your local geezer teaser

She’s peacefully asleep when he turns to look at her. She’s beautiful when asleep—though he thinks it’d be true even if she was knee-deep in mud, or drenched from a thunderstorm. 

Her hands lay beside each other, holding the empty space where his hand just was, intertwined with her fingers in sleep. When they notice the lack of weight in their palms, her fingers start to move before her whole self rouses.

Her eyes don’t open, but her hands start to search for him across their bed. “Mm… Varka?” With time, her wandering fingers find his fist clenching the poor sheets they’d bought last month. Her thumb runs across his worn knuckles. When he pries his gaze away from her face, he finds her wedding band twinkling under the small ray of moonlight spilling into their bedroom. 

“You’re up?” She turns over to face him, though her eyes are still closed.

“Only for the bathroom,” Varka lies. He bends down, using his free hand to tuck some stray strands behind her ear; he wants to see her beauty properly, wholly. “Just got back.” He wills a wide enough smile, forgetting that she won’t see. “You miss me easily, don’t you?”

Some moments pass. He assumes that Selene must’ve fallen asleep again without a word, so he takes the opportunity to stroke her temple, then her cheekbones. Soon enough, she opens one eye to look at him.

“Come here.”

He lies beside her, shuffling awkwardly when she positions him lower on the bed than he anticipated; his head rests against her chest and he can hear her smelling the new shampoo he’s trying. His hands are uncharacteristically stiff at his sides until Selene huffs—”Don’t be difficult,” she says—and makes him pull her closer at the waist. She tightens her grip as well, as if she wanted to absorb him into her. As if she knew exactly what he wanted: a reminder of her existence, totally encompassed by her. 

He feels his throat tighten. The dream seems so far away now. What a silly thing it was, to imagine a world where she’d ever let herself leave him again. “Sel–”

“‘Only for the bathroom,’ You’re a terrible liar.” she repeats with a scoff. Then, after a moment, “I love you.”