For most people, tradition consists of Christmas dinners, movie nights, and Sundays in the bakery down the street. For Leighton Carrie and Charles Elliot, tradition brings them one hundred and two stories up; to the top of the Empire State Building every first of September.

Sometimes all you really need is a place to call home. * * * NOTE AS OF 04/2026: This is the old version of the story from 2012. It is currently being reprised, which you can also find under my profile here in wattpad as "5:48 [reprised]"

They weren't supposed to meet. But life does that sometimes; it throws in a couple of new faces that bring you the utmost of joys in the most unlikeliest of places, and every now and then, you'll come across someone who changes you - someone who's genuine and wonderful and full of hope; someone who changes your perspective on the things that you had stored away in the cardboard box sitting in the dark corner of your closet, someone who opens up your eyes to new things; bright and beautiful things that you can't believe you hadn't seen before, someone who's iridescent. And once you meet them, nothing will ever compare.