「 solby ￫ one-shots 」

ツ ⚊ birthday wish .

⚊ hi look who's back, it's me again

━━━━━━━ ⸙ ━━━━━━━

aging in a ceremony of ice cream and cake; sometimes made into one. the taste is familiar in his mouth, like a newly formed wish fashioned from the ones he's already made before.

like when he was twelve, seeing that neon green nerf gun lone on a shelf and looking at his mother with hopeful blue eyes. gazing at his presents and blowing out his candle, hoping it's there. then sitting in a pile of wrapping paper, every gift feeling empty when green didn't glow and nerf wasn't a brand.

or the year when he turned fourteen and the lady nextdoor who always gave him hershey kisses became terribly ill and couldn't lift her head from the pillow. blowing on his candle, he terribly wanted her to get better. this was the year that he learned a wish was either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it.

then it was the year he fell in love.

hands gripping his coat and pulling it around his body tightly, the air brisk and his nose a tinted pink. his breath fell in puffs of grey as his chest felt absent of a heartbeat though it was inevitably there. it was a steady bridge, wide and over a lake - one of the few in kansas - a new years holiday and he was ready to hand himself over.

he kept himself a few paces away from the group of ten sixteen year olds who have clouds of mist falling from their lips as they laughed over some over-told joke.

"lonely?" he nearly jumps at the voice, but manages to disguise it in a cough as he looked over to the voice. dimmed eyes staring back at him and curly brunette hair being guided by the wind, he looked warmly kind. "uh, no, no, maybe," he stuttered out a nervous laugh and the male only grins.

"what're you doing over here then?" sam looks up at his quizzical eyes.

"bluntly?"

"if you want, yes," the boy leans against the rails.

"gathering thoughts. i'm broken and ready to give my heart to the next person who calls me beautiful," he shrugged, "it's new years after all."

"that doesn't make sense."

sam rose a brow, "it does to me, so it sticks."

"well, what if i said you were exquisite?" he asks with a tilt of his head, hands shoved cozily in his front pockets. sam looks at him, a gentle gaze along a steady stature. "then i'd give you my time," he responds and pearly teeth make a show within a grin. "i'm colby," he speaks and finally takes out a hand to reach forward, "and time is all i need."

and it was years later, twenty-two years old on a november night, the smell of burning wood takes him back to a chilly december night full of laughter after ditching a group of friends and not knowing when it ever struck twelve or exactly when the sun had risen. he watches the first trickle of wax run down the candle and hit the frosting, biting his lip.

he couldn't think of a damn thing he wanted because colby was standing right here, candlelight flickering along his face with shadows tucking into just the right places, asking him to make a wish.

he had everything he needed.