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Dreams were a staple of Stephen’s life. From dreams that shatter him from sleep to lay in the sheltering cradle of his husband’s arms as he puts himself back together. To dreams that come to him in his waking hours as he watches his husband putter around the kitchen or lay his head in Stephen’s lap as they watch a movie and Stephen dreams of having this forever.
Every day that he woke with his husband beside him was a day he wished would never end. Every kiss and every touch immortalized in his memory even as he returned them wholeheartedly.
Vague glimpses of possibilities that could have been but never were sometimes overlapped his waking vision. Those fleeting moments would make his heart clench and his arms clutch that much tighter to the life that still lived and breathed in his arms. The life of his husband, who would turn in Stephen’s embrace and banish the vague memories from his mind and replace them with the present.
Off-key singing that makes Stephen feel warm, and head to the shower to make it a duet. Happy birthday, sung off-key, but sung for him for the first time in far too long and fills him with a love so deep his eyes drown in it.
Time was fleeting and vast and far too short in Stephen’s opinion, ability to change it notwithstanding. Time spent with his husband never seemed to be long enough while time spent away stretched on like an eternity. Always, time and time again Stephen returned. His husband returned to him and time flowed peacefully.
In every word and gesture that Stephen spoke, he filled with love. He was overflowing with it, felt so blessed, so grateful, so unworthy at times, and yet his husband returned it. In every word and gesture and caress and kiss Stephen felt the love of his husband and rejoiced.
Old scars that don’t pull so harshly against his soul as his husband kisses them one by one. As his husband uses them as an excuse to hold his hand again and again. Old scars that are soothed by gentle hands when they ache and bring a growing warmth in his heart.
Never again alone, from this day forth.