Don't go breaking my heart

Briar watched his face when she was talking and noticed how his expression seemed to change when she mentioned her birthday gift and she couldn't really figure out why. Was it because Artorias gave her a gift? But that seemed kind of silly - Artorias was her friend and he was just being sweet. Although, she did think about how Artorias and his siblings and even Ulric's kids had gotten birthday gifts so... was her father realizing he hadn't given them anything? Did he... forget their birthday? That train of thought felt more likely as he quietly asked if they should have some kind of small birthday party, seeming very distracted as he asked.

She frowned a little, her request to go hunting with him at least momentarily forgotten. She wasn't completely sure what about it had derailed him so, but she hoped maybe she could pull him back to her. She wanted to keep his attention if at least for a moment longer. She reached up to press her nose to his cheek, giving him a sweet smile. "It's okay if you forgot," she told him gently, "There's been a lot of stuff going on." And that was putting it very, very lightly. Losing their mother had hit all of them pretty hard, but her father had been understandably crushed.

"I certainly won't say no to a birthday party, but I don't know how many will feel like celebrating," she added sadly, her ears flicking back. It was just incredibly unfortunate timing that all of this had fallen just on the cusp of summer. As much as she would normally love the attention and the idea of a party did sound nice, she didn't want it to feel forced either. She didn't want him to feel obligated to when their family had so recently been torn apart.

"Just spending time with you is good enough for me at least." Losing her mother, feeling like she might lose her father, feeling everyone be scattered apart by grief... It really put things into perspective for her and made her realize how precious they were. She'd forever live with the regret that she hadn't been closer with her mother and now it was too late.

"Briar" | "Marigold"