"Wake up, sleepyhead! I made us pancakes!"

I yawned and stretched, not understanding a word of what was being said in my sleepy state.

A pair of big, brown eyes were gazing at me from the end of my bed, holding a pillow, ready to throw it at me.

"No no no no no no no!!" I shouted, but too late; the pillow was thrown in my face. "For fuck's sake, Izuna!" I said and took my now pillow and threw it at him.

Izuna just laughed. 

"Come on! I made lemon pancakes! And then, it's time to put up the tree!"

I rose up, suddenly excited. How was it time to put up the tree already? Time seemed to go by so fast since Izuna moved in a year ago. He just hadn't moved out since he came to help me move. We still lived in the same apartment, Izuna on a sofa bed in the living room, not feeling the need to have a room of his own seeing his girlfriend, whom I suspected was the true reason he had stayed here instead of going back to Australia, had an apartment of her own where he spent most of his time. 

We had the lemon pancakes which were lovely, and then got dressed to take a walk. Izuna stopped in the doorway.

"What?" I asked. 

"Would you..."

"What?" I repeated. 

"Would you like to take some pictures? Of me, in the snow?"

I shook my head; an immediate response.

"No. No, not yet."

Izuna smiled, but I could see sadness behind it. 

"It's fine."

I wondered if it was fine, though. I had felt so much better this past year. I slept nine hours a night instead of half a day. I didn't need naps. A walk didn't fatigue me to the degree that I was knocked out for the rest of the day. I had even taken on a few jobs designing web pages, not because I needed money but because I missed it. But I hadn't held a camera since the night I fainted during Morningowl's concert.

I wonder how they are now. Are Hashirama and Tobirama single? How about John and Damien? 

I shook the thought away. 

But then, we went to a bookshop, and that would change everything. Izuna wanted to buy a book for his girlfriend for Christmas. And I started browsing through books to pass time.

Somehow, I ended up in the section for hobby books, and of course, the books about photography sucked me in. I took one named Ten things even professionals don't know about photography and started browsing through it. 

And there it was. 

Reverse lens macro photography is a method of capturing highly magnified images using a camera house, an objective, and a cheap adapter. You turn your objective, and thereby the lens inside it, lens around so the rear element points outward, then use an adapter to attach the reversed objective to your camera body . 

I was mesmerised. How come I didn't know that? It made sense, seeing a correctly placed objective had one job; take a large viewpoint and make it small. 

"That's incredible."

I jerked. Izuna was standing right next to me. 

"I know", I said softly, turning lovingly to the book again before putting it back, somewhat regrettably.

Izuna was quiet on the way home, contemplating something, his paper bag of two Christmas gift books swinging  softly at his side. I didn't push it. But as we reached the porch, he hesitated.

"I'll... You go up and set up the tree and lights. I'll come just in time to put up the baubles!"

"Heyy!" I shouted after him as he ran off. "Not fair!" 

Why would I do the dirty work and he come only for the fun part? But I was smiling.

Izuna came home an hour later to a completed Christmas tree base, panting, holding a bag towards me. A blue rose was sticking up out of it. 

"Izuna, what's..."

"Look into the bag! There's more!"

I looked into it, and beside the rose was a small plastic package containing a small, black plastic ring.

"What's..."

Then, I saw the tag.

Reversal ring. 

"It's a ring you put on the objective to reverse it", Izuna said softly. "I don't want to force you, but... I thought if you took pictures of something other than people..."

Almost in a trans, I went to the cabinet holding my cameras, opening it. Then, I took a deep breath and grabbed my most powerful camera house and my favourite objective.

And once I started, I couldn't stop. I took pictures of a water droplet on one of the blue rose petals, and with a black backdrop, it looked like Neptune. Then, while Izuna decorated the tree, incredibly happy to get the tree to himself, I took macros of different Christmas decorations. You could see every piece of glitter.

"This is amazing!" I said. "I haven't had this much fun with my camera since... since..."

"It's okay, you can say it", Izuna said softly.

I looked down.

"Since I took pictures of Morningowl."

Izuna put the plug of the fairy lights in and took a step back to inspect his masterpiece, putting an arm around me. 

"It's amazing to see you passionate again", Izuna said.

I hugged him close to me.

"Thank you."

"You're so very welcome. And now, you have to get me a Christmas present!"

I laughed. 

The reverse lens technique would turn out to be the turning point for me.

It had begun with a photography book, then continued with Izuna's generosity, and now, it was time for the magic of Instagram. 

I hadn't posted in years. My account was dead. I hardly ever logged in; it was too hard for me to see what Morningowl were up to. They were very active and painfully famous, filling arenas nationally and internationally. It pained me that I wasn't part of it. 

But I posted a macro. My favourite picture of the water droplet. A crystal orb in a background that looked like space.

Morningowl was the first account that liked the photo.

I felt my heart lurch. Who was online? Was it one of the band members? Tobirama? Hashirama? What if they-

My inbox pinged. Not on Instagram, but on my e-mail account. It was from Morningowl.

Morningowl Contact: Would you bless us with a meeting this week?

I just stared.

Then, I turned around in my desk chair.

"Izuna? Izuna!!"