Everest
A small dimple lingers where Isla’s lips had just brushed his cheek, and Everest feels it even after she’s drawn back, the faint impression grounding him as surely as her warmth against his side. He chuckles softly as she takes the envelope, the sound low and easy, and tilts his head so he can read over her shoulder, eyes automatically tracking the familiar patterns of medical language even as he knows she’ll reach the heart of it faster than he ever could.
When she speaks, the words land all at once. A daughter.
Everest draws in a deep breath, the kind that fills his chest completely and leaves no room for anything else. He hadn’t leaned toward one outcome over the other, hadn’t let himself imagine too clearly, but now that it’s real, confirmed, something bright and gentle unfurls inside him, warmth spreading through his ribs like sunlight finding its way into a quiet room. The world outside—the quakes, the falling city, the urgent leaving—fades to a distant hum.
He grins without trying to stop it, dimples deepening as his expression softens into something openly boyish, wonder written plainly across his face. Leaning in, he presses a kiss to Isla’s temple, lingering there for just a moment longer than necessary. "A daughter," he repeats softly, the word tasting new and miraculous as he says it again, his hand still warm and steady over her belly as if already memorising the shape of the future they now knew a little bit more about.
When she speaks, the words land all at once. A daughter.
Everest draws in a deep breath, the kind that fills his chest completely and leaves no room for anything else. He hadn’t leaned toward one outcome over the other, hadn’t let himself imagine too clearly, but now that it’s real, confirmed, something bright and gentle unfurls inside him, warmth spreading through his ribs like sunlight finding its way into a quiet room. The world outside—the quakes, the falling city, the urgent leaving—fades to a distant hum.
He grins without trying to stop it, dimples deepening as his expression softens into something openly boyish, wonder written plainly across his face. Leaning in, he presses a kiss to Isla’s temple, lingering there for just a moment longer than necessary. "A daughter," he repeats softly, the word tasting new and miraculous as he says it again, his hand still warm and steady over her belly as if already memorising the shape of the future they now knew a little bit more about.
even if i had to lose you to know you,
i'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
i'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
