A/N: College finals in two weeks. I was supposed to study this weekend but then - I AM NOT PROCRASTINATING - it was because I got really, really inspired to write. 

Writing Down New Ideas vs Memorizing Mundane Wisdom 

No fight. Writing down new ideas. 

Sometimes I get so tired that I'd rather stare at my beautiful plants for 2 hrs rather than study. Especially Economics. Does anyone even realize how useless that - censored

The above sentence has been removed due to the use of offensive terms.
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The cold morning air stung Cassie's cheeks and the sensitive skin of her exposed arms. She hugged herself and shivered. Catching up, Michael reached out his hand and touched Cassie's chilly, goosebumps-covered arm.

"I told you to get your jacket," Michael said in a reprimanding tone. "I'll go get it for you ..."

Cassie held him back.

"No, I'm not a fussy princess," she said, wrinkling her nose in protest. "I don't need a jacket."

"You're gonna freeze before the sun rises at this rate," Michael said.

"But it's a good kind of cold!" The air freshened her senses and she sighed in contentment. "I love it."

Michael shook his head at her stubbornness but obliged, continuing their walk.

It was barely daybreak and a mild mist lingered in their surroundings. Cassie couldn't ever stop absorbing the wonder of his place. Stepping out of her own door was a dull corridor, but his – and there were multiple doors to begin with – it was like a dream. A quiet, serene landscape of greenery, the sound of flowing water in the distance, and oh, there were also the animals ...

"All those trees ..." Cassie said, pointing vaguely. "Oh, I remember there was a forest right next to the open-air cafeteria in my university. There were people who really went camping there."

"How was it like? Studying?" Michael asked in interest. He had attended a conventional school, but that was during a very early part of his life which he barely remembered.

"Oh, well ..." she trailed.

Cassie wanted to give Michael a glimpse into what it was all like, but then carefully telling it – she understood how it felt to be left out all too well, and the last thing she would ever want was to make Michael feel upset and lonely. No, she wouldn't ever let him feel that way when he was with her.

Automatically, Cassie glossed over aspects of her social life, but there was still a lot to tell.

She recalled and weighed the stories she remembered: how students formed clever systems of their own to get past rules and regulations, how strange tips and exam leaks were exchanged ... how one time, a talk by some famed academic individual was compulsory due to the low participation rate. Lecturers conspired to shepherd students to the auditorium. Shepherding a bunch of grown-up kids? Outrageous. The moment the lecture ended, everyone grabbed their bags and folders and made a run for it, leaving the poor old lecturer looking up, astonished, to an empty hall. Cassie confessed that she still felt guilty about it. 

"The poor old lady," she said. Michael laughed at this.

"Well, at that age, you do have a lot of nonsense in you," Cassie was now saying. "Can you believe that guys were actually debating whether girls wore lingerie as pyjamas?"

"Really?" Michael instantly raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Do you wear them?"

Cassie narrowed her eyes at Michael.

"What are you thinking?"

Grinning to himself, Michael looked away and pretended not to have heard her.

* * *

"It's still quite early," said Michael, noting the clock while sitting down at the table with Cassie: a quarter past seven in the morning.

"Don't you want to eat with Prince and Paris?" Cassie asked. She refrained from starting on the bread and butter. It felt discourteous and impolite; Prince and Paris had not woken yet.

"I'll have a little food here, and a little there," Michael grinned.

Cassie beamed at him. Reassured, she began to spread large amounts of jam on her bread. Strawberry jam. Her favourite. And it was so much better to enjoy something delicious with someone else.

Still, the simple breakfast routine felt somewhat odd to Cassie.

Food was laid out and the plates automatically cleared away by employees in a house. She wasn't used to someone else preparing breakfast for her, unless she was eating out.

"Do you know how to cook?" she asked.

"Yeah, I – hey, what's with that sceptical look?" Michael pinched Cassie's cheek lightly – she giggled and pushed his hand away – "Well, I'll leave the complicated dishes to the chef but simple snacks, French toast ... I know those kinds of stuff – oh, thank you."

Michael received a large box overflowing with letters and an assortment of gifts.

Cassie was slightly taken aback by the amount of mail he had. She noticed they had all been opened and sealed back; she remembered one employee telling her that Michael couldn't even open his own mail straightaway. There had been junk, threats, and potentially dangerous items. Bodyguards had to screen through them before they were handed to him.

"Oh, Cassie, look at this," Michael said, taking out various toys and doll plushies. "These are for Prince and Paris. So nice of them ..."

"Generous admirers," Cassie said, laughing. How could he possibly keep everything? Going through volumes of cards and gifts, Michael was delighted, humbled yet troubled as to where to place them. She giggled at his struggle.

* * *

"Daddy, daddy!" Paris was calling. She ran towards Michael; the children had finished their morning lessons with the tutor.

"Hey," Michael said, giving Paris a brief hug. "What did you learn today?"

"Today, I –"

Paris stopped short. Her eyes widened in wonder at the sight of fluffy Queen in Cassie's arms. All thoughts regarding her lessons vanished with the winds.

"Daddy! A cat!" Paris exclaimed excitedly, pointing.

"Yes, that's Cassie's cat," Michael smiled. Here he exchanged a gentle look with Cassie, who was beginning to look a little helpless and lost.

How easy it was to establish association with adults, Cassie was thinking. Smiles, manners, and one generally wins an approval.

But Prince and Paris were Michael's children.

Children. Not adults.

It was a horrifying moment. What should she do? She should have bought something for them before she came here. How could she have forgotten? I'm such a failure! And it was one thing to play around with kids and make them laugh, but to come to know them ...

Cassie did understand Michael's meaningful glance; he wanted her to beckon Paris to her side. Paris was his daughter and his tiny gesture meant trust – that he would place them with her. 

Cassie returned his gentle smile. 

She would try, somehow. For his sake.

"Paris, you want to touch her?" Cassie said. "She's very sweet."

Paris nodded enthusiastically. Behind Paris, Michael was pointing at his leg where the sweetest cat in the world had once attacked him. Cassie giggled quietly.

Paris approached Queen slowly, her hand reaching up to pet the cat's back.

"Its fur is so soft," she said.

"Her name's Queen. I have to comb her fur everyday. Groom the kitty," Cassie said.

"Daddy lets us comb Robby's fur," Paris said.

"That's good. We need to take care of them."

Cassie met Michael's eyes, giving him an approving smile. Paris plopped herself down next to Cassie. Her little child's legs dangled on the edge of the couch as she continued to stroke the cat.

Tenderly, carefully, and almost curiously, Cassie placed her hand on top of Paris's head. She touched her soft brown hair, and Paris, sensing affection, beamed up at Cassie with her bright eyes.

An odd feeling struck Cassie. She had been in such a moment, she had been in a scene like this ... 

Those lives she had witnessed through a camera lens ... 

"Oh, can't you sit still, Daisy?"

The woman's tone was one of mock-reproach as she tried to set her daughter down on her lap.

With the excitement and usual Sunday crowd in the park, a child couldn't be blamed for being unable to focus.

Daisy looked around the park with wide, excited eyes.

"Mommy, can we buy ice-cream later?" said Daisy, spotting the ice-cream truck stopping at the playground.

"Alright, alright – oh, look, Daddy's gone to buy them! We'll eat ice-cream once we finished our pictures."

"Mrs Leong, why don't we wait for your husband?" Cassie suggested, seeing the waving man at the playground. "A family can never do without ice-cream!"

That was the miracle photographs created. Those perfect moments in life stopped and sealed in the window of time, cherished and safely tucked into a photo album – the heart of a home.

The photographs themselves radiated happiness, but when she flipped through the copies of images she kept, Cassie couldn't deny that she didn't feel a longing sadness gnawing inside her ...

Cassie excused herself to use the nearby restroom once Mrs Leong agreed.

She had been putting on a smile for too long.

She couldn't take it anymore. She was breaking down inside.

Tyler was with another girl, slowly but surely searching for the life he wanted with someone else.

Finally, a life without Cassie Woods.

The guy she sneaked looks at years ago – the funny, handsome, caramel-haired boy – no more.

"Just two months ago, you said you didn't mind it," Cassie said coldly.

At this, Tyler ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"This is a joke, right?" he said, keeping his voice in check. "People would literally die to have their own kids. Here, right now, you know you're being completely ridiculous."

Yes, people literally die, Cassie was thinking. But you don't understand, don't you? You hadn't seen the things I had seen.

A part of her wanted to explain that to Tyler, to tell him the things that had been hurting and bothering her - the reason why she didn't want to make a compromise, no matter how selfish it may appear from the outside ...

But we all tend to say the wrong things at the wrong time.

"I'm ridiculous?" Cassie questioned, her voice rising in anger. "You do realise that it'll be me carrying the baby and not you –"

"Is the simple, normal wish of wanting a family too much to ask for?" Tyler almost pleaded, but he couldn't control his anger any longer either. 

"Why do you always have to be the odd one out?!"

Cassie breathed a quiet sigh, steering herself.

She felt something soft burying itself into her arms.

Of course, it was Queen, who had had enough stranger snuggles for the day. Paris had just left with Michael to have her lunch snacks.