13: Stomach Kiss

         Ｉn the morning air with a sunlight that streams through the canopy of the garden’s tallest oaks— their laughter sings. Its just the two of them, and they’re mindless to having lost the others. Ignorant to the pain a future will hold for them. In this moment there is only them, and their happiness.

           Ａnne catches her nephew easily, and the child squeals in delight as the woman hauls him into the air above her. They spin, and the world twirls around them in a blur of lush green and brilliant floral colours. Once dizzy with their mirth, Anne falls back into the grass with the child cradled gently against her chest. He isn’t content on this, however, and he wiggles free to crawl up and place tiny hands on her face. Those brilliant blue eyes sparkling in the summer sun, and for the moment her heart doesn’t ache for what she doesn’t have. She looses herself in the moment, and finds peace. 

          Ｃiel’s pulling at her hair then, wanting to run— the child is a boundless source of energy and there is no time to waste the sunlight resting. She growls playfully at him, and rolls over to pin him against the ground. He already knows what’s coming and his laughter shrieks as she hikes up his shirt and blows a gentle raspberry against his tummy.