"Troye... babey... we need to celebrate your birthday."
"I don't really feel up to that, but thanks anyway." His face was emotionless, no joy yet no sadness. He was unusually pale, zombie like and still.
"I don't care. You're opening the presents whether you like it or not!"
Troye smiled, though his eyes were sad. He watched Tyler scoop up the shiny parcels from the floor where they had fallen, and he piled them on Troye's lap.
He opened the two Colognes first, smelling them both by spraying them onto Tyler's wrists. When smelling the 'Break Line', a single tear rolled down his cheek.
"It smells like our first date." He sniffed, wiping his nose on the duvet which earned him an "EEEWW!" from Tyler. "We were on the beach, I had a lemonade. Look, smell it." Tyler took a deep breath and choked. "Not that much! See, it's citrusy but salt like at the same time. It's sweet, but rough." He smiled at Tyler. "Thankyou."
"Keep opening babe" Tyler said softly, picking out the package which had the Top Man shirt in.
Troye's eyes lit up when he saw the blue-grey top and he did not hesitate to try it on. Tyler smiled as he looked even more perfect than he had ever imagined.
He was so beautiful.
But so vulnerable, so quick to believe others.
Was it beauty that made you vulnerable?
Or maybe vulnerabilty was a beauty.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he watched as Troye opened the other presents.
With every one he let out a gasp and thanked Tyler with either a tight hug or a soft, short kiss.
He was happy.
But Tyler wanted that happiness to be everlasting.
After tearing the paper into pieces and throwing them in the air, making them both giggle, they sat on the bed and set up the iPad in order to FaceTime Troye's mum.
Just before calling, Tyler flattened down Troyes hair which was sticking up comically, and wiped his eyes.
"Smile baby" he whispered "because I love you." Squeezing his hand, they began the call.
Troye's mum was walking in a familiar street and entered a lift.
"Mum?!" He was confused "where are you?"
"Hang on honey. My wifi is going" She winked at the camera and ended it.
Two seconds later there was a knock on the apartment door.
"Did you tell her?" Troye was angry, his body tense.
"Do you really think your ma could have flown all this way in less than 2 hours?!" Tyler smiled a little "she told me she was coming over a week ago, I wanted to make it a surprise."
Troye relaxed, his shoulders sloped. "I'm sorry.. I... I don't know how she would react to this."
"Did you guess how I would react?"
"Kind of. Well, I don't know. In that moment I wasn't thinking about anything else other than myself. My immediate afterthought was you. I thought you would go crazy, loose it or something. I'm not sure. You didn't react how I thought you would anyway."
"Why did you think I would go cray..?"
Troye shrugged slowly and quickly got up to answer the door. "I don't like people knocking more than once." He explained to no one in particular.
"Hi Troye!" The 'y' was elongated as if talking to a small child. "Happy Birthday baby!" She smiled, her smile so real and wide that Troye could not resist smiling also.
"Your dad couldn't come over with me, your brother had a problem." She sighed and shrugged "Kids, what can you do, eh?"
Troye grinned and wrapped her in a tight hug.
"You're just in time to cut the cake Mrs Mellet!"
"Please Tyler, please call me Laurelle! How many times!" She winked and walked into the kitchen. "Where is it?" She asked.
"Oh.. It's in the bedroom." Troye answered and they rushed off to go get it together.
"Troye.." Tyler said quickly, concerned "I think you should put a sweater on."
He nodded, looking painfully at his arms, and picked up the hoodie Tyler gave him.
He picked up the cake and followed Troye out of the room.
His mum laughed as she saw the cake, with the slogan printed all over.
"It's amazing!" She exclaimed "... Tyler... you didn't make that... did you?!"
Tyler giggled as he quickly binned the reciept and the packaging. "Of course I did Mrs Mellet."