Kingdon Microfic Challenge: 1 July | Confetti | 500 | @kingdonmicrofic
https://archiveofourown.org/works/87732151
It was 2am when he found Mel sitting on the floor of her living room, rummaging through old DVDs.
“Hey, babe, what are you doing?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
She looked at him and smiled.
“I couldn’t sleep, overthinking stuff. Thought seeing my mom would help,” she shrugged, looking at the DVD in her hand.
“Can I watch it with you?”
“Yes, please,” Mel wiggled her body in excitement - she loved sharing her family videos with Frank.
He sat on the couch as she put the disc in the DVD player and fidgeted with the remote. The video started as they cuddled up on the couch.
On the TV they could see two little girls, standing proudly on the chair, two small cakes placed before them. A woman - Mel’s mom - was lighting up candles, indicating they were turning five.
“Oh, I remember this one,” Mel whispered, smiling fondly as her family was singing “Happy Birthday”.
As the song was nearing the end, he heard Mel whisper: “oh no...”, as she covered her ears. He shot her a worried look and was about to ask if everything was okay when a loud, popping noise made his head snap back to the video.
It was showing the outcome of someone using a small confetti cannon - everything, including the cakes, covered in colorful pieces of plastic. One of the girls was crying out loud and hiding in the arms of her mother who was trying to comfort her.
But what made Frank’s heart break was the other girl - probably Mel - who, with tears in her eyes, was trying to comfort her sister. She was clearly startled as well.
Frank squeezed the woman clinging to his torso and kissed the crown of her head.
“You okay, baby?”
“Yeah,” she sighed and relaxed against him, “I just really hated loud noises as a child. And when I hated something, that meant it would make Becca have a complete melt-down.”
“Do you want to keep watching?” he asked.
“Yes,” she looked up at him and smiled, “I want to see the part where we are unwrapping the gifts, it’s my favorite part.”
They kept on watching the videos for another 30 minutes, when Frank nudged Mel to go to bed. She followed him obediently, tangled their bodies together how she liked best and sighed happily.
As they were drifting away, he had a sudden thought.
“Mel?”
“Hm?”
“Do you still dislike confetti cannons?”
“Yhm,” she hummed and put her hand on his mouth, “Too loud.”
“Oh, sorry,” he whispered, “But why didn’t you tell me before? I asked you to pop a cannon at Tanner's party last week.”
She shrugged.
“Dunno. Don’t mind that much. Now sleep.”
He laughed quietly and gave her a kiss, which made her hum happily.
“No confetti cannons on our wedding then,” Frank whispered to himself and closed his eyes.
“On our what?” he could feel her eyebrows furrow against his cheek.
“Nothing, baby. Go to sleep.”
