#ambiguous partner

[professor-rye]

Essek spent a century floating. Untethered. Ungrounded, Unbeholden to gravity. For most of his life, he thought this was the best way to live. As he is held down by the warm weight of an arm wrapped around him, he finds how wrong he always was. His body is heavy, as if gravity has been magnified, but it is tranquil and he is content. A head is on his shoulder and a leg thrown over his hips. He should feel pinned, but he does not. He only feels grounded and real, tethered to this world by the power of love.

[yourbiasreimagined]

002

The deep smell of roasted coffee rarely left your nose. Or really, it rarely ever left the woven fibers of your clothing. At this point it was an engraved part of you, almost like the color of your eyes. It just seemed to always be there.

Taking your job home with you was as simple as that. The coffee shop was always a part of you, the deeply set in acidity of the beverage that fueled most lingered in your hair and clothes. While it was something that you hated by the end of your long day, your partner loved dearly.

You kicked off your shoes upon entering the small studio apartment you shared with your lover. Music was playing softly and the covers of your bed rustled slightly at the sound of your entrance.

You were shedding layers as you went until you were in just an undershirt and underpants. Slipping beneath the covers to join them, you felt an instant warmth both from their body and their love. Sleepy hands reached out to you, warm and soft, grasping for you as though you were their only hope to tethering them from drifting back into the ocean of dreams they just roused from.

"You're home already?" The raspy voice of your lover came through to you. The covers around you were warm, covering almost all of you in your private cocoon of down feathers and shared kisses. Your lips pressed to their forehead tenderly, your voice low to match the tone,

"I've been gone all day. Did you sleep it away?" A noise sprang from their lips of disbelief. Whether that the time slipped away from them or at the insinuation that they wasted a day away wrapped up in the safety of blankets, you may never know. Instead, their face pressed closer, resting into the crook of your neck, lips wet as it grazed across your skin. A hum of approval left the back of their throat,

"You smell so good."

"I probably smell gross." You protested, aiming to wiggle away slightly. However, your lover felt otherwise, a strong hand coming up to hold your hip in place as you laid on your side, you both face to face as the stayed close, lips grazing across open flesh.

"So good." They spoke between kisses to the already goosebumped flesh of your clavicle. "Better than the real thing." A chuckle left your throat,

"How so?"

"Because I can have you all to myself. In this bed. Both awake and asleep."