If you want to destroy me, you’ll have to get in line because you’re not alone in that.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Current Date: December 24, 2023

Character: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 32
Current residence: Kahuku, Hawaii
 

---

Tantrums by guests at the hotel aren’t uncommon. They’re not exactly common either but I’ve witnessed plenty in the decades I’ve been here. It feels strange to think of my life here in terms of decades even though I’m so young—according to so many people—but it is what it is, I think we were twelve when everything happened, and we came here.

There’s not much of my time spent thinking back about the event that changed all of our lives forever. It left me with a limp that gets uncomfortable with particular weather and the explosion took my ears away—not literally. That’s just a figure of speech. I know I got lucky back then, I very well could have just perished in the whole thing but here I am now and while I don’t socialize a whole lot unless Choe is with me—and even then, he’s the one who talks to others—I know that there are others who have it so much worse than I do.

It’s just one of those things. A massive curve ball that life threw our way, but we’ve made the best of it, and I think we’ve all made our peace with the fact that we fully expect to spend the rest of our lives here. That’s all right.

Choe was telling me about one of the scenes a guest caused just earlier this morning and I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. I’ve witnessed a lot in my time here; guests huffy about one thing or another that, at times, we had some control over, but most of the time, we just didn’t. I’ve lost count of the number of guests that filed complaints—as told by my brother, but I could see by the way they stalk their way to the desks—about things that had little to nothing to do with the hotel itself, or that was out of its control altogether.

The pool not being chilly enough—it gets plenty hot here in the summer months and the pool water being hot is an expected effect of that. That there are a few animals—birds, lizards or otherwise—roaming around. Ma’am, sir, we can’t control nature. In the case of some others, it was about how busy the drive up to the hotel had been—out of our control—or even about the general weather. The things people complain about make no sense whatsoever to me.

In the case of the client from this morning, it was something completely different and Choe missed the beginning of whatever it was. We were coming back down to the lobby with the luggage cart, and it was already happening. Half of the whole was about the client threatening whatever and stating that if the staff—or whoever he was complaining about—wanted to destroy him—dramatic and for a second I did think my brother was pulling my leg but he looked as genuinely surprised at the choice of words—they would have to get in line because they weren’t the only ones who wanted to do that.

I don’t understand what leads people to act this way.

In a way, I suppose that I don’t know what being famous will do to someone. I can’t imagine the kind of life someone has to have, to get to that point. All I know is the life I’ve lived here and the fact that even while we’re off the clock and out of our uniforms, some people will ask us for something. Normally, they’re understanding when they’re told we’re not on the clock. It’s nothing akin to being rich and famous, I’m sure, but it’s the only way I can compare.

I don’t throw a fit when people bother us while we’re off work. It might be a little frustrating at times, but that’s just about all it is, in the end. Again, I know that this probably doesn’t even compare to a bare hint of what famous people might go through, but to go so far as to tell someone that if they want to destroy them—destroy, really? What a strange word to pick—they have to get in line feels like it’s going way over the top. I don’t want that kind of life when you feel like you have to say something so drastic to anyone.

If I felt that way about things, I probably would never even leave my own home, but that’s just the way I see things. It took me so long to feel comfortable at all in my own skin after the fire and, even now, I’m not always comfortable. The limp is hard to deal with on certain days and my deafness is a hindrance in certain situations, but I don’t let it control my life, at least, not as much as I potentially could. I work as hard as my limitations will let me.

Final Word Count: 827

I’m a mess, you’re a mess, we get it. It’s not an excuse, though.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 65, physically about 24
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 782 words
 

---

I never expected for us to be reunited with Blair. I mean, all we knew of the whole mess was that we both believed he’d walked out on us, not really knowing any better, and then, once more completely out of the blue—which I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by any of it—we learned that he’d passed away. I’m not even really sure how we learned that bit of information. I think we were listed in his files and all. There was no body for us to pick up. There was nothing for us to get back. There just was the news that he’d died and that was that.

So, when he cropped back up, spit out of the Eden because it was his time to come back to us—to him, I know, but still—I think we could be forgiven for the fact that we were messes.

I was a mess.

Choe was a mess and Choe has always been the strong one of us both.

Rose was wonderfully patient with both of us while we tried to figure ourselves out.

At one point, after he’d spent a little time with us, but just a little after he’d left to go back to where he was staying, I was sitting down with Choe, just sort of staring at him. I felt like crying all over again, it was disquieting as a feeling, and I didn’t know what to make of it. I knew I couldn’t use the fact that I felt like I was a complete mess as an excuse for anything.

The fact that I felt like I was a complete mess didn’t keep me from being able to do my chores and I tried to get myself into that mindset, but I was failing miserably. Choe wasn’t doing any better. It fell to Rose to keep us in line for a couple of weeks until we’d wrapped our minds around everything that had happened just recently.

Blair still hadn’t been very open about what had happened to him; I honestly think the whole thing has left more than just a physical scar on him, but I don’t remember seeing him smile the way he smiles now when we go and spend some time with him. His eyes are so bright. He’s honestly happy and not just terrified and following whatever cues he’s been told to follow.

Our brother is so different from the person he used to be and, you know what, I actually cherish that in a way that I can’t really put into words. Not very easily, in any case.

I’m not a mess anymore. I’ve finally managed to wrap my mind around everything and while I still wish he would open up a little more about what happened to him, I know it’s not my place to bother him about it. If he wants to talk to either of us about these things, he will. On that same note, I can understand that he might just not want us to know.

I do know that he went out there to protect us. He went with the arsehole to keep us safe. I wish he hadn’t had to do that but knowing the guy and what he possibly did end up doing to Blair, I suppose that it really was the only way out of that situation. It ended in a way it shouldn’t have but it is in the past now and that’s really all there is to it.

We’ve moved forward.

No one talks about the past.

At least, when he’s with us, we’ve learned not to and, you know, he’s been back long enough that talking about the past and trying to figure out these details just isn’t important anymore. He’s with us, we’re all back together, as happy a family as we might ever be and everything’s fine, so why try to dig up the past when it’s not going to do us any good? That’s the one thing I’ve had to learn to understand.

At one point, I was just so mad at everything that had happened to him that, in a way, I guess I just wanted justice, even if justice wasn’t going to happen because the arsehole in question that I wanted justice to be served to, was long dead at this point. So really.

It’s become rare that I think about these things anymore, so I’d like to think I’ve become better with it all. Vengeance or even revenge wasn’t something I’ve ever had any interest in but if you mess with someone I love as much as I adore my brothers, you’ve got something coming.

Where’ve you been all my life? Clearly I’ve been missing out.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 29
Current residence: Kahuku, Hawaii
Final Word Count: 769 words
 

---

Taking time off from work isn’t an unknown. Leaving the hotel where we both work and live is something else entirely. It makes the time off not as relaxing as it could be. Some of the regulars are so used to us that they don’t notice whether we’re wearing our uniforms or not and they ask us for things. It usually only takes a moment to remind them that we’re currently off the clock and, for the most part, they’re understanding of that much.

Not all of them are understanding and that’s fine. There are ways of getting around the hotel to remain unseen though as I can’t hear anyone when I’m on my own—something that near-never happens—it’s usually only when they reach me in frustration and touch me for my attention that I know they’re there and well, by that point, it’s too late to have peace.

The apartment-like suite we have is at the back of the hotel so to speak, on the ground floor. We have all we need in there to not need to head out into the hotel itself when we’re off the clock but still. I don’t know that anyone—at least not in this beautiful area—would want to spend their time off locked inside, you know? We certainly don’t. We’re no surfers but everything out there is just so beautiful that it’s hard to want to stay locked inside.

Now, about three weeks ago, all four of us were actually given two weeks off. The whole hotel was going to be closed to visitors—a rare happening honestly, something that I don’t think had ever happened before—but there were needs to do some extensive work in a few areas and, only wanting the best for the guests, none had been booked during that two-week timeline.

It gave us time to actually head out. Like, really head out. Get in a car and head out. I’ve lived here for most of my life, but I’ve never actually explored the area any. Since Blair first took us here from whatever remained of home—a very far-off place from here—we’ve never actually been off the hotel grounds. The place is huge, there is plenty of roaming ground though I’m not much for roaming and just, all in all, this place has been home for two decades at this point.

So, we roamed for those two weeks, always coming back in the evenings for sleep. The owners told us that they were staying on-site as well to make sure everything went as it should and that a few others would be out and about but, for the most part, the place was deserted, and it was strangely interesting.

The menu at the hotel is expansive, there is a little bit of everything for everyone, but we’ve always just kept our meals to simple things that we could get from the kitchens, the lower-end things that no one else really wanted or the extra fruit, veggies and proteins that hadn’t been used. It worked well for us, really. We were never hungry and both Blair and Alexis had ways of preparing food in different ways that made things far from repetitive.

The things I’ve discovered during those two weeks, though, it was something else. More than once, Choe would give me this look as though he’d just bitten into something heavenly and I’m sure he had a passing thought of wondering where whatever it was that he’d bitten into had been all his life. I’m pretty sure I had similar reactions to certain things, and we took notes. A few of the meals we ate were clearly more expensive than what we usually would have gone for, but, for the most part, it was within the range for the area and the general ingredients that we knew about were things we often had in our fridges.

In a way, I feel like these were the first two weeks of proper vacation I’d had all of my life. No client trying to get my attention, no one bugging any of us for help. Just four guys out there, discovering the city where they’ve lived for decades but never had the time to visit because while it’s not that far off, it still isn’t exactly next door. I mean, the little town is there, but it’s small and we usually would head further off on the daily trips. I think, in a way, we tried to make up for so many years without going anywhere.

It was nice, I can’t complain.

Don’t be scared of me. I promise I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to take you somewhere better.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 64, physically about 24
Final Word Count: 747 words
 

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I’d never handled a bird before in my life, but just this morning, I’ve had to handle four. I hadn’t planned to and, in a way, I don’t plan to ever again if I can help it. It’s not that I didn’t know what to do, that sort of came naturally, but through the whole process, I was shaking so bad because I was afraid of crushing them that, yeah, I nearly dropped them several times but thankfully there was no near-crushing experience.

Though, looking back, I don’t know which would have been worse, dropping them or crushing them. Both seem to be as bad if I think about it. That and, well, they already were out of their nests, so they’d already had a fall but a so-very careful check of their wings and their little feet told me that they were unharmed. Falling into a fluffy bush will do that.

Every few years, we’ll keep our yard to summer year-round for a year’s time. I don’t know which of us started this tradition but it’s just one of those things, now. I figure it’s the only reason why this happened at all earlier, I can’t imagine that many chickadee nests in the middle of a frigid winter and we’ve seen these very chickadees in our trees for months.

I was just doing my thing this morning; I was quietly walking through the yard when I heard their tiny little calls. I looked up, I mean, that’s where nests are usually supposed to be but it wasn’t there. Well, the nest was there, just out of my reach, but the tiny little baby-bird calls were coming from further down and it took me a moment to spot them.

To be honest, I almost just backtracked and left them there, but I don’t think either Rose or Choe would have let me live it down, so I gave them a long look, I looked back up to the tree and I sort of caved in. I went to get a chair, I knew it would get me just high enough and it was closer than getting the ladder. Parked the chair as close as I could and made sure I was in reach and then the party sort of started.

Except it had nothing on a party and it took me forever. Five-ever even, really. I kept on whispering to them. I was telling them not to be scared, that I wasn’t there to hurt them, that I was going to take them somewhere better and safer but, let’s face it, I’m pretty sure I was mostly trying to give myself a pep talk.

It did get better after the first one, and the second one, and the third one. By the time I was just oh so gently handling the fourth and last little fluffball, I had somehow managed to calm my shaking and none of the tiny little things looked to have suffered much from my handling.

It was as I was taking the chair back to the patio area that I saw one of their parents come back to the nest, most likely seeming to be checking in on them. They left and, for a while, I worried about that thing that people used to claim that you shouldn’t handle baby birds or their parents would abandon you but I know that’s bullocks.

I’m not sure if it was the same or the other that came back about ten minutes later, feeding the hungry little ones. I might have exhaled rather noisily as my biggest fear about the whole situation was laid to rest. Mind you, I’d been standing still since the first one had come to check in. The chair right there next to me, the idiot that I am standing just barely six feet from the patio where I could have set the chair back to its place and flopped down to keep an eye but no. I stayed absolutely still and only once I’d seen the parents come in three or four times did I finally move.

Once I had the chair back where it belonged, I went to hide inside. I took a steaming shower to take my mind away from the whole surreal—to me—situation and that was mostly that.

Of course, I still have birds on the brain and I keep on looking out the window. Sucks to be me right now.

I remember what you said that night. I got a tattoo of it, too, so I’d never forget.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 29
Final Word Count: 727 words
 

---

None of the clients knew and it was fine by him. Even the regulars didn’t know and if it wasn’t for the mild limp he has when he walks, they wouldn’t even be able to tell him and Choe apart. Even when, they hardly pay attention, the pair is near always together and that’s just how it works. He and his brother have been around so long, at this point, that they’re part of the furniture, almost.

He, Choe, Blair and even Alexis have been around the longest. Only the owners are the same, everything else and everyone else has changed in between.

So it surprised him when he and his twin were approached as they were walking the edge of the beach, one warm evening. They’d both been wearing coats and it had been his brother that had puppy-eyed him into the walk. Cha had never cared much for walks on the beach, his limp made it hard for him to balance his weight properly. The weather had been cold enough lately that the sand was packed and it made walking easier, though it had been warm on that evening.

The young woman had come from out of nowhere, at least, as far as he was aware. Later, Choe had told him that he’d heard her following them for a few minutes but she hadn’t seemed dangerous. They’d turned around a boulder, preparing to head back and there she’d been, waiting for them on the other side.

It made them pause, of course, Cha looking down to her face though he knew his brother would tell him later what she would go on about. He still tried to pay attention. There was an accent to her words, even if he couldn’t hear it. It was in the way her mouth moved around certain vowels and it made her confusing to read.

Something about a tattoo. Something about something or other he’d said—her attention seemed to be on him more than on Choe but Cha couldn’t even remember seeing her, let alone talking to her, the only ones he ever spoke to were his brothers and Lexi and only in the privacy of their own mock-apartment in the hotel. The way she looked at him made it clear that she was expecting something out of him, an answer or something else. But it was her eyes moving to Choe that made him relax a little. Leave it to his brother to get them out of situations like these.

Whatever his brother said, it was enough to make her eyes turn into squinting little lines as she looked between the two of them. Eventually, she rolled her eyes and stalked away.

It took Choe nudging Cha a little before they were walking again, not rushing, still just enjoying the quiet—it was always quiet to him—walk on the beach that didn’t sink too much beneath his feet. When they came back, his brother laid out to him that somehow, she claimed that he’d told her something about how her life was hers to make what she wanted of it and for some reason she’d gotten a tattoo of it to remember it.

Choe had told her that she must have had them mistaken for someone else—that or she’d been on an interesting high—and that he didn’t know what she expected of either of them. That, of course, had frustrated her and she’d walked off. The rest was history.

Cha still knows for a fact that he’s never seen her before in his life. If he had, he certainly wouldn’t have said anything of the sort to her. Not that it wasn’t a fair way to look at life as a whole, but words weren’t his thing, not really. She was brought up to Blair who only looked as lost as they both had about the whole thing.

Over the next few days, Cha had kept an eye out for her, as though perhaps he could see her in her usual environment and it would ring some sort of bell but he’d seen no hint of her again and, well, that suited him just fine too. He didn’t want her around if he could help it. What kind of person went and had someone’s words tattooed on themselves when that someone was a complete stranger?

The important thing to focus on is what makes you comfortable.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 2nd Generation
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 62, physically about 24
Final Word Count: 564 words
 

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I’ve tried, as best as I ever could, to leave behind everything that made our lives hell when everything fell apart. The way Blair left us, the way everything felt stressed like it was all going to fall apart within moments, the way… well everything, really.

Choe has always been stronger than me and I’m grateful for his strength, I can’t even begin to explain it. He took on the role of ‘protector’ when Iblis first started his shit and that role took on a whole new meaning when Blair left us. As I saw it, he had abandoned us to be with Iblis and I hated him for it. As Choe saw it, Blair had set us up somewhere safe, away from Iblis because the guy was a menace. It took a long time for me to get over that particular fact and I admit that even once I got over it, I still would get uncomfortable chills when I thought about it.

One of Choe’s preferred methods to help me calm down was to talk me into a sort of mock trance. I still don’t know how to call these moments but he still does it now and again. Mostly when I just feel like everything is out to get me or my emotions simmer on the surface. I’m not good at being emotionally strong and Choe knows it.

He’d sit me down on one of our beds and have me close my eyes. He’d make me focus on my breathing. In, out, in, out. Then he’d start talking. His words were low and soothing. He would tell me to keep on breathing, to focus on the air coming in and going out, he would tell me to think about easier times, to think about when I was most comfortable and to find that one memory I cherished the most. I tended to lose track of time when he did this with me but by the end, I was relaxed, comfortable and whatever crisis had been likely to explode just a little while prior was gone.

Once or twice I’ve tried to do the same for him when I could tell he was beyond stressed but we ended up being laughing messes. Laughing so hard, we were holding on to our sides and had tears streaming down our faces but, in the long run, it had the same benefit. The moment had passed and we were both feeling relaxed. He told me after the first time that I was trying too hard, that my voice sounded way too sultry and that he felt like he was talking to a sex line worker.

I would have decked him if the mental image hadn’t flustered me so bad and after that, I just didn’t care because it was hilarious.

I don’t have his gift for words, I don’t have his emotional strength and I’m just not… I don’t know; I’m not all that great. I think Choe is the glue that keeps me together, that keeps us together, that keeps us strong, all three of us. Rose is as much a pot of wonderful glue as Choe; it’s just that Choe’s been around my whole life. I try not to depend on either of them too much as is, I just can’t.

Maybe one day I’ll be stronger but I’m not holding my breath.

How many times have I told you so?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – North Shore
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 27
Final Word Count: 566 words
 

---

His brother’s little shrug of dismissal isn’t lost on him. Cha knows when to argue and when not to argue. Then again, the only people he ever argues with are his brothers. He doesn’t feel comfortable enough in his own skin to argue with anyone else. The world is a silent place for him and spoken words have been lost since the explosion at their house that took them away from what they’d known. He does talk to his twin and to Blair, he even talks with Lexi some but that only ever happens when they’re alone and no one else is around.

Lifting his gaze back up to the woman standing in front of them, Cha reads the words on her lips, putting them to memory later and trying not to miss anything but he knows that Choe will go over everything with him once she’s done getting on their case. Cha doesn’t care for new team leads; they think they know it all but they don’t. He and his brother have been here for more than fifteen years, they know how the place is run and they know each and every nook and cranny where playful children could hide—they’ve had to find them often enough over the years, as though somehow the whole place was no more than a big playground for the younger ones.

He isn’t even sure as to the reason why they’re in her office at this point. Despite the fact that she’s taken over as team leader for the boys who work on the floor as part of the porter group as of the past two months, she’s acting as though she’s been there for years and seems to think she knows their jobs better than they do. Cha has seen more frustrated looks from the clients in the past two months than he’s had in the prior eight when the other team leader was there. If their jobs weren’t secured after so many years of hard work, he’d almost be afraid of them needing to find elsewhere to live and work on but that’s just not going to happen and he knows it.

It’s easy to lose track of how long she chatters on and it’s late by the time his brother leads him back to their room. His stomach rumbles and tells him that it’s long since passed the time they should have had their meal but they’ll deal with that once they’re back in the room, he also knows it’s likely that Blair and Lexi have kept their plates warm or will rewarm them once they get there. It’s the one thing he’s grateful for, the little kitchenette in their suite. A few workers travel the distance between home and work but most just stay in and the small kitchenette area was a must have for everyone.

It’s once in their room that Choe lets him know that their team leader was complaining about how they were taking too long, probably just goofing off and that she had already told them a thousand times—yeah, right—that they needed to be more prompt in their services and that clients weren’t going to wait around forever for them to get back downstairs to take care of their luggage. It’s the same old story and both leave the thoughts behind, more interested in eating than her meaningless words.

I’ve stared at my screen for thirty minutes, but it’s like I forget what I was going to write.

Timeline/World: Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 65, physically about 24
Final Word Count: 516 words

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This isn’t the face of an author. I know I’m not an author, I don’t want to be seen as an author but I do like to write, it’s something I’ve picked up in the past decade or so, probably not even that far back. It started with me writing down my dreams, mostly because I was trying to decipher them but then I just started creating little bits of words around these dreams and the writing started.

I haven’t even had a single nightmare since I’ve started doing this, I don’t know that the two are linked but it’s a relief. I haven’t forced myself to write, either, I just settle in the morning and write for five, ten minutes and then I’m done. There isn’t a single completed story in there, just little bits and pieces of this but the characters are pretty steady throughout, so I guess that’s a thing.

This morning though, this morning turned out to be one of those days. I woke up, feeling plenty refreshed from sleep, ready to get a little bit of writing done but lo’ and behold, the moment I sit in front of the screen, the glow of the keyboard under my fingers, just waiting for my touch and my mind goes absolutely blank. I spent half an hour just sitting there, staring at the blank screen, trying to recall something, anything from my dream and it was an absolute bust. I mean, it’s not the first time it happens, it has before but this morning just felt different.

There was a mild frustration with the fact that I couldn’t even manage a single word but I tried to push it away, tried to not let it make a grump of me for the rest of the day because that’s what that morning felt like. I felt like I was spiralling into a small little muddy pit and that all of my day would be lived on a negative edge.

I did the only thing I could do. Took a steaming shower and crawled back into bed, I was out like a light not long after, or so I’m told and they let me sleep a few hours longer, I was grateful for that. I still couldn’t write anything after I’d gotten back up but I didn’t feel like it was going to be something akin to the end of the world. It had felt that way before my nap and I can’t even begin to explain why, I’m just glad that this particular feeling didn’t last, I don’t like it when my brain goes in that general direction.

Bad enough, my brain has done this before, when we still were out there, before the world ended and all and I’m in no rush to get back to that mindset, it almost destroyed me, it almost destroyed us. I’d do anything in the world to not go back to that time, it was one of the worst moments in my life and I wouldn’t revisit it for anything in the world, not even in writing.

I was trying to keep it a secret.

Timeline/World: North Shore
Characters: Cha Imani
Race: Human
Age: 25
Final Word Count: 519 words

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It’s almost impossible to hide something from someone you’re almost tied to the hip to. In a way, we were, not quite like that but almost. After the fire and the way it changed us, things were never really the same. We hadn’t been drifting apart that much but the fire just tightened that bond until there just was no breathing room at all, so to speak. I never wanted anything else.

He’s my brother, he’s my everything. In the eyes of the world, the love I have for him is wrong, it’s gross, it’s unconventional and should be staked or something. I’ve read about a lot of different opinions as far as this is concerned and I know that what we have has to remain private, personal and away from the eyes of the world. It doesn’t change much really. There’s no one who needs to know about this. Blair knows but that’s because he’s our older brother and has been our caretaker since the explosion. He was aware of what we shared long before we really understood it ourselves and he’s never judged us.

When it’s time to figure out gifts for him though when it’s time to find something on this island, hide it somewhere in our room until it’s time to give it to him and all, that’s the hardest thing ever. It’s not that I can’t hide the gift well enough; it’s mainly the fact that I can’t keep my mouth shut about it, mostly. He doesn’t ask, he doesn’t prod, and he just looks at me, tips his head a little in that ‘I know you’re hiding something, so spill’ way and just, yeah. I can’t keep my mouth shut, even if it’s supposed to be a secret and a positive thing and all.

The only way I ever managed to get out of spilling it all out to him was by giving Blair a list of things I thought Choe would like and I asked him to please get one or two of the items for me, not tell me and just keep them hidden until it was time. I’ve only also managed it one year because it made me nervous; not being able to really know what had been bought. So I had a choice. Deal with my brother knowing exactly the gifts I was buying him, or be in the dark, just like him. The latter was not the option I was looking for, so I’d rather not manage to keep a secret than be kept in the dark as well.

All in all, it’s hardly the end of the world. It’s a little frustrating, especially when I’m trying to prepare something I think would be sweet if I could pull it off but it’s a small price to pay. He always acts surprised, even when he knows what’s being unwrapped; it makes it up for the rest.

With Blair, it’s different, though. He’s not curious at all most of the time so it’s easy to buy him things for special occasions and keep them secret until the time is right.