Non scarfed down the three slices of French toast on his pte like he hadn’t eaten in years. I supposed that was technically true, discounting yesterday’s meals. He’d probably eaten slowly then because his body was slowly acclimatizing to its changes.

  “I actually managed to sleep st night,” he told me. “And I don’t feel half-dead being awake in the morning. I’m still getting used to it.”

  The happiness in his voice was almost palpable. I couldn’t help myself—I reached over and ruffled his soft, fine hair.

  “And you can eat food now,” I said.

  “And not end up puking afterwards,” he said. “It was the weirdest thing ever, being full and feeling sleepy instead of needing to run for the toilet bowl.”

  I returned his grin. I was so excited—both for him and myself. But most of all, I was happy that he could finally become normal like he’d been wanting for the longest time.

  “And I won’t need to worry about going to family gatherings anymore. Or going to yours.” He drained half his cup of orange juice. “I missed eating so much.”

  “I’m so happy for you.” I reached over and hugged him.

  All the previous worries I had had all just vanished in the blink of an eye.

  His arms went around me in a strong embrace.

  “Your muscles are still here,” I commented, caressing his biceps out of curiosity.

  His arms were still as toned as ever.

  He chuckled. “Yeah, probably because of all the exercise I got in forests at night. Not to mention all the piggyback rides I gave you. But the super strength is definitely gone.”

  “On the bright side, now you don’t need to make te night trips to the forest anymore!”

  “You know what, even losing whatever physical so-called advantages I had is also a pro,” he said. “I’m just happy to be normal now.”

  He pressed his forehead to mine, still grinning widely.

  I myself was also still getting accustomed to his warm body temperature. I could grab his hand at any time now, or kiss him on the cheek, and it would be warm to the touch. I loved it so much. He probably loved it even more than me, since now he wouldn’t have to rely on body warmers in his hoodie to feel warm anymore.

  “Let’s go for a walk after this. We can even get brunch, if you’re up for it. My treat.”

  That got me to ugh. “You just ate breakfast!”

  “Okay,” he said, shrugging. “Early lunch, then.”

  “Isn’t that the same thing?”

  “Are you turning down free food? I’ve never known you to do that.”

  “I’m just pointing out your sudden bck hole of a stomach,” I said. “Of course I’m up for free food. Let’s go.”

  “Walk first.” He tapped my nose with his index finger, and I squealed and ducked away with a giggle. When I poked his cheek as payback, he turned his head until he could kiss the tip of my finger.

  “Yes, yes,” I said. “We’ll walk until you’ve had your fill of the sun first.”

  — — —

  Non kept eating snacks on our drive back to campus.

  It wasn’t that he was gobbling down bags of chips one after another, but he kept reaching for another chip every couple of minutes. After the fourth time of unclipping the bag for him, I left it open on my p for his convenience.

  “It feels so novel,” he’d said when I asked him about it. “I never even liked chips all that much in the past, but now it’s the best snack I’ve ever eaten.”

  These little joys he was indulging in, re-exploring all these simple joys in life he’d missed out on for so long, made me smile.

  He drove me to my dorm building. I grabbed my backpack.

  Before I could open the car door, he suddenly asked, “Are you sleepy?”

  “Not really. Why?”

  “I … kind of want to stay up to watch the sunrise. But you don’t have to stay up with me if you’re sleepy,” he added quickly.

  “I told you I wasn’t,” I reminded him. “Let’s do it.”

  And even if I was, I would stay up with him anyway. This was something he’d yearned for and couldn’t reach so long. If Non was extending an invitation for me to share this long-awaited experience with him, I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to be there by his side.

  “Let’s put down our stuff first?” he asked. “I’ll come back to pick you up once you’re ready.”

  “Yeah, I’ll text you.”

  After I put away my backpack and dirty undry, I grabbed a small messenger bag and texted Non that I was done. While waiting for him to come over, I looked around the room. A bag of barbecue-fvored chips, the one that Ashley had given me, on my desk caught my eye.

  He had seemed to enjoy snacking so much ever since he’d recovered his ability to consume regur food. Maybe I should bring that for him to try.

  I stuffed it into my bag, along with a small packet of chocote chip cookies.

  When he texted me that he was here, I headed back down. Non was leaning against the building, waiting for me.

  He looked up from his phone as I approached.

  “Good evening!” I said, unching myself into his arms.

  A small huff of ughter escaped him, and he looked down at me with that fond expression he always made whenever he thought I was being a little weird.

  “Evening,” he said. “I thought we could just find somewhere to sit and chill. Or is there somewhere you’d prefer to go?”

  “Nope. Your pn sounds good.”

  We began walking. It was already ten o’clock, but there were still several people milling about in the distance, minding their own business. I took the initiative to take his hand.

  He looked a little startled before entwining our fingers and squeezing my hand.

  “It’s okay now, right?” His voice was lower than usual.

  He didn’t say it explicitly, but we both knew what he was asking.

  In terms of age, his physical appearance was going to slowly start catching up with me. I didn’t have to stress over walking around in public as a thirty-year-old woman with a teenage-looking boy anymore. By that time, he would already look like the grown adult man that he was. I could openly bring him to family gatherings without worrying about any kind of judgement on my retives’ end.

  “Definitely,” I said. “You know I love you, right?”

  “I know.”

  I leaned against his arm when his hand squeezed mine once more.

  After some strolling, we found a nice wooden bench to sit on. There was a clear view ahead that wasn’t blocked by any nearby buildings. Around us were grass patches on both sides of the concrete sidewalks, sparsely poputed by trees.

  An occasional jogger passed by in the area.

  “I brought some snacks,” I announced, getting them out of my bag.

  Grinning, he rummaged through his bag. “You read my mind. I brought us some hot chocote and coffee.”

  I beamed at him as I accepted the fsk he was trying to hand me. “Thanks. Not that it has much of an effect on me, but what a perfect time to drink coffee.”

  “Sorry, that’s hot chocote you’re holding,” he said, raising the fsk in his other hand. “I thought I’d need the coffee more. I slept pretty early st night, and I’m kind of tired. But you can drink from mine if you want.”

  “Why don’t you want to get an early rest tonight then? You can always do this another day.”

  “I thought that I wouldn’t get to see it anymore for the rest of my life, that i'd only get to see the sun in photos or digital images. Now that my body isn’t trying to pull me into sleep the second daylight arrives, I don’t want to wait. It’s something I took for granted in my life for so long and only realized that until I’d lost it.”

  “I get that,” I said. “You know, it’s kind of funny, but I think the atmosphere would be even nicer if we could watch the sunrise after stargazing in a forest.”

  “Great date idea,” he said. “That would require actual preparation on our end from now on, though. I won’t be able to effortlessly fight off any wild animal or withstand extreme weather conditions anymore or things like that anymore.”

  “Or see in the dark without fshlights anymore,” I added. “Right?”

  He snorted. “Seriously? Three years and you’re still talking about fshlights?”

  “Tell me I’m wrong,” I insisted.

  “You’re right,” he said, rolling his eyes with a smile. “I can’t see as well in the dark anymore. Now I can understand how you kept almost tripping over those twigs and rocks in the forest.”

  “See? Time for normal experiences!”

  I raised my fsk to his, and he gave me a small half-smile. “Yeah. To normal experiences.”

  We clinked fsks.

  To my great delight, the steam from the hot chocote rose to my face, warming me up. I sipped a bit of it, enjoying the sweet richness on my tongue.

  Once I capped the fsk, the wintry air hit my face again.

  “The wind,” I moaned, unwinding a small part of my scarf from my neck to cover my face with it.

  “Are you cold?”

  Non shuffled closer to me, close enough that his thigh pressed up against mine. The warmth radiating from it spread to my leg. I’d gotten so used to him not having a stable body temperature of his own, it was a little strange to feel heat emanating from him now.

  Ironically, a shiver danced its tingling trail down my spine at the warm contact.

  “Just a bit,” I admitted, closing my hands around the fsk, trying to obtain some warmth from it.

  He slung his arm around my back and pced his hand over mine. I set the fsk aside on the bench to better hold his hand. It was almost as comfortably warm as the body warmers he used to line his hoodies with.

  “Your hands are freezing,” he commented.

  “Wow.” I pulled his hand up to my freezing cheek. It was so deliciously warm. I couldn’t help but nuzzle his palm. “I’ve been thinking this since yesterday, but your natural body temperature really does run a lot hotter than mine.”

  “Good. Then I can warm you up.”

  “We’re going to be here for a while,” I said. “Did you bring anything to do?”

  I had my novel in my bag with me in case Non fell asleep and I needed entertainment.

  “If my binocurs count, yes.”

  It had been a while since we’d stargazed together.

  “Not sure I should be handling them with greasy fingers, though.” Non waved the bag of chips in his other hand at me.

  “You could use them before you start eating,” I suggested.

  “No way. I haven’t eaten barbecue-fvored chips in years. The st time I stargazed was a few months ago.”

  He tore open the bag of chips and popped one into his mouth.

  “Oh no, maybe I shouldn’t have brought them. It’s my fault for tempting you with food!”

  I lunged forward, reaching for the bag. Non immediately whisked it above his head and out of my reach.

  He snickered. “If that’s your excuse to take this back, sorry—I’m not returning it.”

  Smiling, I rolled my eyes. “At least you like it, I guess.”

  “Of course I like it,” he said. “You brought it for me.”

  We fell into a comfortable silence after that as Non began making his way slowly through the bag of chips. At some point, he y his head down on my p as I read my novel.

  “Are you going to fall asleep?” I asked idly.

  “Nope,” he said. “Maybe. I hope not.”

  That pulled a ugh from me.

  “I’ll wake you if you do,” I promised.

  He cupped the back of my neck and pulled me down to kiss my cheek.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  An hour passed, and then Non was snoozing soundly on my p, small snores escaping from his mouth.

  I smiled at the sight. Before this, he had been physically unable to fall asleep at night no matter how tired he was or how long he’d stayed awake during the day.

  It was nice to see him being able to get the rest he needed.

  I took my time reading, sipping the hot chocote he’d passed to me and occasionally some of the milk coffee in his fsk.

  I was reaching the end of my novel when the sky finally started to lighten a little. I rubbed lightly at my right eye, forcing down the sense of sleepiness that had steadily rose up over the st few hours. The test I’d stayed up recently was maybe three in the morning. It had been a while since I’d managed to stay up through the night.

  Non made a soft whine as I shook his arm and called his name.

  “Hey, it’s time to wake up,” I whispered into his ear. “The sun’s going to be up soon.”

  He slowly opened his eyes, blinking blearily at me.

  “Hey …”

  When he sat up, shifting himself back into a sitting position, he gnced around at our surroundings.

  “I’m surprised you managed to stay up,” he mumbled, burying his face into my shoulder.

  I rested my head back on his and waved my book at him.

  “I worked really hard to stay awake!”

  His hand came up to ruffle my hair.

  “Good job.”

  We sat through the daybreak, watching the small sliver of light peeking over the horizon gradually expand over the sky while we emptied the fsks and water bottle he’d brought. A warm orange hue crept steadily into the pale blue of the sky, leaving behind a beautiful gradient. There were barely any clouds in the sky this morning, making the light shining from the sun even more prominent and warm on us.

  Non straightened up and put his arm over the back of the bench. I moved my head over to his arm instead.

  “I never thought I’d get to see this again,” he said. “All the things I used to take for granted in the past—coming out in the day, seeing how different everything looks compared to at nighttime.”

  His green eyes were almost sparkling with joy as he gazed up at the sky, reminding me of how I’d felt when I got to py in the snow for the first time in my life. I smiled and reached up to grasp his hand. It was warmer than mine. He ced our fingers together.

  “Yeah, it does. Now you’ll get to see it every day!”

  He looked over at me, his eyes still twinkling with the same shine.

  “Thanks for staying up to watch this with me.”

  Smiling, I leaned over to bump my nose to his. “Anytime. We can watch the sunset if you want, too.”