behind the streams | dnf

thirty nine | George

The present is already waiting for me when I get back to my room.

I crane a glance over my shoulder, hearing a quiet rap on the doorframe. My sister pokes her head in, matching my smile. "It came during dinner."

"Oh. Thanks. How did I miss it?"

"I don't know." She looks down at her socks, where our cat has also made an appearance, winding around her ankles. "I took it straight here when I found it."

She scoops up the kitten, a fluff of gray mass shifting in her arms. "It's... light, this month," she remarks, as soon as I pick up the diminutive box to confirm.

It's not particularly sizable this month, either. Possibly the smallest, slightest out of all the past ones he's sent- boxy cardboard that's less than a half a foot long on each of the three dimensions.

I can pick it up with one hand. Bringing it close to my ear, I try to get some insight on the contents. "What do you think it is?"

"Don't shake it, stupid-"

"Oh. Sorry."

She grins, reaching up to brush away a strand of hair that's fallen in front of her eyes. The hand returns to cradle the responsibility still in her arms. "Also, how am I supposed to know what he sent you?"

I make a face. "I'm just being nice, by letting you guess-"

"It feels like there's nothing in there," she giggles, leaning off the door frame before beginning to wander away. Her voice becomes fainter as it travels farther down the dark hallways, but the amusement is audible in every suggestion. "Socks? Sticky-notes? A nice card, perhaps?"

"A nice card?"

But 'light' is nowhere near an indication of 'bad'. The ear piercing he sent last month had weighed close to nothing.

It took quite a while of subtle- or just outright -convincing, for me to actually put it to use. And then, of course, that led to the mess of a reveal on my stream a few nights ago.

These monthly gifts might as well be a tradition now, even if it may have started as an accident. All the way back in February, in the days before a certain holiday I had never looked forward to as much as this time around.

Back then, the idea of sending each other gifts had been fondly awkward, borderline cheesy, and I have clear memories of us self-deprecating on just how 'grossly-cliche' we were becoming. But I would be lying, if I said not even a small part of me was enjoying the perks of it.

The surprise, the feeling of expectation. To give an actual, official Valentine's Day gift to an actual, official valentine fell no short of exciting, even if it was a bit run-of-the-mill. I remember being so enthusiastic I tracked the delivery and its progress overseas, with growing delight that only peaked when it arrived exactly on time.

While his... didn't.

The flurry of texts had begun to storm my phone before I had even considered the possibility of the gift being late. At first, the way he had rushed us into a call had seemed overboard for just an untimely shipment.

Then he explained.

Very simply, he had just forgotten that, well, shipping takes time.

A distance as far as ours is quite a damper on the delivery process. In the spirit of the 14th, he had placed the order the day of, and only after clicking confirm did he realize it would take a whole 2 days to ship over.

He was apologizing profusely, and it was okay, it's literally fine, nowhere as near as big of a deal as he saw it as. The present was lovely. The delay couldn't matter less. We laugh about it now.