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I wanted to write something special for Father's day, so here's a special chapter :)
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Two days ago, the morning after Ember moved over to Elric's house.
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~Ring!
~Ring!
"Argh… too early."
Elric rolled over in bed, reaching over his nightstand to turn off his alarm.
Once the sound had been silenced, he closed his eyes for a moment.
'I should just get up, if I lay here, I'm probably going to fall back asleep… Nah, I'm fine. One more minute, then I get up.'
Keeping his eyes closed, Elric decided to enjoy his last minute of rest to its fullest… and fell back asleep.
Only moments after his alarm had rung, he was asleep once again.
At the same time, down the hall, Ember also woke up to her own alarm. The previous night, the duo had crammed all of her stuff into a spare room. It hadn't taken them too long to get everything in, and Peliston hadn't even noticed the girl's presence.
Ember felt a bit uncomfortable with the current situation.
Elric's father didn't know she was there.
It sounded wild to move someone into your parent's house without asking for permission, but Elric had a good reason.
"It's my dad's birthday tomorrow, let's throw him a breakfast party! Heh, he will never expect this!"
Ember wasn't really sure why she had to be kept a secret until their little breakfast party, but decided to just go along with Elric's plan.
Unlike Elric, Ember hopped out of bed right away. Heading over to an attached bathroom, she washed her face with cold water before starting up the shower to prepare for the day.
She and Elric didn't have any big plans for the day aside from throwing a party for Peliston. Even if Elric hadn't noticed too many effects from the concussion the previous day, it was still important to get rest.
Glancing over at her phone's clock, Ember decided against putting too much time into her appearance.
After confirming that she looked at least presentable, she headed over to Elric's room.
After softly knocking her hand against the door, she pressed her ear against it to listen for Elric's response.
There was none.
'Hm… I guess he must've slept through his alarm. I should wake him up!'
Ember slowly pushed the door open, peering into the dark room. She could immediately see Elric's figure curled up on the mattress.
'Poking his cheek seemed to work back at the hospital, I'll wake him up that way again!'
Ember made her way over to the bedside, crouching down and resting her hands on the bedside.
Just as she was reaching out to wake him up, Elric shifted and mumbled something in his sleep.
"Mmm… Happy birthday, dad…"
Sleeping Elric smiled and rolled over, reaching for a small object near his pillow.
'This… a stuffed toy?'
Elric rolled over again, facing Ember. His arms were now wrapped around a small stuffed bear, and his smile grew as he hugged it to his chest.
'This… this is the cutest thing I've ever seen.'
Ember's heart melted when she saw the expression of joy on Elric's sleeping face. The sleeping boy shifted around again, and he brought one of his arms up, patting the stuffed teddy bear's head.
'I wish I was that bear… wait, Ember, what did you just think?!'
Instead of waking Elric up and destroying his happy dream, Ember just continued sitting by his bedside, watching him sleep.
'He does have a concussion… it's probably better if he sleeps in. I can take care of cooking breakfast, I used to help Mom and Dad back home all of the time!'
Ember glanced over at a clock on the nightstand beside the bed, then picked the next multiple of ten.
'Alright, I've got three more minutes to watch him sleep, then I'll go start cooking. Heheh, this is fun. He's so cute…'
She spent the next two minutes sitting there without doing anything, but when she saw that her planned time to leave was fast approaching, she got more daring.
'He patted my head once before, and he seems to like patting this stuffed bear's head, also… Maybe he likes head pats too?"
She tentatively reached her arm out, leaning over the bed.
'Hopefully this doesn't wake him up.'
~Pat.
~Pat.
She softly patted the top of his head, and the smile on Elric's sleeping face seemed to grow a bit wider.
'Heh, I was right! He really does like head pats! Awesome!'
A smile on her own face, Ember went in for round two.
'Heheh, this is fun!'
Just as her hand touched Elric's hair, a sharp sound rang just to Ember's side.
~Ring!!
The alarm Elric had put on sleep mode earlier came back to life.
The boy's eyes shot open and immediately met Ember's dark ruby gaze.
"...Ember?"
The girl fell backward from the bedside, her face turning a bright shade of red. Even in the darkness of the room, Elric could still see her blushing.
"I just came to wake you up! I definitely haven't been sitting here watching you sleep!"
"The way you worded that…"
"Cough, I was just worried about you! I figured I would check your temperature and wake you up at the same time, so I decided to give you some head pats!"
Elric wasn't sure he knew how to respond.
His cute… girlfriend(?) Whom he'd known for only two days randomly broke into his room while he was asleep, but only to give him head pats.
His thoughts were interrupted when he saw the time displayed on his nightstand alarm.
"Crap, I forgot I hit snooze on my last alarm. Dad normally wakes up around 7, so we'll have to hurry to cook on time!"
Ember still looked flustered, but she quickly nodded her head.
"I'll head out to the kitchen to start!"
She quickly rushed out of Elric's room, her face still red as she hustled over to the kitchen.
'Ember, what's gotten into you recently?! Why do you keep getting flustered like this? You were just trying to wake him up.'
It didn't take her more than a few moments to come up with the answer.
'It's because he's so cute! Wait…'
Ember's face started heating up again.
'Mom described this feeling before… she said this is what she felt like when she first met Dad!'
Ember glanced back toward Elric's room, then tried to imagine what it would look like if she was married to him.
'He'd come to listen to all of my songs… and he might hold me like he was holding that teddy bear. And, and… that other thing…'
Ember clenched her fist.
'Ember, you can do this! This sounds like the perfect future!'