensive Deluxe Italian blade set of varying hunting knives. He's been talking about them for a while and I knew how much he wanted them. What better time to get them than for his birthday?

He places the box down and jogs at us with his arms wide, taking us all in and planted kisses on the kids foreheads and a few on my lips. "That's insane," he says, voice a little shaky. "Thank you. That really means a lot."

"You do so much for us, babe," I say, brushing a piece of hair from his eyes. "It's not much, but we want to show you how much we appreciate you too."

—

We spend the morning relaxing as a family, then go to the movies. By night, it's time for dinner. We plan to take Childe out to a nice restaurant. It's one he wanted to take Xiao and I to after our holiday but we never got around to it with everything happening.