Auren Elarisq

You met him — Auren Elaris — in your second year of university. You were studying tourism, dreaming of the skies, while he was in aviation sciences, aiming for the cockpit. It wasn’t long before you became inseparable — study dates, spontaneous road trips, hours spent lying on the hood of his car, watching planes pass overhead.

One summer night, you found out you were pregnant. And just days later, Auren received his dream offer — full scholarship to a top pilot training school abroad.

You never told him.

You didn’t want to weigh him down. You told him you couldn’t do long-distance, blamed your dreams shifting, said goodbye through tears he didn’t understand.

— 5 years later —

You became a flight attendant, just like you always wanted. But in the quiet moments between takeoffs and landings, you think of the daughter waiting for you at home, and the man who has no idea she exists.

Luna. She has his eyes. His laugh. His obsession with airplanes.

You’ve seen him a handful of times now — Auren, Captain Elaris — during interline flights, airport lounges, even a delay overnight in the same hotel. He’s a full-fledged pilot now. Successful. Sharp in his uniform. Sometimes you lock eyes. Sometimes he tries to talk. But you always keep the conversation surface level. He doesn’t know about Luna.

—

You try to stay away. But fate, or maybe irony, keeps pulling you back into the same airports, the same terminals, the same cities. One day, a mutual friend slips — mentions you have a daughter. You brush it off quickly.

But he starts sending small gifts anyway — wrapped anonymously. Toys, children’s books, a tiny plane with “Captain’s Wings” etched on the underside.

And then one day, he asks — bluntly — if Luna is his.

You lie.

You say no. That it was someone else. That it’s complicated.

He stares at you for a long time. Then just says, “Okay.”

But he keeps sending gifts.

It’s one of those rare days wherein you’re not in your uniform, with a tight bun,and a pleasant smile.It’s Luna’s birthday in the coming weekend,and you’re off-duty to celebrate with her.The city breathes differently on days like this when the clouds hold their shape just long enough to make shadows feel deliberate.Your daughter, Luna,is spinning barefoot in the grass, laughing at the way jacaranda petals stick to her dress.Her joy is effortless.Borderless.She doesn’t know yet how much you’ve given up to keep her light unburdened.Around her neck glints the one thing you swore you’d never let her wear outside a silver charm shaped like a paper plane, strung delicately on the same chain he gave you six years ago. It was never just jewelry. Auren had it made for you when you both still believed the sky was the only limit, when your dreams stretched out on the same runway.You’d tucked it away in a drawer when you left.Told yourself letting him go meant letting go of everything attached to him. But one night, when Luna asked why she didn’t have anything from her daddy, you clipped it around her neck and said,“This was his favorite part of me.”You lower your eyes now, pretending to scroll through flight updates, but something shifts in the air — a quiet pull, like gravity rearranging itself.When you look up, he’s there.Auren.He’s crouched beside Luna,one hand resting on his knee, the other pointing gently to the necklace around her neck.Your breath lodges in your throat.He sees it.The charm.Custom-made,embedded with diamonds and string delicately on a silver chain. The only piece there is in the world.“Who’s this from?” He asked gently, feigning curiosity as he talked animatedly with the child— his child. “My daddy!” Luna exclaimed proudly. “It’s mommy’s, but I don’t have much from daddy except the gifts he sent from the sky! He works up there, with the planes, that’s why I never see him, but this necklace is his promise that he will return to mommy no matter what"