Clementine paced her room impatiently, muttering under her breath, the carpet muffling the thud of her crutches. Violet was sprawled at Clem's bed, silently thinking of Clementine's request. The two girls had been in her room for about an hour, trying to come up with something Clem could give Louis for their anniversary. They only had a week left, and so far, no ideas came to mind.
"What if you just… didn't give him anything?" Violet suggested for what felt like the hundredth time.
Clem rolled her eyes and turned to her best friend. "I can't do that," she said. "He already gives me these little gifts every couple weeks that he finds on supply runs, I have to do something for our anniversary."
"Can you believe you guys lasted a whole year?" Violet said, changing the subject. "I owe Aasim an energy bar."
"You guys bet on us staying together?" Clem said indignant, sitting down on the bed opposite Violet.
"Not really," Violet shrugged. "Mostly on who would freak out about this date first, and I lost."
The early morning sun was streaming through the winder between them, bathing the carpeted floor with a golden hue, punctuated by the boards stuck to the window hinges. A few birds chirped happily to the rise of a new day, while the fluttering of their wings traveled softly to the room.
"So you're saying that Louis hasn't freaked out…?" Clem asked, furrowing her brow.
"Knowing him, he's had your present on the ready since the day we met you," Violet said, making a gagging noise. Clem smiled.
She thought back to all the good times she and Louis had had over the past year. All those stolen kisses in supply raids seemed childish at the time, but Clem still kept them close to her heart. After all, how long had it been since she'd allowed herself to feel childish? She'd had to care for AJ for almost seven years now, and her formative years hadn't exactly been a picnic either…
In truth, the escape those small tendrils of happiness gave her was the most wonderful gift Louis had ever given her. Though she hadn't said so to him, it had very easily been the best year of her life. If only she could muster the courage to say those words instead of rehearsing them a thousand times in her head.
After a few minutes of lingering silence, a knock came from the door, and the usual sing-song voice of Louis sounded from the other side. Clem was pulled from her thoughts as they both turned to the door.
"Violet, Aasim wants you for something!" he was saying.
Rolling her eyes, Violet walked to the door and flung it open. Louis was standing at the threshold, one hand up mid-knock and the other in his pocket. His usual smile was plastered on his face, and his eyes sought Clementine at once.
"Hey there, morning," he said.
"Morning," Clem said with a smile, picking up her crutches and limping to Violet's side.
The blonde wasn't as pleased to see him, however. "You could have just said you wanted to see Clem, no need to make up excuses," she said in a bored tone, pushing past him and waving a lazy hand back to Clementine. "See you later, Clem."
"Yeah," Clem said feebly, turning to Louis. "What's up?"
Without a word, Louis let himself into the room offering his right hand to her, his left still tucked in his trench coat. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, making her blush. She didn't know why she still blushed after a year of being with the most affectionate person she'd ever met, but Louis wasn't complaining. Even with the slight elevation the crutches offered, Louis still towered over her with ease, to the point where she often wondered if his father had been an NBA player.
"Not much," he said, taking a seat on the spindly chair by the desk, helping Clem down to sit on the bed. "Just wanted to see you, is all."
"That's it?" Clem asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow at his left hand. "And what's that you got there, huh?"
He looked down and feigned surprise, making Clem roll her eyes. He retrieved his hand from his pocket and produced a small parcel wrapped in what looked to be old newspapers. A bold headline on the front claimed that 'Stock market plummets as the recession continues.' Whatever that was, it sounded serious, Clem thought.
She examined the small package in his hands and cocked her head, confused. "Are we having a game of Pass the Parcel?" she asked innocently, looking up from the parcel and seeing her boyfriend's face break into a smile.
"Nope, but that sounds like fun," he said. "What's that?"
Clem chuckled. "It's this British game where you pass a wrapped object around and keep removing its layers," she explained, "and whoever gets to remove the final layer gets the parcel."
"And how do you know of this game?" Louis asked, intrigued. "Ever been to the UK?"
"Not really," she said, shrugging. "But I did have a British classmate back in elementary school. His name was… Mark something? I don't really remember."
"Sounds like a grand ol' chap!" Louis said in a lousy attempt at a British accent, tipping an invisible top hat and adjusting an imaginary monocle.
Clem could not help but laugh at her boyfriend's antics, looking from him to the small package still clutched tightly in his hands. Curiosity was burning inside her, yet she decided not to push him for it. Instead, she chose to expand upon their subject of conversation.
"So," she said, leaning forward. "Have you ever been outside the states?"
Thankful for the chance to just chat about meaningless things, Louis put the parcel on the desk and scratched his chin meaningfully. He hummed a song as he thought, which Clementine recognized as 'Oh My Darling, Clementine.'
"Well, I went to Spain with my parents when I was seven," he said. "Some place called Majorca or something fancy like that."
"Sounds like a lot of fun," Clem said, leaning on her elbow. "Did you learn any Spanish there?"
"Not really," Louis admitted, shrugging. "We didn't really go out much, except to restaurants and shit."
"Fancy," she said, chuckling.
As she heard him talk about the time his dad took him on a hiking trip up some mountain or other, her mind began to wander. She thought of all the times they themselves had taken a hike through the forest, Louis helping her up fallen logs as she struggled to lift her crutches over moist soil. She always loved how passionate he became about the most insignificant things, like the movements of the moon in the sky and the shifting bugs within the forest.
Without thinking, her eyes drifted over to the parcel on the desk and by the look of it, Louis took note of that. He grabbed the package and laid it on his lap. Looking up at her, he handed her the wrapped object and waited expectantly.
"What's this?" she asked, curiously turning it in her hands. It was rectangular and thin, much like those old VCR movies her parents used to watch sometimes. She shook it softly, expecting it to rattle, yet it made no sound.
"Open it," he urged, gesturing to a loose piece of home-made wrapping paper.
As she tore open the newspaper, her excitement never wavered. Louis looked on in silence, a smile etched on his face, expectant. The only sound between them was of ripping paper and the chirping birds outside. When she got to the final layer, she almost dropped it from shock.
"Oh my god," Clem gasped.
She was holding a framed picture of her, AJ, and Louis standing in front of the school. Louis stood in the middle, his left hand around Clem's waist and his right hand on AJ's shoulder, clutching it affectionately. The three of them were smiling widely, their cheeks flushed from the heat. Clem remembered that day vividly. It had been around three months ago when Louis had found a Polaroid camera hidden in an abandoned classroom.
The frame itself was carved with small words along the edges, snaking across the entire surface of the wood. Her mouth agape, she raised her eyebrows at Louis, who beamed. It seemed the birds outside had sensed the awe in the room, for their singing had ceased to let room for the words that Clem was trying to form. Unfortunately, none would come.
"Look closely at the frame," Louis said, almost in a whisper, too excited to contain his voice.
Instead of pursuing speech any longer, she did as she was told. Upon closer inspection, another gasp escaped her. Etched on the surprisingly smooth wood, spreading in a clockwise rotation, were the beginning lines of Clem's favorite song.
"Oh my Darling, Oh my Darling,
Oh my Darling, Clementine.
9 – 25 – 2011"
Words seem to come back to her at once. "Louis, this is beautiful," she managed to say, looking up at him again.
"Happy anniversary," he said cheekily. Clem's eyes went wide, fear that she'd forgotten the date creeping up her spine, and Louis chuckled, apparently reading her mind. "Don't worry, you didn't forget. I was just too excited to wait another week, so I figured I'd give it to you now."
"That's nice," Clem said, smiling softly. "How did you do this? I didn't think that camera would actually work after so many years."
"Neither did I, but Tenn helped me find a book with instructions on how to develop pictures. It's surprisingly more difficult than the movies made it out to be, to be honest," he added, furrowing his brow.
"Well, tell Tenn thank you from me later," Clem said, clutching the frame tightly to her chest. She closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh, her eyes filling with tears against her better judgment.
Louis stood and kneeled beside her, placing his hand over her right knee. "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it," she said, dabbing furiously at her eyes. "I love it."
And indeed, she did love it. That evening, as she paced the room once more, the framed picture of their ninja family, as Louis called them, sat on the bedside table. The downside of the gift being so incredible, Clem thought ruefully, was that now she had to work twice as hard to come up with a great one herself. How could she ever hope to compare to a beautiful handmade gift such as that?
The answer to her question, thankfully, came to her in the form of Aasim a few days later. He walked up to her as she was doing her usual walk around the perimeter. For the last few months, Aasim had been trying to grow a beard, much to Ruby's dismay. Despite his best efforts, it was patchy on spots and did not look nearly as cool as he'd hoped it would.
She chose not to comment on it when he beckoned her to a corner of the wall. She followed his gesture and leaned against the wall, thankful for a small relief from having to carry her whole weight on one leg.
"What's up?" she asked, intrigued.
"I heard that you still haven't found a present for Louis," he said, cutting straight to the chase.
"Yeah," she said, slightly ashamed of herself.
"I got something you could give him," Aasim said, smirking.
Clem surveyed him, scanning him for any signs of a package. When she found none, she stared at him with a puzzled look. "If you do, you hid it very well," she teased.
Rolling his eyes, Aasim shook his head. "It's not exactly an object," he explained. "I just want to help you out, since Louis can go a little overboard with gifts sometimes."
Thinking of the frame on her bedside table, she nodded vigorously. "Why are you helping me?"
"He's my best friend," he said simply, shrugging. "And I know he'll love this."
And so, Aasim relayed the information to Clementine. The more he talked, the more Clementine liked the idea. Barely twenty minutes later, the plan was in motion as Clem and Aasim made their way back into the school for dinner.
It was a testament to how excited she was to give Louis his gift that she barely slept that night, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. Two nights later, she dreamed of Louis turning down her gift because it was too simple and did not compare to his. No matter how much she argued, he would not change his mind.
She woke with a start on the morning of September 25th, cold sweat running down her back and forehead. The clock on her nightstand told her it was nine-thirty, much later than she usually let herself sleep. The bed on the other side of the room was empty. AJ must have let her sleep in while he went on patrol with Tenn, she thought.
He would be seven years old soon, Clem realized with a start. Had it really been that long? With a yawn, she lifted herself from the bed and grabbed the crutches that leaned against the bedside table. She stretched her right leg, looking down at the stump on her left knee.
No matter how many times she looked at it, she was still not getting used to the feeling. Sometimes it even felt like she had it back, a tingly sensation where her toes were supposed to be. She would look down in excitement only to be disappointed time and time again.
"I guess this is how Reggie and Lee felt, huh," she mused to herself, thinking of their amputations. Had Reggie had so much trouble adapting to his new reality? Clem surely was…
After donning her leather jacket and denim jeans – the latter was still tricky business with only one leg to support herself – she waddled over to the door and walked into the hallway to face the day ahead. Upon arriving at the courtyard, she looked around and found Aasim standing by the gate, speaking to Willy. She walked over to them just in time to hear the tail end of their conversation.
"-me know if anything's moving around out there," Aasim was saying. Willy nodded and turned back to his post, holding a hunting rifle they'd found in a nearby town.
When he turned, he spotted Clem standing beside one of the tables and walked up to her. "Morning," he said. "Slept well?"
"Not at all," Clem said truthfully, "Have you seen Louis?"
"I sent him on a supply run with Violet, as promised," he assured her, nodding. "It's on the other side of the forest, so you'll have enough time to prepare for when he comes back, which should be around dusk."
"Good, thanks." She looked around and saw the rest of the group milling about their respective chores. The morning sun blazed above them, the last vestiges of summer lingering for a few more days yet. Despite the warm weather, the first leaves of fall had already begun to fall onto the courtyard, spraying the ground with a bright orange and yellow hue.
Ruby was using a large rake to clear a path between the admin building and the greenhouse, muttering a soft country song to herself. Tenn and Omar were discussing lunch and dinner plans for the day by the pot, apparently deep in conversation. She did a headcount in her head, coming up one person short.
She was about to ask Aasim about AJ when her question was answered. The boy had just walked out of the admin building's doors, his trademark revolver in his hands. When he spotted Clem, as was his custom, his eyes lit up and he rushed to her, much like he'd done that fateful day almost a year ago.
"Clem, you're up," he said excitedly, stashing his gun in his back pocket.
"Had a fun patrol?" she asked him, ruffling his overly long hair. He's overdue for a haircut, she thought to herself, making a mental note to ask Ruby for scissors.
"Yup," AJ said, nodding. "I found a couple of rats in an abandoned classroom, but I couldn't catch them."
"Best not to try again, kiddo," Clem warned him, frowning. "They could bite you or something."
AJ furrowed his brow as well, thinking hard. "Can rats make you turn into walkers?"
Looking around to Aasim for assistance, Clem shrugged. The man did the same and placed a reassuring hand on AJ's shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't think they can," he assured the boy. "I think Louis got bit once when we were like twelve. Had a nasty scar on his finger, but hasn't turned since."
"You never know," AJ muttered, looking down in thought. Both Clem and Aasim laughed, confusing the young boy even further.
Excusing herself, Clem led AJ to one of the tables and asked him to sit down. AJ did as he was told, leaning on his elbows in the same fashion Louis did sometimes at dinner. It was uncanny how many mannerisms the boy had picked up from the young pianist.
"Anything interesting to report?" she asked conversationally, resting her chin on one of her hands, tiredness still tugging at her eyelids.
"Not really, other than those rats I told you about," AJ replied, shrugging. "Sometimes I try to make up games to pass the time, but I'm not very good at it."
Clem raised her eyebrows, a smile etched on her face at his innocence. "Games such as…?"
Looking down at the markings on the table, AJ said, "Um, well. Like counting how many windows there are in the entire school."
"Sounds like fun," Clem said, nodding. "And how many are there?"
"Couldn't remember the numbers past seventy, but I think there's probably a lot more."
"Yeah, we'll work on that a little more, how about that?"
AJ nodded vigorously, clearly eager for another session of homeschooling with the rest of the group, all of whom had added something to the table when it came to educating Clementine's young charge.
So far, Ruby had taught him to tend to small plants, which he didn't find particularly fun, but still pleasant nonetheless. Aasim and Louis had taught him to tie a number of knots for traps, most of which were still too complex for him to memorize them, but his spirit never wavered. Since Clem could not easily move around, Violet had taken over training him in a rudimentary form of hand-to-hand combat, which was definitely AJ's favorite new subject.
"So," she said, scratching the back of her head. "I'm going out of the school tonight."
"Like, into the forest?" AJ asked, puzzled. "Why at night?"
"Just… something," she said vaguely. "I won't be sleeping in our room tonight either, but I'll be back in the morning before you wake up."
She'd been expecting some sort of interrogation, and maybe even sadness, but she hadn't expected what came next.
"No," AJ said simply, crossing his arms. "No, you're not going out unless you tell me what you plan on doing."
"What?" Clem asked, taken aback.
"I'm tired of you not telling me stuff to protect me or whatever," he said, making air quotes with his fingers; another one of Louis's teachings. Damn you, Louis. "Either tell me or I won't let you go."
Sighing, she looked back at the gate through which her boyfriend was gathering supplies for the group. She figured nothing would change the young boy's mind, so there was no use in arguing back. She turned back to AJ and nodded, pursing her lips apprehensively.
"Alright, you deserve to know, I guess," she said.
Taken aback by the quick change of heart, AJ's eyes went wide and he fell silent, his mouth slightly open in anticipation.
"Today is mine and Louis's anniversary," she said, unsure of how to approach such a delicate subject.
"Anni – Anniversary?" AJ said slowly, his look of wonderment still present on his face. "What's that?"
Thinking hard, Clem chose her words carefully. "It's like… a birthday," she explained awkwardly, tilting her head to her side. "Like a birthday for our relationship. It's been exactly one year since he and I got together, you understand?"
"Yeah," he replied, still looking puzzled. "But what does that have to do with going out at night?"
"You see, when you celebrate an anniversary, you give each other gifts," she said, pointing to the window that led to their room on the inside. "Like that frame he gave me the other day. And my gift to him is hidden outside in the forest, and it's better to give it to him at night."
"I see," AJ almost whispered, his eyes running the length of the table, scanning the markings that he himself had added onto. "Can you tell me what it is? Maybe I can help you."
Clem chuckled and reached over the table, tapping his nose affectionately. "No, kiddo," she said, shaking her head. "This is something for just us, I'm sorry."
AJ nodded slowly, a little crestfallen. "I understand," he told her, smiling back at her. "Thank you for telling me, though."
She placed a soft hand over his and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow."
Sure enough, that night, Clem was waiting for Louis at the gate around dusk. The sun was beginning to set on the west, the orange tint of the sky the only evidence that it had even been there minutes before. She nervously tapped her right foot on the concrete, thinking about the route Aasim had told her to take.
"A right, left, then another left," she was muttering to herself. Seemingly out of nowhere, another voice replied with a cheerful yet tired tone about it.
"What, did your GPS break down?"
Whirling around as fast as her crutches would allow, she now stood in front of a tired-looking Louis, whose forehead was matted with sweat. He carried a medium-sized box with a few cans of beans, tuna, and what looked like expired candy.
"You're back," she exclaimed, smiling. "I was getting worried."
"Worry not, I have returned," he said, extending her arms theatrically. "I'm starving, actually."
"Um," she said, stopping him from rushing to the admin building. The rest of the courtyard was already empty, as they had had an early dinner. "I was actually thinking we could go out for a walk, don't you think?"
She gestured to the forest, where an owl hooted loudly and flapped its wings. Louis raised an eyebrow at her, puzzled.
"Is this some joke Aasim put you up for?" he said, chuckling.
Sure hope not, she thought to herself. "No, I just wanted to show you your gift," she said in a convincingly innocent tone. "Happy anniversary, Louis."
She reached over and planted a soft kiss on his cheek that seemed to reawaken his senses. His face parted into a grin and made sure to leave the box of stuff by the gate. When he was done, he clapped his hands together. "That's awesome, scavenger hunt sounds like fun," he quipped, leaning down and taking her hand in his.
The couple started walking forwards, Clementine mostly leading the way. Despite not being accustomed to seeing her stump every morning, she had become quite adept at moving around on crutches, mostly due to Louis's and AJ's assistance. She trudged through the muddy grounds, making sure not to sink the wood too deep into any loose dirt patches.
The dark forest loomed ahead, the full moon shining brilliantly above them like a beacon, beckoning them to go deeper. Their steps were punctuated by the crunching of dry leaves, the only sound other than their breaths and the scuttling of small animals. Louis followed Clem without a word, and Clem went through the path in her mind over and over again.
At one point, about an hour after they'd departed, Louis's resolve was beginning to waver. She heard him clear his throat behind her.
"Hey, Clem? Where exactly are we going?" he asked, his right hand in Clem's and his left holding Chairles loosely.
Clem took a moment to stop and look around, grinning at him. "It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I just told you now, would it?"
Louis sighed and nodded wearily. "I guess you're right," he said, smirking back at her. "Lead the way, Sunshine."
Clementine chuckled as she turned and started back up the winding path. "Sunshine?" she asked, shaking her head.
"What? I think it's cute," he said, shrugging. "I was trying something, give me a break."
"Alright, I'll give it to you, it was kind of cute," she admitted, rolling her eyes. "But don't get too used to it."
"Too late, Sunshine," he quipped, picking up the pace to be on par with her and looking down at his girlfriend.
Sighing, Clem shook her head. "I guess I had that one coming," she conceded, squinting as she looked for the signal Aasim told her would be around. When she spotted a small red handkerchief protruding from a spruce tree to their left, she knew where she was.
"We're very close, only ten minutes left," she told him, squeezing his hand affectionately.
"Can't wait."
For ten minutes they trudged through the thicket of trees that seemed to deepen the darkness around them, yet a single strand of silver light still illuminated their path for them. At long last, the small path opened up into a small pond the size of a large swimming pool. Around it, the roots of the trees shied away from the edge, yet small, white flowers blossomed on the reed-filled bank on one side.
Both Clem and Louis took in a deep breath as they took in the sight in front of them, their hands still intertwined. The lack of treetops above let enough moonlight shine through that visibility was enough to move around. They walked towards the edge of the water and around the pond to where a small clearing stood, almost expecting them to take the spot for themselves.
"Woah," she heard Louis say as he looked around. "How come I've never found this?"
"Aasim said you probably haven't wandered this far north," she explained. Louis extended her hand to help her down and sat down beside her, setting the crutches on her side. "He claims to be the only one to know about this place."
"Well, I'm sure Ruby knows about it too," Louis said cheekily, smirking. Clem chuckled and silently agreed, making a mental note to ask Aasim if he'd brought Ruby here.
The couple sat in silence for a few minutes, basking in the beauty of their surroundings. The cold autumn breeze blew past them, making Clem shiver and wish she'd brought an extra layer of clothing. Louis seemed to have read her thoughts, for he took off his trench coat and draped it over her shoulders, much like she'd seen men do in those cheesy movies her mother used to love so much.
"Is this my anniversary gift?" Louis asked, looking up at the star-strewn sky.
"Uh, yeah," Clem said lamely, scratching the back of her head. "I thought you'd like it."
Backtracking, Louis nodded vigorously and smiled at her. "Oh, I love it! It's very romantic," he said, running a hand through his dreads and pulling them backward. His green shirt stuck to his body from sweat, making him seem slimmer than he was. Almost in unison, they both lay down on the bed of leaves, their hands intertwined at waist-height.
They talked about their days, Louis telling her about a couple of walkers he had to take out to get a hold of those expired candies. Unfortunately, once he'd tried one of them, his illusion to give them to AJ had been crushed. It hadn't stopped him, however, from bringing them back just in case.
"You really went to all that effort for AJ?" she asked, tilting her head as much as she could, given her position on the ground.
"Of course," he said, as it if was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's your little dude. Our little dude."
After saying the last words, Louis looked away quickly, his cheeks flushed. Clem's eyes were wide, yet she did not flinch. As scared as she was of planning her life ahead, she knew her future, however short it may end up being, contained Louis in all scenarios.
"He really is," she said reassuringly, placing a hand over his cheek and leaning in awkwardly. She planted a soft kiss on his lips, pulling him towards her. She heard his intake of breath as he deepened the kiss, running his thumb over her cheek.
After a few minutes, they broke apart, taking deep breaths as they regained their composure. Both their cheeks were flushed, and Louis's chest was rising and falling rapidly.
"That was interesting," he said croakily, barely above a whisper.
"Yeah," she breathed, her eyes falling to his lips and back again to his brown eyes; the brown eyes that held so much joy in them and managed to reflect his smile every day, no matter how bleak the world may look now.
"Thank you, Louis," she said finally, closing her eyes.
"What for?" he asked, puzzled.
Clem rose and leaned on her elbow, looking down at her boyfriend's face. No matter how many times she had rehearsed this in her mind, the actual thing was much scarier than she'd ever imagined.
"Thank you for being there for me," she explained, unable to meet his eyes. "For not giving up on me even when I seemed to give up on myself. In all honesty, I thought you'd leave me like a month into our relationship."
"You know I'd never do that," Louis exclaimed, almost defensively. Clem laughed softly despite herself.
"I know you wouldn't," she assured him, placing a finger over his lips to shut him up. "But that's just how my mind works, don't worry. And now, it's been a whole year and we're still together."
Louis nodded with a smile, tilting his head as if to say, "Wouldn't have it any other way."
"So I guess what I'm trying to say is," she whispered, finding the courage to look Louis in the eyes. "I love you."
Louis's eyes, those that were always so confident and full of joy, opened wide as plates. His mouth fell agape and his heart seemed to have skipped a beat from the movement he made. As a response, he leaned in and placed another kiss on Clem's lips. When they broke apart once more, they were both smiling.
"I love you too, Clementine," he whispered, much gentler than Clem had ever heard him speak.
Somehow, they both managed to chuckle heartily, seemingly unable to keep their eyes off each other. For a few minutes, the two of them was all that mattered in the world. They were everything that was real, and everything else was just outside intrusion. No owls hooted nor frogs croaked as if the forest were holding its breath to give the couple the silence they deserved.
For minutes that seemed to stretch into hours – hell, it could have been days, – none of them spoke. Their hands rested on each other's waists, Louis's hand drawing small circles on a bit of exposed skin on Clem's side, which made her giggle softly.
At the sound of her laugh, Louis smiled and kissed her again, as if he could not get enough of it. Neither could she, however, so she didn't stop him.
This time, a sound did break their seemingly impenetrable silence. A small cricket had rested upon a small rock, drawing their attention to it. Suddenly, Clementine remembered the second part of her present.
"Oh shit, I forgot," she exclaimed, looking around the ground, searching.
"You hid something else in here?" Louis joked, following her gaze.
"No, silly," she said, rolling her eyes yet smiling nonetheless. "Got it!"
She was holding a small rock the size of a golf ball. Louis looked at her with a puzzled expression and waited. Clem lifted herself up to a sitting position and threw the rock in the middle of the pond, disturbing its waters as ripples exploded from where the rock had hit it. For a few seconds, Clem thought she looked foolish and thought maybe this really was a prank by Aasim.
After a few moments of pure silence, however, her prayers were answered. A small lightning bug appeared from within the reeds, lighting up like a small light bulb in the night. It flew out into the air and towards the sky before more followed. More and more fireflies were emerging from the darkness and lighting up the surface of the waters in a bright yellow hue.
"Wow," she heard Louis whisper as he himself scrambled to a sitting position beside Clem.
Together, they watched the dance the fireflies made, wavering in the cold breeze into the autumn sky, joining their brethren toward the stars, seamlessly fading into the darkness. The scene reminded her of those times in New Year's, when her parents would light up a balloon and let it loose into the air, joining countless others from their neighbors. The breath seemed to have escaped Clementine as she marveled at the dancing lights, and she knew Louis was thinking along the same lines.
"That," he said from beside her, placing a hand on her thigh, "was beautiful."
"You're beautiful," she said, making her own lame attempt at being as cheesy as her boyfriend. To her relief, he found it rather amusing and laughed.
"I think I'm rubbing off on you," he said cheerfully, kissing her cheek. As was usual, she blushed.
"Yeah, maybe," she said, turning to look at him with fire in her eyes, heat rising to her cheeks once more. "Happy anniversary, Louis."
Smiling once more, Louis said, "Happy Anniversary, Firefly."