𝐎𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭
☔︎︎
𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞,𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝
Zymeir listened to the news channel name different schools and districts that had been delayed or closed because of the snowstorm that hit late that night.
"And finally Everglades Elementary, that's all the schools we have for now, but we'll be sure to add to the list as more schools decide how to handle this snowstorm. I'm Emily Sands with the early new report. Let's head over to John with the weather news, John?"
Shaking his head he put his attention back to his phone that displayed a website listing the live school updates. He was waiting to see if Moes preschool would pop up but at this point he was just gonna let him stay home instead of going through the hassle of driving in the snow.
"I hope they let him out of school." He mumbled while walking towards his kitchen table. His mouth slightly gapped as he watched Moe take a bite of his pancake then rip a piece off and sit it on the table for Lucky to eat.
He did it again with his eggs, forking up a bite then picking up some with his fingers and dropping it on the table for the dog, who was sitting next to him in the chair like he was a human.
The dog knew better than to eat Moes food off of his plate so he patiently sat and waited for his human; Moriah to give him some.
Zymeir was glad that he wasn't allowing the dog to eat off the same bite as him and instead ripping it off but he had to interrupt "Moriah,"
"Huh?" His brown eyes flicked up to his dad then back to his food "My banana," he grabbed a piece of the pre cut banana and ate it "Lucky banana."
"No, pooh you can't do that."
Moe tilted his head "No banana?"
"You can have your banana but don't share your food with Lucky. He has his own food. Luck' get down," he told him while pointing to the ground.
With a huff the dog hopped off the seat and walked around the table and laid his head on Moes thigh.
"Don't give lucky any more breakfast okay?"
"Okay." Moriah complied.
Hoping that his child wouldn't share his meal with the dog anymore he walked back to the living room just to hear the News anchor announcing more schools.
"-Mary Elementary has canceled class, the whole Washington MacArthur township has canceled class, Lady of Liberty Junior High and High school are both running on two hour delays, and Sunflower Head Start Preschool has been closed for the day. Ah, what a cute name, Sunflower Head Start. Anyways that's all the schools we have for now, again we'll be back with more when they come in."
Standing up Zymeir sighed in relief, Moe went to Sunflower Head Start, meaning he was able to stay home today. Zymeir kicked off his Nike slides and started to walk to the kitchen to wash the dishes he'd dirtied while cooking Moriah's breakfast.
The sound of a ringing phone, made him turn right back around and grab it.
"Hello?" He spoke after answering the call.
"Holaa, Moriah have school? Chloe got cancel," Isidra spoke back to him full of energy. Her accent managed to come through phone as well.
"Nah, his preschool closed for the day too."
"Ah! Wonderful! I come over and make lunch?" She asked, full of hope.
"If you want to, you can. We'll probably be here for majority of the day."
"Okay! I'm coming...at 12? 1? Which?"
"You can come at 12(PM). What do you plan on making?"
"Hmm, No sé."(I don't know.) She sighed deeply.
"Let me know when you think of it. I'll go get the ingredients." He said not wanting her to be out in too much cold weather.
"It's okay. I go."
"No. I will. I have to go get salt anyways. "
"Salt? You don't have it already?"
He chuckled know she probably assumed he meant table salt. "I mean the one for outside, it melts snow."
"Ooh! Bueno, Zy. ¿Por qué no dijiste eso?"(Well, Zy, why didn't you say that?)
"Sorry? I thought you knew. But I have to do the dishes text me when you think of something to cook."
"Okay. I love you all!"
"We love you too." He assured back into the phone, sincerely meaning it.
After getting off the call Zymeir noticed he had a text form Zinnia so he hurried and opened wanting to see exactly what she said.
𝗭.❤️
Moe's school closed because of the snow storm outside
Yea, I seen
You feeling better?
No🤧
😕Damn, how exactly do you feel?
Fucking terrible!
I'm tired as idk what, my nose is stuffed up all the way to heaven, my head is pounding, I'm cold and my throat? I don't even wanna talk about how much pain my throat has me in.
Lol stuffed to heaven
But you take your medicine? I hate that you feel like this.
I can't type anymore
Soon she was FaceTiming and he quickly answered seeing her laid in the bed, her short hair was disoriented and her cheeks had a tint of red and were and a little puffy but she still looked beautiful as ever to him.
"Look at the baby," he pouted into the phone.
"I look horrible."
Zinnia had recently been diagnosed with strep throat and a cold, and she was surly feeling it. She assumed she most likely caught it from a patient at the hospital and would be back to her normal self soon.
"You don't. " he shook his head in disagreeance.
"I took my medicine after I ate this cold DoorDash and I barely feel it. Well, the cold is not terrible but my throat? Oh my gosh."
"I'll be over there soon aight? We can cuddle and watch all the children's movies you like."
She smiled hazley "We can't. I don't want y'all to get sick."
"I don't care if I get sick, baby, I wanna make sure you straight."
"You can, we can cal-"
"Unt unt," he cut her off, rejecting her offer to call each other 24/7.
"Zymeir," she laughed while staring into the phone "As much as I want to cuddle and be held we can't."
"Why not? I'll be sick with you."
"Then who's gonna take care of Moe? Hmm?"
"Right... shit my momma."
She bursted into laughter "Boyy be serious. If we both get sick Moe will end up getting sick because he's around us 24/7 and I don't want him to go through strep throat at 4 or at all. We'll both be home from work making no money, and my birthday! I wanna have fun on my birthday." She finally pouted.
He thought about everything she said and ultimately Zinnia was right. While he didn't per say mind catching her sickness, their son would also be dragged into it. Not to mention Zymeir was a workaholic, he had a fear deep in his mind of failure which to him was not being successful, so he worked a lot.
When Zinnia picked up on his constant working she tried to show him why this wasn't good. Just like he did to her. She also explained how money is not the only way to be successful.
"Zymeir?" She called him after he never responded.
"Huh? My bad, but you're right. I don't want him to get sick either. I still want to make sure you're okay."
She sniffled a little "I'm soo congested. How about you can come over temporarily. We can cuddle for just a little bit."
"Bet." He automatically agreed "I'm going to the store soon, send me things you want me to get."
"Okay. And! We have to wear a mask when you come over. Strep throat is very contagious."
"We gon' take it off for a kiss though, right?"
"No Zymeir. You always wanna kiss me. Must love how my lips feel." She teased.
"I do," he nodded, think about how soft and plump they were.
"You love my lips get 'em tatted on yo' neck." She said reciting Mulatto's song lyric.
-
After continuing to chat with Zinnia, Zymeir washed his dishes and settled down in his room with Moriah who was currently running around with Lucky.
After the both of them fell asleep for an hour and a half they had plenty of energy. Zymeir knew that Lucky was now Moes dog but today showed him just how much a companion Lucky was to Moriah.
He followed him everywhere, sat below him on the couch, rested his head on Moriah while he ate, today he even slept by Moriah's feet while they napped. Like his protection.
The realization hit Zymeir when he told Lucky to get down from the bed but the dog only looked at him with a 'pouty' look and moved closer to Moriah.
"Da!" Moe yelled when he made a ajar stop in the bed "I-I'm tired," he huffed out of breath.
"Sit on the bed, Pooh. I'll get you some water." Immediately standing up he walked over to his mini fridge and grabbed a chilled bottle of water, cracked it open and handed it to the child.
He watched closely as he sipped the water trying to hydrate himself some more. He soon pulled the water bottle away from his lips and springed off the bed ready to get back playing only so scooped off the ground.
Zymeir sat back down into the bed with Moe in his arms, wanting his heart rate to drop a little before he went back to running around. Moriah looked up him with his eyebrows knitted together and began to squirm trying to release himself.
"Hold on, I'll let you play in a second."
"Now!" He continued to squirm in his arms.
"No, watch Paw Patrol for a couple minutes and Da will let you go play. I promise." He bent down to kiss his temple but Moriah moved his head stubbornly.
The squirming stopped and he soon relaxed into Zymeir with a slight huff.
After what turned into ten minutes of TV, Moriah calmly lifted out of Zymeirs lap and walked towards the window. Zymeir watched as he got up on his tippy toes and peered out the window watching as the snowflakes fell from the sky, settling on the ground.
"It snow?"
"Mhm. That's why you get to stay home."
"It been snowing forever!?" Moe asked with eyes bugged. His arms were up beside him in suprise.
Zymeir laughed, he should've stated his sentence more clearly. Moriah now thought it snowed every time he stayed he stayed home, and that was often...
"No. Momma and da usually let you stay home sometimes because... we miss you when you go to school. Today nobody's at school."
"Not even Mrs.Taylor?"
"Nope."
Moe never replied as he went back to looking out the window. The snow really had his attention.
"You wanna play in the snow? Make a snow angel and snowman?" Zymeir listed the activities he could do with all the snow in the backyard. Moes head nodded
"Lucky come?"
Smiling, Zymeir answered his question "Yes, I'm sure lucky would go in the snow with you even if he didn't want to."
"Yay!"
"You love Lucky don't you?" Moe nodded while lifting his hand to push his hair out of his face. "Okay, let's go to the store so we can get a snow suit."
♲︎
"No, she has a cold." Zymeir explained to Isidra watching as she cut pieces of plantain.
"Oh my. Is she okay?"
"She's okay but she's not feeling her best,"
Isidra looked up at him with a soft pout "She want soup? Sopa de pollo con fideo?" (Chicken noodle soup?) Isidra raised her eyebrows awaiting His answer.
"I was gonna get her some for this restaurant."
"I'll make."
Zymeir let out air through his nose, his mom was super caring. She had already cooked lunch for Chloe, now Moe and she was now thinking of making Zinnia soup "Nah it's okay, you've cooked enough today."
"You sure? Food better when made from home."
He nodded "In English they replace 'made from home' with 'homemade'. But yea I know, it's okay though."
"Ahh! Casero, I just didn't know it from here."
"Right,"
"Cash is such a picky dog."
"I know right?" Zymeirs gaze fell to the dog who was was staring out the back door.
Meanwhile...
Outside Moriah was having a ball in the snow. Currently he is creating a snow angel. He moved his arms and feet in a in and out motion fast trying to get the perfect shape.
After continuing to redo so for another fifteen seconds he stood up and looked at his little snow angel and smiled looking at it closely. After staring at his snow angel for a minute or so he decided to make another one, right next to his previous one.
After doing so he springed up again looking at it. 1...2. His face fell into a slight pout when he thought about Arijah being the 2nd snow angel but she wasn't there so he had to take her place.
"Next time.."
A loud bark made him spin around and look at Lucky who was barking as a bird who landed on the snow in front of him. While Moriah played Lucky occupied himself with eating the magical white chilled stuff on the ground that somehow turned into water on his tongue.
"Bird!" Running as fast as his snowsuit allowed him to, Moriah headed towards the Blue Jay who seemed to be unbothered by Luckys loud barking.
Lucky barked one more while slightly pouncing at the bird causing it to surky and fly away. Fastly he bent down chomping down on the snow loving it.
Now uninterested In the bird that was no longer there, Moe began to run back towards his tiny snow angels.
He ran full speed, excited to get back to get back fast. His little legs moved as quickly as they could. Moriah looked down to watch as the snow scrunched with every step he took. Not paying complete attention he ended up tripping over his his feet and fell, landing with his face in the snow.
The impact confused him a little but when he soon felt the harsh cold temperature on his face his eyes filled with tears. He began to ball feeling once again helpless.
Zinnia wasn't there to help nor was Zymeir; being that he was in the house. Lucky heard the weeps making him lift his head from the snow looking around the backyard sharply trying to locate where the noise was coming from. When he didn't see the blue large snow suit Moe was covered in. He became more confused and took off running frantically looking for the young boy.
He sniffed deeply, getting a trance of Moriah's scent and followed the trail until he found his human face down in the snow, with the same crying noise surrounding him.
Lucky placed his paw on Moe gently trying to see what was wrong but when he didn't react he began to push his small body over with his nose until Moe was face up. Moriah pushed himself up, still sniffling and crying. His cheeks were red from the cold snow and his emotions. He couldn't stop crying as much as he wanted to.
♲︎
Cash stood from his view on the back door walking over towards the kitchen were Isidra and Zymeir were still chitchatting.
He made sure get close to Zymeir since that's the human he knew best and stare up at him.
"Wassup cash?" He best down to try and rub the door but when he jerked back and started trotting towards the door. Zymeir returned to his natural height confused.
When he didn't follow Cash huffed and walked right back over doing the exact same thing. He was trying to communicate to follow him, so Zymeir could see what was going outside but he just wasn't getting it. So he did it again
"¡Hijo, sígale, sígale!" (Son, follow him, follow him!) Isidra spoke fastly picking up on what the dog was doing "¡Quiere que le vacies!" (He wants you to follow him!)
Ohh Zymeir began to follow the dog letting him lead towards the back door. Assuming the dog had to use the bathroom he opened the door only to have his eyes bug.
The loud weeps and crying were heard by Isidra and Zymeir. She shot her head up wondering what happened, Zymeir was already out the door in only a wife beater, sweats, and his black Nike socks
"Fuck, fuck, fuck.." he continued to curse making his way through the snow headed towards Moe. When he finally reached Moe he lifted him out of the white fields and placed him on his hip, not caring about the snow he was covered in touching his bare skin.
Isidra rushed over when they made it back into the house "¿Qué ha pasado? ¿Está bien?" (What happened? is he okay?) she asked with great concern.
Zymeir was too busy cursing himself out in his head and trying to remove the snow suit for his son to respond.
He told Moriah to come know the door when he was ready to come in. He didn't plan on letting him stay out for more than ten minutes before he would be out to get him, himself but Moe had only been out for five.
"Why you crying? What happened?" he asked Moriah, wiping his tears off how cold cheeks.
"I fall!" He managed to say during his hick-ups.
Zymeir pouted and sat on the couch, pulling him in his lap. "It's okay, did you hurt yourself?" He shook his head. Zymeir lifted his hands and looked around his face just to be sure. "Da sorry," he kissed his small hand, "I should've came as soon as it happened, I'm sorry." He continued to cuddle and kiss the child.
Moe laid his head on his chest drawn into the warmth. He watched as his abuela crouched down infront of him with coconut oil in her hands. She began to rub little amounts into his hands to try moisturize him from being out in such cold temperatures.
"CoCo?" He spoke up lowly "We watch?"
She smiled, showing her pearly white teeth. "We can watch it." She nodded.
Isidra loved watching CoCo with the kids, one it was one of the few movies she could completely understand since they had a Spanish version, two she enjoyed looking into the world of Mexico. Of course it wasn't exactly like Mexico being that it was animated but it gave an idea.
She stood from her squat and leaned over the kiss his cheeks and then moved onto Zymeir "Nunca me enviaste las fotos para ponerlas en el estante.." (You never sent me the pictures to put up.) Isidra reminded him.
Zymeir's eyebrows slightly lifted "What pictures?"
She sighed while walking back to the kitchen "Las fotos de Moriah, así que puedo ponerla en el estante junto a Chloe." (The pictures of Moriah, so I can put it on the shelf next to Chloe.)
Isidra had a shelf in her home dedicated to her grandkids. At first since it was just Chloe she had the shelf full of pictures of the child but now that Zymeir was Moriah's father and was working on adopting him, she wanted to add Moriah to the shelf along with Chloe.
"Oh, right! Imma have them printed."
"Okay."
-
"Baby, please." Zinnia whined reaching for the Olive Garden bag.
He snatched the bag shaking his head. "Z, one you're allergic to mint, two you're sick, already taking medication."
"Just a couple. I promise I'll be okay with Benadryl." She pouted through her mask.
Zinnia told Zymeir she wanted some soup for Olive Garden soup to eat for dinner, Zymeir decided to get the soup to go and didn't go through that bag.
Long story short Zymeir came back from the bathroom to see Zinnia unwrapping an Andy's they gave out for courtesy. Immediately he took the candy away knowing it had peppermint flavoring.
"Why you wanna' hurt yourself?"
"It's not. It's a small little amount, you can watch me eat it."
He shook his head "Hell no. You are not eating one."
She looked at him and blinked "I'm sick and you being mean, why?"
"I'm not being mean, I want you safe."
"Whatever, " she turned back facing the TV.
Zymeir walked closer to her and pulled the mask she made him wear down "Give me a kiss."
"You just wanna get sick huh?"
"A cold ain't nothing."
"But Strep iss,"
"Give me a kiss," he repeated, "You've been taking medication for some days."
Zinnia reached out and pulled the blue mask back up over his face. "No, no."
He stared at her. "You mad but that's okay. You gon' be safe in the end." He cooed to her looking in her eyes.
"I really wish I wasn't sick." Zinnia dropped her head down "I wanna cry, I think I'm gonna cry." She mumbled.
Zymeir sighed, sitting next to her "Don't cry. Why you wanna cry?"
"Cause my birthday's coming up! Colds are normal but on my birthday?"
"You not gon be sick then,"
She smiled looking at him he couldn't see the smile but by her squinted eyes he could tell she was. "Let's hope not. I'm such a baby. Crying over a cold." Zymeir remained quiet, not saying a word. Zinnia coughed then looked at him "Oh so you agree? That I'm a baby?"
He laughed "I think it's cute. A lil dramatic, but it's cute."
She smacked her teeth "You say I'm spoiled all the time."
"You are, but shit I most definitely contribute to it so..."
She just laughed sitting back on the couch. So badly did she want to tell Zymeir to go so he wouldn't get sick but she loved his company.
They sat in complete silence, eyes floating around the living room not knowing why else to do.
Zinnia reached over and began to rub along his jawline Zymeir leaned over closer to her wanting to be more comfortable.
"Don't fall asleep, Solly."
"Mhm, I'm not." He grumbled back right on the verge of knocking out. He couldn't help it, something about Zinnia rubbing his face made him feel like he had took five melatonin gummies. No matter how much energy he had prior to.
"Bae," she called to him.
He hummed back in response pulling his eyes all the way back open "How long you been taking your medicine pooh?"
She blushed, she hadn't heard him use that nickname on her in a while, usually on just Moe. They both called Moriah, Pooh that was pretty much his nickname.
"Four days." She replied. "We were talking about it earlier."
"Oh yea, let me get a kiss, just a lil' tiny one." She shook her head "I'm sure the germs are gone by now." He pleaded, Zymeir hadn't seen Zinnia in three day, and really wanted to feel her lips against his.
"I would if I could."
He decided to take his mind off of it. Zinnia had him so gushy at times it shocked him "What'd you decide to do with your friends?"
She chuckled "We're going to Velvet," she informed him
His eyebrows raised in surprise "Velvet Lounge?" She nodded thinking about the club "I heard it's coo', you excited?"
This time she laughed out loud "Yea, I know they're gonna get me fucked up. But I heard it get wild in there sometimes."
"You probably will be." He chuckled "Just be careful."
-
Zymeir now sat across from his grandma filling her in on what's been going on in his life. He decided to stop by because he hadn't seen her in a while and missed her.
"So, do you feel like...Zinnia fits you? Not as in she's a person that is acceptable in your eyes but fits as in a puzzle piece." She removed her hand from the heart pendant just hung around her neck and laced her fingers together. "Almost like she completes something that you have a part of. You could be ambitious and Zinnia is also ambitious, maybe just as much as you are, a tad bit more, or less than you are, but together the drive you have to succeed is never lacking," she explained deeply.
"Right," he nodded to show he was following along.
"See, see because whenever you feel like rolling over she's there to make sure you don't, and you stay on your path. And vise versa of course." After speaking, she unlaced her fingers and leaned back into her Chesterfield couch.
Zymeir watched as her hand gravitated to her heart shaped pendant. The necklace was made out of his grandfather's ashes and inside was a picture of the couple when they were younger, not a day went by that she didn't wear it. When relaxing she always rolled the pendant between her fingers, sometimes without even noticing.
It was clear his grandfather's death hit her extremely hard. Truly no one could expect different, they were together for 40 years. Not to mention that was the only person she'd ever been with.
"I do feel like that". He finally spoke up "Zinnia does complete me. The example you have just made me realize more than I did how we are."
She smiled brightly "This is so exciting, my baby."
"Yea. Remember when I told you me and Zinnia clicked? That not even long after I met her. Since I seen- well really talked to her we had a connection. We ran into each other everywhere, we traded numbers and it was like nonstop conversation, we'd call, text, FaceTime all of it and we never grew tired."
"Un-huh," she nodded, wanting to hear more. So far everything he was telling her was making her idea more vibrant
"Then she; Zinnia opened up to me about her past and when she did I felt angry. I didn't know her for long but I wasn't even thinking about it because we had a strong connection already. So after she told me how people had hurt her I wanted to make sure it never happened again. Is that just my personality or I felt like that because of something else?"
Serena tilted her head as she thought about her grandson's question "The instant strong connection could be something deeper. But you feeling angry about something that happened to her could just be because of how you felt about her which does tie into the connection."
"Oh ok."
"How do you feel when you're around her?"
"An indescribable feeling of comfort, love and joy, not even that. I can't describe it."
"That's okay. When love is so pure and great it's hard to explain. I do agree with you, that you and Zinnia are soulmates." He smiled not knowing what was to do. "So, where's my great-grandson?" Her eyebrows raised.
Zymeir chuckled a little "He's with my mom. Nia had a cold so I went and dropped her off some stuff and let my mom watch him for a little."
"Aww, bring him by sometime. I hope Zinnia feels better."
"Yea, me too. Her birthday is very close too in five days."
"And she's sick? That's terrible."
"Yea, but she should be good by then." He informed her. "Mimi, can I show you something?"
"Sure what is it baby?" She asked, wanting to see whatever he had.
. . .
Erm-erm okayy, so I seen multiple comments saying how Zinnia is childish or annoying for her some of the things she does (bringing up her weight/ being nervous on showing Zymeir things, list goes on) 🥱 I realize that some of you are younger and or you just may not understand just how anxiety or trauma works. So I'm going to explain why Zinnia is the way she is.
One anxiety, Zinnia has anxiety and often times thinks the worst out of situations. She's try's to push it away but it's not like snap it's gone, no. Two Zinnia has experienced trauma from her childhood and past relationships and IVE EXPLAINED EXACTLY WHY SHE HAS THIS TRAUMA and it's like readers either don't care or don't get. For that i don't know what to tell you, truthfully I've explained it.
Zymeir loves and cares for Zinnia very much as we know, so yes y'all may think he won't react to anything badly but she doesn'ttt. Have y'all never been nervous? Have you never tried to hide anything out of fear?
Zymeir being in her life does not automatically get rid of her problems.
...
Now back to the regularly scheduled program...
How do y'all feel about Luck's protectiveness over Moe?🥺
My baby fell😩 he's okay though.
Zymeir wants to take care of Zinnia while she's sick, can you say say adorableee.
How do you feel about the talk Zymeir and his grandmother's talk?
What did he show her?👀
Vote and comment!