The thing about birthdays is - it's your special day, and you know that, but it doesn't make you feel any special than any other day. I suppose it's because you expect to be special on that day but no one else makes you feel special so you end up getting disappointed. So when Eli's birthday came, I vowed to make him feel special.

Elijah's birthday comes a few weeks after mine and on my birthday, he tried (with Mum's help of course) to make me waffles for breakfast. We both loved waffles so it was a very nice surprise for me. He made this thick, golden brown, circular waffle with whipped cream, ice cream, and strawberries on top. He even sprinkled powdered sugar on top. It was such a lovely thing and I promised I'll get him anything he wanted for his birthday. He said he wanted to eat at the fort.

It really wasn't called that but we called it that anyway. It was a dessert place that had this humongous ice cream sundae we liked to share. Eli wouldn't say but I knew he wanted to go there because of the 'forts'. Hence, the name he chose for the ice cream house. It had an elevated area where you can eat your ice cream and stuff on the floor, surrounded by pillows and cushions of all shapes and sizes. Elijah liked building a castle with turrets and towers and pretended the curtains were his castle walls. So after a lunch of chicken and burgers, I took him there.

"Am I allowed to enter your fort now?" I asked. I stood a foot away, knowing I'll probably destroy a bridge or something. The place wasn't too full which was just as well since Elijah was already using the cushions from the table next to us.

"Did you get extra wafer sticks too?" Eli said. His head popped up from one of the pillow walls.

"Yes I did and I think here they come," I said as a guy made a beeline to our table.

"Okay," Eli said breathlessly as he stood up. "To have permission to access the fort, you need to eat one of those." He pointed to the wafer sticks. I laughed and then chewed as fast as I could. "Okay, you may now enter," he said as I swallowed the last bit. He bowed me in and I bowed back as gracefully as I could.

"Do you want anything else?" I asked as I sat down beside him. "They have cheesecake and shakes too."

"No. I only like ice cream," Eli said.

"Eli?"

I turned to look for the source of the voice. To my surprise, Kris was standing there with his mouth slightly open. He said my name hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure that was my name. I stared back at him, wondering what he was doing there.

"Eli?"

I turned back to Elijah. His face held the same expression I felt. He looked confused and he turned to Kris curiously, then back to me.

"Hi," Kris said. He extended a hand, taking a step forward. I flung an arm out to stop him from going any nearer. Eli did the same. Kris looked bewildered. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing out loud at his expression. He looked at me as if to ask what he did wrong. I quickly extracted a chocolate dipped stick from the layers of ice cream and handed it to Elijah.

"You have to eat this to access the fort," Eli said, handing the wafer to Kris like a sword. Kris looked at me questioningly again and I nodded at him. He took it from Eli, carefully avoiding the pillows on the floor. He finished it pretty quickly - tall people probably had a different perspective on size. He gave Eli a small smile.

"Am I allowed to enter now?" Kris asked.

"You have to bow first," Eli replied. Kris did as told.

"Am I allowed now?"

"Yes." Eli nodded, already scooping ice cream to his mouth.

I realized Kris was looking at me expectantly and I raised an eyebrow back at him. He looked at me pointedly and then at Elijah. Oh right.

"Eli, this is -"

"I'm Kris," Kris supplied, extending his hand again. Eli shook it as he scrutinized his face.

"Who are you?" Eli asked rather curtly.

"I'm...ahh...," he hesitated for a second. "Eli's...classmate from school," Kris said, glancing at me.

"I'm Eli's brother, Eli. It's my birthday today."

"Oh, happy birthday! And thanks for letting me inside your fort," Kris said. Eli just shrugged.

"How old are you?"

"Me? 18. Shouldn't I ask you that since it's your birthday?"

"I'm eight today. And Eli's 17."

I watched the two of them throw questions at each other. They seemed to have the same mental age actually. I heard questions about video games and toys and cartoons on TV. They got along well.

"Do you have any brothers?" I heard Eli ask. I looked up at Kris. He looked back briefly before answering.

"No, I'm an only child."

"I don't have any brothers too. Just Eli." Eli said, pointing at me. I frowned while Kris laughed.

"Eli," Elijah started as he munched on a wafer stick. "Can we go to the Lego store after?"

"Yeah. Finish your ice cream and we'll go."

"Can I come?" Kris asked.

"Yeah!" Eli exclaimed. "I'll show you that display I told you about Eli! The buildings and lego people on bikes and cars. Even the trees are made of lego! I wonder when I'll be able to build mine as large as that one!" he said excitedly.

Kris held a hand out to help me up after carrying Eli back down to the floor. I took it hesitantly, overly conscious of myself then. The toy store was just a few blocks away from the fort so it was a short walk. Eli and Kris walked in front of me, talking about Legos. When we got to the store, Elijah immediately ran to the Lego boxes stacked as high as the ceiling. He usually took his time picking out what he wanted so I let him be, keeping a careful eye on him.

"He's...talkative, isn't he?" Kris asked. I turned to him and he was looking at the boxes with his hands on his jeans pocket. Then without waiting for my answer, he pulled out a fire station themed Lego box. "Will he like this?"

I looked up at him questioningly. He was reading the label on the box.

"Age 7-12. He's eight now, so this is good." He turned and finally saw me looking at him. "It's his birthday, isn't it?"

"You don't have to."

"I want to. After he gave me the honor of accessing his fort, this is just a simple gift of thanks from a commoner such as myself," Kris replied.

I almost laughed. "I think he has that already, you better get the police station set."

"What? He has firemen in his city but not the cops? That's absurd!" Kris said, putting down the fire station box and replacing it with the police station one. "The citizens would not be even able to report that there are no policemen present because there's no police station to report to. We can't have that! We're definitely getting these policemen."

He extracted another box. I saw the picture briefly. Lego policemen in black vests with lego dogs and a police car.

"Are Legos even safe for kids? They like stuffing things inside their mouths," Kris commented.

"The ones for the younger kids are different in size," I said. Eli playing with his Legos for years had taught me things about them. "The blocks are larger so they don't swallow them. Parental supervision required."

"Right," Kris said, laughing embarrassedly.

"You seem...different today," I said.

He glanced at me. "Different? How so?"

"I don't know..."

"Ahh..." He smiled sheepishly. "I do better with kids around."

"Oh. Right," I said. I understood what he meant. If we didn't have Eli with us, we'd probably be awkward again. "What were you doing at the ice cream house?" I asked instead as soon as he turned back to me.

"Oh, a friend of mine works there. Do you and Eli go there often?"

"Yeah, he likes the forts a lot." I nodded.

"So you two have the same name, huh? Eh-lee. Ee-lie. E-L-I."

"His name's Elijah," I replied after a second. When I looked back up, he was looking at me expectantly again. "What?"

"Eli for Elijah and Eli for...?" he asked, stressing the difference in our names' pronunciation. He was frowning at me, head tilted to one side. I groaned. I didn't usually reveal my full name unless absolutely necessary. Like in official documents and government papers. "What? Are you not allowed to? I swear I'm not some creepy -"

"No, it's not that. Of course not. I just...my name does not fit me in any way."

"What do you mean? You don't have some exotic sounding name like Elizando or something?"

I sighed. "No, but close enough. Elizabeth. It's Elizabeth. I don't use it usually so you better not tell anyone."

"Elizabeth," Kris repeated. He made it sound like every syllable needed to be stressed.

"Elizabeth conjures certain feminine qualities that I obviously don't possess." I shrugged. "Doesn't really suit me," I repeated.

"Elizabeth," Kris said again. "I like it." He looked at me with that goofy smile on his face.

"Kris! Hey Kris!" Eli shouted. We both turned and Eli was gesturing for Kris to come over to the gigantic display case of the lego city. Kris handed me the boxes he was holding.

"Can't let him see his presents now, can we?" he said.

************************

"You don't drive?" Kris asked incredulously as we walked.

"No. I don't know how to. I don't have a car so I really don't see the point. I can always take the train or a cab."

"Right. Well, I'll take you and Eli back. My car's right there."

I shook my head. "It's fine."

Kris laughed. "I'm doing this for the birthday boy, not you." He looked pointedly at Eli who was looking sleepy.

He led us to his car - a dark green, jeep-type vehicle. I didn't know how to call it as I obviously didn't know anything about cars. He securely placed the seatbelt expertly on Eli at the back.

"Here." He handed Eli the bag with the lego boxes. "Happy Birthday."

"Wow, thanks!" Eli exclaimed. Kris smiled at him then he opened the passenger side door for me. I got in and he closed the door.

"It's my best birthday ever!" Eli said. I could hear the rustling of the paper bag as he opened Kris' present. "Wow! Policemen! I don't have these yet! Thanks!"

"No problem," Kris answered from the driver's seat as he looked at Eli in the rearview mirror. He turned to me and I told him where to go. He just nodded.

"It isn't too far away from your house?" I asked Kris.

"Not at all," he replied. Then he asked me the most unexpected question I could imagine. "So where's your mom? Why is it only you and Eli out today for his birthday?"

"Oh. The fort is just an Eli-Eli activity," I explained. "And also, my Mum has an...appointment."

Mum still attends this "single mothers group" activity thing. We used to have family counseling sessions too although I gave up on that long ago. We just settled with home family meetings. Mum and I just talking about what needs to be talked about, really.

Kris nodded. He didn't say anything and just concentrated on the road. I looked at him and watched him drive. He only had one hand on the steering wheel, his other elbow propped on the window. He looked deep in thought.

I turned back to the road. Odd. I spent half a day with Kris and it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. It was a complete 180 from the day I met him. I've only seen him twice and I don't know anything about him except his friend works at the ice cream store. He seemed nice today, the other time it was very awkward. Then I remembered he was doing that 100HappyDays thing.

I haven't done any 100HappyDays thing since Mum. Today doesn't count either. I couldn't even count being nice to Kris today as one since I didn't "plan" it beforehand. I frowned. Was he doing another 100HappyDays thing now for his failed attempt at school?

Right. Well I guess that's one less for him than me. This 100HappyDays thing is not helping me trust people.

*********

A/N:

Hi again! So how are you enjoying the story so far? What do you think? Comments? Violent Reactions? Suggestions? Bubble Tea?

I love Elijah. He's so cute. Although I don't think he'd appreciate someone calling him cute.

Thank you for reading! And to you, who clicked this story, thank you so much for giving Eli and Kris a chance<3

x

Dedicated to miaseranz ~ Eli and Kris'...godmother. Haha. For all your encouragement and support as I started writing this and until now. Your help is very very very much appreciated. Thank you<3 Eli and Kris wouldn't be here without you.<3