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Though Robert had been able to drift off to sleep, Mimsy remained conscious for the majority of the evening, vaguely aware that the day was slipping away from them. She was thankful for the pleasant buzz of oxytocin and seratonin that clouded her thoughts with soothing contentment, glad to have something that would keep her anxieties at bay when she failed to do so on her own. When she finally calmed enough to sleep, it was not for very long - she had not yet left the shallow stages of rest when she woke to the sound of her name.

Immediately, it was noticeable that there was no sense of overwhelming loss that chewed at the flesh within her, and no illusion of uncomfortable holes that it left behind. There was only a faint sensation of grief, and remorse, and regret for her actions and her choices. This was temporary, she registered, and the flood of relief was enough to swallow the last remnants of doubt.

She sighed, almost laughed, and pushed her elbow into the mattress, sliding just enough to allow her form to rest firmly against him.

"Yes," she replied, her half-lidded eyes caught in an unfocused stare into the darkness. "Hello, husband. My name sounds very pleasant in your voice, as always. Is something wrong?"

The comforter moved as she shifted her feet beneath it, gravitating towards his warmth.

"All right. I am pleased to have provided this service, then," Mimsy murmured, snorting as she stifled the reflexive laugh that followed his lips on her skin. The feet that had innocuously moved towards him were now kicking at him, until one got itself wedged between his shins.

Her eyes lit up at the mention of a surprise, and she turned towards him with an excited little gasp, curiosity piqued.

"I wa--" Getting it now had been so imperative that she immediately spoke up, halted by a kiss that drove her back into the meaningful silence of deep consideration. She blinked at him, lips parted in wait of the words that lingered on the tip of her tongue.

"May I choose 'both'?" After a hopeful pause, she continued with a tentative hesitation in her voice. "I can make an impressive argument for that selection."

The fairly standard argument for the possibility of disruptions in the space-time continuum and closed timelike curves remained tucked away in Mimsy's mind as Robert actually tried to give her both at once, simply because she'd asked for it. That was almost better than the idea of the surprise itself, but she was certain that the surprise would be a good one - he was always impressively wonderful at his choice in surprises.

She stared at him for a brief moment, then smiled, then laughed, and languidly slid her hands over his shoulders to circle her arms around his neck.

"I appreciate the effort and thought nonetheless. Thank you. I do not thank you as much as I should." The smile lingered as she curled up against him and leaned her head on his shoulder, then tilted her head up to gently kiss his neck, just once. "Carry me to the surprise. We can determine what happens later in the time that follows. I am quite interested in our future."

Not a difficult future to predict, as far as she was concerned, but it made her no less interested in what that might entail.

As she was lifted and carried off to some unknown location that housed her surprise, Mimsy kicked her feet back and forth, restless with theories of what it might possibly be. The excitement that accompanied her curiosity was intoxicating, and she watched with eager eyes to see the path that he took towards their destination.

Discovering that they appeared to have arrived at the closet was a bit odd. Even if it was no longer in a state of treacherous disrepair, it was still a closet...and that made the question of 'now or later' a bit strange, considering.

With a cheerfully anxious giggle, she shifted until she had settled herself more securely within his arms, then moved her arms to cover her eyes with both hands, just as he had instructed her to. Every aspect of a surprise was important, down to the very last detail, and she refused to ruin it with something as ridiculous as using only one hand to hide her eyes.

"Don't hurt me," she teased, hugging her body close to his. "I have a family!"

After wobbling unsteadily on her feet, wiggling her toes in an attempt to get her bearings on the ground (or floor?) beneath her, Mimsy felt him put his hands over hers. She smiled, the corners of her lips disappearing under the edge of his fingers, and listened carefully to everything that he said.

Then he pulled his hands away, bringing hers with them, to reveal a room full of stars.

Months ago, in a moment of unintended weakness brought on by the returning visibility of the stars, she'd told him that she didn't want to lose them again. He had readily assured her that she couldn't lose something that was so close to her heart, and that they would always be there when she needed them that way. Even when she set aside the problem of 'her heart' being potentially nonexistent, it frustrated her to think of the stars like that, forcing them to be conceptual rather than something that was inarguably there. Her solution was to change the subject by asking if that meant that she could always be with him in turn, to which he'd answered yes, of course. Since then, he had followed through on proving that with impressive dedication.

And now he'd followed through on proving to her that she would never, ever lose the stars again.

"You...you. Oh." She felt faint, and hurriedly clutched his arm to prevent herself from falling. A soft dirge of remorse still played in her mind, coiling around excitement and amazement to form a mixture that was terribly confusing--but distinctly positive, at least.

"Thank you." Despite the fact that she was nearly speaking in a whisper, there was still awe clearly evident in her tone. Her hands squeezed his arm as she stared into the constellations, eyes hopping from one to the next. "Oh, look, it's...and...you. You did this? You did this by yourself? For me?"

How could he even ask such a thing? Mimsy was so startled with confusion that she laughed, just briefly, before she answered him.

"Of course I do. This...this is wonderful! Exceptionally so! Why would I not like it?" And all this time she'd believed that it was a closet. Had she not been so enchanted by the sight, she might have been concerned that he had kept a secret from her so well - but the thought had no negative correlations in her mind.

"It is not the level of difficulty that prompted my question, but I do not doubt that you could have achieved this even if you had found it troublesome to accomplish. You are impressively dedicated to what you are interested in." She gently elbowed his side and smiled up at him, barely visible through the artificial starlight. "But you're right. I do know that. I am sorry that I am so forgetful on occasion."

There was a glimmer of light in her glasses as she tilted her head up towards the ceiling again, followed by a long, contented sigh.

"I love you," she murmured, moving her hand down his arm to slide her fingers between his. "I am glad to have been given the stars, so I can share them with you."

The blush went unnoticed in the low light, but Mimsy didn't miss the duck of his head that came alongside it. A little smile crossed her face as she wondered if he would ever believe the same things that she did about him.

Probably not, considering her apparent inability to believe half of what he thought about her.

There was no startled noise or sound of protest as he picked her up again - she just kept her eyes up towards the ceiling, watching them as they passed, and shifted to lean her head against him as they lay on the mat together. Her hand tightly squeezed his as she glanced towards the constellation that he pointed towards, mind brimming with facts and far more information than she needed at her immediate recognition of it.

"Scorpius. Quadrant SQ3. It includes the fifteenth brightest star, whose name is Antares. Many years ago, the constellation Libra was also considered to be a part of it, existing as its massive claws. It is more commonly known as Scorpio." She tilted her head towards him, giggling as her lips brushed against his ear. "That is my sign."