My Hair is Full of Secrets

We can indeed

they're all sitting around the table after dinner, talking and laughing, and then the lights flick off. a moment later, shane's mother appears carrying a cake covered in candles.

for a second he honestly thinks they must be celebrating someone else.

and then he realizes they’re looking at him.

the cake is for him.

they did all of this for him.

for one impossible moment, he's back in a different kitchen years ago.

his mother used to bake a cake for him every year.

he remembers his last birthday with her.

the kitchen smelled like vanilla frosting. she had gotten up early baking and decorating the cake because she wanted it to be perfect. he remembers pretending to complain when she sang to him in front of everyone, remembers her laughing and doing it anyway.

he remembers thinking there would be another birthday with her after that.

but there wasn't.

his father never bothered. his brother never cared. years passed with barely any acknowledgment at all. no phone call. no card. not even a text.

sometimes he'd spend the entire day checking his phone anyway, despite knowing better. telling himself he didn't care.

somewhere along the way, ilya stopped expecting anything.

but now he’s sitting at shane’s parents’ dining table while everyone smiles at him and sings and there are candles flickering on a cake that somebody took the time to make specifically for him.

yuna sets the cake down in front of him with the same careful pride his mother used to wear.

by the time the song ends, tears are already sliding down his face.

“oh, sweetheart,” yuna says immediately.

ilya laughs through a choked sob and wipes at his eyes.

“sorry.”

“don’t apologize,” shane says, reaching for his hand beneath the table.

when he finally leans forward to blow out the candles, he’s smiling through tears.

[ID: A digital drawing of Wulferic and Pin from Critical Role. They're laying down together, Wulferic partially curled around Pin. End description.]

And a punk, a crotchety old man, a soldier and whatever the fuck Imogen is are the sunshine protectors.

And then there's an undead rat with a raven skull and a fire monkey as their children.