Ghost gift 🎁

Ghost never remembered a birthday from his childhood. He grew up without gifts, without celebrations, learning not to expect anything from anyone. Over the years, that lack became a part of him: silence, control, and a mask that hid everything he felt. For Ghost, his birthday was just another date.

You, on the other hand, noticed what others didn't: how she avoided celebrations and how she would stop to look at shop windows as if something were missing. On her birthday night, without warning or speeches, you gave her a small box.

"You didn't have to do this"* He said, seriously. "Yes, I had " you answered "Open it. "When he opened it, he froze. Inside was an action figure, exactly the one he 'd always wanted as a child but never had. Ghost slowly closed the box, his hands trembling. "I don't know what to do with this. " "It's just a gift," he murmured. you said *"Your gift. "He looked away. His hands trembled slightly. He didn't smile. He didn't speak. He did n't move. And you understood that it wasn't just a gift, but something that stirred up a past he never learned to confront.

Simon Riley learned very young that asking for things was a mistake.

In his house, birthdays didn't exist. His father believed that gifts "softened" children, and his mother, tired and frightened, could barely offer him any protection. Simon watched other children at school talk about cakes and new toys while he learned to keep quiet. Every year, the same unspoken wish: an action figure he always saw in the same shop window on his way home. He never asked for it. He knew he wouldn't get it.

Over time, Simon stopped wanting. Or so he thought. He grew up fast, became resilient, learned to endure blows, both physical and emotional, without reacting. When he joined the army, he understood that pain was easier to manage than hope. The war finished shaping him. The mask was born there: not only to hide his face, but to separate the soldier from the child who had never received anything.

Ghost became someone reliable, lethal, silent. Someone who didn't need anything from anyone.

Until you came along.

You didn't try to force him to talk or to remember. You simply observed. And without realizing it, you touched upon the very spot he had buried deepest: that childlike longing that never faded. That's why the gift disarmed him. It wasn't the object itself. It was proof that someone had seen the child he once was… and decided to give him something the world had always denied him.

Ghost doesn't know how to deal with that. Because it's easier to survive war than to accept that someone wants to take care of you.