EMILIN’S POV:

When I finally woke up, I realized that I was on my own again. My chest felt all stuffy, missing the feeling of warmth that I had bathed in previously.

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I had to flutter my eyes really quickly to prevent the tears that were about to roll down.

I’m not too sure myself why it is, but ever since my death, my waterworks seemed to have started working overtime.

Maybe it’s because I’m in what I assume to be the body of a baby. Well to be fair, I can be considered a baby so crying isn’t shameful at all, right?

And so I convince my 12-year-old brain that it’s okay.

Because it is.

Yes.

Definitely.

There should be no stigma around crying, no matter how old or young someone is (-//ε//-).

I was honestly more worried about the disappearance of my personal heart heater.

‘That lady should still be here, right? Yeah, I just have to calm down. Go back to sleep and when I wake up it will all be okay. Either that or I am still dead. Gosh, what’s happening?’

I pondered on the thought that she might be my mother, but I was a little scared to get too attached so quickly, even though I knew that such precautions were pretty much useless at this point.

I was already disarmed and defenseless. 

I was weak to the warmth.

***

Emilin had felt more confusion in the past day than most would in a lifetime. Her emotions were a mess, she had experienced death and been reborn.

Everything was just fun and games when there was that pretty lady with her, but now that she was alone, everything was a mess again.

She still didn’t know how to organize her feelings. Being alone now was completely different from when she was alone in her past life. Back then it didn’t matter if there was someone with her or not, it was all the same. Now, a bundle of emotions that Emilin wasn’t able to process were trying to vie for a spot in her heart, most of which weren’t very good for her at this moment.

She was nearing the edge readying to jump down the hill to the mental breakdown that was skillfully hiding at the bottom, waiting for her to take that final step.

At that moment, the door of the room Emilin was residing in opened up and the whole area was illuminated. A small child ran in and saw his little sister who was laying in her crib looking back at him.

“Emiiii.” Theo ran in and said. His steps were slow but steady. He looked at his own feet as if to ask them to move faster. When he reached the crib, he used his hands to grab two of the wooden bars and moved his face closer to get a better view of his sister.

Emilin ended up having an adorable child’s face just inches away from her own.

‘He’s… adorable.’

Little Theo had dark brown hair that was rather short and kind of messy. He had a pair of big phoenix eyes that were hazel in color and thick eyebrows that that paired perfectly with his full lips that were tinted in a rudy pink pigment.

Emilin opened her mouth, trying to express her thoughts about the little child’s cuteness, just to realize that only baby babble was coming out of her mouth.

‘I don’t know why, but I think I want to cry all over again…’

Theo on the other hand found the baby babble incredibly endearing.

“Baby. sister. Emi.” he pronounced his words slowly, one by one.

After finishing, his mouth widened into a toothy smile and his whole face brightened with pride as he called out his little sister’s name.

The second little angel in the family had descended.

Seeing his smile, Emi couldn’t help but smile as well. Such children could leave anyone absolutely defenseless and Emilin wasn’t an exception.

The walls placed around Emilin’s heart slowly cracked ever so slightly, allowing for some of the liquid warmth to seep in. This was the first time in her life that those baren lands within her heart were able to come into contact with something that would help the living flourish.

Emilin herself was still clueless about these changes that were occurring within her.

At that moment, the door opened again, this time with two figures coming in.

Elena was rushing in and Nathen was following closely behind. Elena had been quite flustered when she had seen the door to her room, where Emilin’s crib had been placed, opened, but when he noticed that little Theo wasn’t in the living room anymore, she was able to deduce what was going on.

“Theo, why are are you in here, what if you had woken up Emilin from her sleep?” Elena had to lecture Theo a little so that troubles wouldn’t arise in the future.

“Theo wants to see Emi!” He explained, his voice as innocent and clear as always. Obviously, he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to see his baby sister.

Elena didn’t know how she should refute because hearing Theo’s care for his sister was like music for her ears, but she also didn’t want Emilin to be disturbed from her sleep all the time.

“I want to see Emi too!” Nathen added on from behind her. Elena could only sigh, and quietly sign her letter of resignation.

It was too hard to be the mother of such cute children. How can you even deny them anything? You would just seem like a monster.

“Okay, but don’t be too loud when you’re here if Emilin is sleeping. She has to sleep a lot to grow up so that she can play with you in the future.” She explained.

“Yes! Yes!” Theo said signifying his understanding and Nathen nodded at once.

“We’ll make sure that we do that Mom,” He said. Elena looked at Emilin whose eyes had already long been opened. She then walked to the crib to get Emilin and walked over to her bed to sit down.

Elena let Emilin face little Nathen and little Theo so that she could introduce them to little Emi. Emilin sat on Elena’s lap while observing the two boys who were looking at her intently. Elena used Emi’s hand to point at both Nathen and Theo

“The one on the right is your big brother Nathen, he’s 5 years older than you, while the one on the left is your big brother Theo who is 3 years older than you.” They each had a large smile on their faces when they heard the term ‘big brother’.

The two were thinking of the same thing simultaneously unknowingly. ‘I’m a big brother! Emi will be calling me big brother in the future.’ Although Nathen also had Little Theo to call him big brother, and sure he was cute, but it just wasn’t the same. Having a cute little sister following you around seemed to be better than a little brother.

To be honest, the real reason why Nathen was slightly adverted to having a little brother like Theo was that he was growing too fast! He didn’t want to be shorter than his little brother, which is also what led him to pick up various sports in and outside of school.

Emilin who had already seen Theo earlier looked at Nathen. He was only slightly taller than Theo, but he already lost quite a bit of baby fat. He was still cute and slightly chubby nonetheless. His hair was a lighter shade of brown and his eyes were a little rounder than Theo’s. His hazel eyes, though the same color as Theo’s seemed to shine even more than the former’s. His lips were also slightly thinner than his younger brother’s. Then they parted open so that he could voice his thoughts.

“I’m your big brother, so I’ll be sure to protect you!” Nathen proclaimed once again, but this time he was speaking directly to Emilin.