Word Count: 506

You awake to his hand on your breast, one arm slung securely over top of you, and you know that you are both home.

The room is warm and bathed in sunlight. The clock on the side table reads 10:00 AM in bold red numbers. The alarm did not ring that morning as it does most others, and you are content to remain where you are beneath the blankets, with your back to his chest, cradled between his arms.

His other arm is beneath you. It supports your head and neck comfortably, though you imagine it must not be so comfortable for him. Your arm is aligned with his; his fingers just touch your outstretched hand.

For a while you lie there, eyes closed, feeling the beat of his heart against your back. It beats in time with your own. You cherish these moments, for they have grown increasingly rare in recent months. Between school, and work, and your future children, your lives have taken so many different turns, but today, this morning, they have brought you both here. It is comforting, after all that you've been through, to know that there can still be moments like these.

This is peace, you think. This is how life was meant to be.

There is no darkness here—nor grief. There is only the two of you, and the love you have for one another.

Soon you turn, not because you are uncomfortable but because you crave to see his face. You move to kiss him, but you lips find his chin instead of his mouth. His face is unshaven. You smile against the coarseness of it, because it is only ever meant for you to see.

Finally you open your eyes to see that his are closed. He sleeps peacefully, with his mouth partially open and his breath rustling through the fine strands of your hair. You bring a hand to his face to caress his cheek. He stirs slightly, but he does not awaken.

You remember when you first felt anything for him, out in the sunshine, on the ocean, when his lips touched yours for the first time. There was a moment, later that year, months after that first kiss, when you knew you were in love with him.

It was a moment like this, lying naked in bed with the sun filtering in through the window, little specs of dust dancing in the light. You heard a train passing nearby; now you hear birdsong. You turned and you saw his face and you knew that this was it, this what what you had been searching for your whole life.

You found peace and acceptance. You found a place to belong.

And when his eyes open now it is like reliving it all again, except this time you can put to words the feelings that are welling inside of you.

“I love you,” you say.

And he smiles a slow smile that makes his golden eyes glow, and it is like looking into the sun.