Zephaniah // z.m

Seventeen

Hannah
zeph in the pic

"Did you sleep well last night?" I asked Zephaniah as we walked through the woods, having him just picked up from school.

Zephaniah nodded, his cheeks tinting red but not as much as it would before. I could tell he was starting to feel comfortable a little bit more each hour I spend with him, which made me feel better. "Sleep in d-daddy's bed." He said quietly.

"Really? How was that?" I smiled at him, although I tucked him in myself last night. I picked up a leaf that had fallen from the tree. It was colored red and yellow, the autumn visible in it.

The young boy watched me as I picked up the leaf and he blushed, "Good." He hesitated, probably debating if he should say more or not. "Sometimes d-daddy talks in his sleep or makes noises. It start-startles me,"

I couldn't help but laugh softly, "Oh really? Does it wake you up?" The fact that this had probably been the first sentence he had spoken to me willingly made me smile even more.

"S-sometimes," Zephaniah blushed, "But sometimes he w-wwakes up because of himself! He looks a-at me confused and I laugh." The young boy laughed quietly.

"He must make very strange noises then," I laughed and shoved more chestnuts into the plastic bag I was carrying for Zephaniah. We had decided to make an autumn craft and we had collected chestnuts, leafs, wood chips and moss.

He was more than satisfied with the things we had collected already, but he was hoping to find some oak nuts somewhere.

I watched him as he crouched down, his hand flying to the ground with a quick movement. He lifted his hand up again and repeated the action, only walking further now. I saw how he furrowed his dark eyebrows, his cheeks red from the effort and slight cold breeze that hung in the sky.

"What have you got there, buddy?" I asked him, knowing he was still a little too hesitant to speak up himself.

Zephaniah parted his lips to say something, but when his hand flew down again he smiled brightly, "Ms. Hannah, can I s-say something?" He exclaimed as he started flapping with his free hand.

"Of course you can, Zephaniah." I smiled sadly at him, wondering when he'd understand that it wasn't a bad thing at all to speak up.

"I caught a f-frog!" He stuttered out, carefully covering the frog with his other hand as he walked over to me.

His face was focused, his eyes glued to his hands as he carefully opened them. I moved a little closer to see the frog clearer, but I couldn't help and squeal when it jumped out of his hands.

I held my hand to my heart and tried to calm it down as I let out a deep breath, "I'm sorry."

Zephaniah looked up at me, a slight frown on his face. "I-I didn't mean to s-scare you." He looked down at his feet, his eyes glued to his red boots.

"Oh, Zeph, it's fine. You didn't scare me, I just didn't expect the frog to jump! Did you know they could jump that high?" I said quickly, not wanting him to feel bad now.

The little boy looked up at me again and I could tell he was deep in thoughts, processing my words and forming his answer as his lips moved slowly, "N-no, I don't know lot of frogs, act-actually."

"Me neither," I gave him a smile, "Oh look what I've found! Oak nuts!" I said excitedly, causing Zephaniah to follow me quickly.

He sat down on his bum and started collecting a lot of oak nuts, his eyes wide as he did so. "Thank you, Ms. Hannah, for finding t-them for me."

"It's more than okay, Zephaniah." I said softly as I watched him with a fond look on my face. He was honestly the most precious kid I had ever known.

Zephaniah kept collecting the oak nuts, looking up and getting lost in his own little world as he saw a bird flying over us. He stood up and stared up again, pointing at the tree. "I see you, little b-bird." He whispered.