Orien had no idea what he was supposed to get for Kaelan. With the holidays fast approaching, he was struggling to figure anything useful to give to his boyfriend. Who was so perfect and sweet. Orien was proud of him for all of his accomplishments. For how well he was doing with school, to his new venture in content creation. He just hoped Kaelan wouldn’t feel like he was dragging him down.

He rubbed his arm, where a new set of bandages covered the pricks from blood draws. Test after test, and the results were inconclusive at best. A negative prognosis at worst. His memory was still bad. Some days it was worse than others. His hands shook most obviously, but the trembles continued to wrack his whole body at least a few times a day.

Some doctors were testing out a few things. Medicine that made him feel numb and too slow to function properly, or medicine that made his hands tremble worse. Some of the doctors warned that there was likely nothing they could do for the damage already done to Orien’s body. Born the way he was, and then going through various bouts of addictions and withdrawals.

He hated the people who forced his life to be like this. He couldn’t remember them. Sometimes he would wake up from nightmares of vague memories of his past. Kaelan was always there to comfort him, but Orien could see in his eyes the worry and fear. He tried his best to keep it to himself. Kaelan had enough to deal with than worry about whatever nonsense his boyfriend was imagining up. Because truth be told, he didn’t know if he was actually making things up or not. Even a hypnotist was skeptical of the stories he’d told during the session they had. It seemed too dramatically tragic. Laughable -- to him.

And then there was Jett, who was wasting all of his time and money on a lost cause. Because really? If they couldn’t figure things out, how bad would his memory have to get until they just put him in some kind of facility where he could be monitored all the time? Or worse, tell him he was on his own.

Orien felt a twist of pain in his heart. He knew his head was playing tricks on him. Jett wouldn’t have gone through everything he had if he wasn’t set on seeing things through. And Kaelan did everything with him in mind.

Which was why Orien wanted to get him something. Anything.

But they were on a budget. And the window he’d passed, with sparkling diamonds and bands of gold and silver, was incredibly out of his price range.

Who was to say Kaelan would even want to--

Had they talked about it before? He couldn’t remember. Their lives were so intertwined that it was like they had been for years.

Were they?

Orien was ashamed that he had to look down at his hand to check. And disappointed when there was nothing.

Jett paid them well, but there was so much to worry about.

He sighed, frustrated with himself. Kaelan would have already bought him something. He was always so thoughtful and kind.

Then… if he didn’t have money to spend, maybe he could make something.

Next to the sparkling jewelry was a mirror. Maybe the answer wasn’t where they were now. Jett always talked about how they could accomplish so much in Mirrorspace. Well… maybe that was their next step.

He would just have to write himself a note so he wouldn’t forget.