moon da hyun && simon muhn
Once upon a time, weekends were spent sleeping in. But those days were surly past Simon now. By the time the sun had risen, he had taken his third mug of coffee. There were lesson plans to create for the following semester, on top of his own research deadlines. Not to mention shopping for Johanna and Jasper, wrapping their gifts, and then hiding them all well enough to ensure neither twin tore into their gifts early.
He’d never been excited for the holidays before becoming a father. But now, he did enjoy watching their faces beam with each gift. He just wished they were neater with unwrapping his presents. Perhaps when they were older, they would admire his careful wrapping job.
The stirring he hears in the back bedroom signals one of them must be waking up shortly, so Simon conceals the wrapping paper once again, then trades out his slippers to take a few letters to the mailbox. That is when he nearly trips over an old friend on his doorstep; if it weren’t for the thin railing, he would be face first in the frozen ground. Once he gathers his balance once more, Simon fixates on the object that tripped him: an old, worn stuffed lion. The color had since faded in the twenty years since Simon had truly last seen it, but even he can still recognize his own handiwork with the magic.
And then he recalls how he’d seen something oh-so-similar on the floor of his office, just weeks prior.
With no intention of returning his old work back to the young man, Simon pockets the stuffed animal into his robe, drops the letters in the mailbox, and returns to his home without a second thought.
@morxtorium