Now I need someone to hold
Be my fire in the cold
For the lovely @thelazypangolin as a part of Louise ( @grandmascottlang )’s secret Santa exchange.
This isn’t your first relationship. No, you had been with someone just last year. You thought they were the One.
(you two had met on Christmas; sparks flew. you would wake up with them next to you and smile. it was a relationship full of the cliche gooey romanticness you thought had only existed in cheesy Hallmark movies. but that makes sense, considering the two of you got together on Christmas. what a cheesy beginning to a cheesy relationship.)
But they left you behind. You woke up on New Year’s Day to an empty bed and a stripped apartment. Everything of theirs, down to the mug they would always use, was gone.
Now you have Peter. And your relationship isn’t perfect.
(he’ll ‘forget’ date night, leaving you with canceled plans and nothing to do. sometimes he refuses to touch you, and if you press him into giving you a hug, he’ll wince as if he’s in pain.)
You’re left wondering what you don’t know.
And that’s why you’re curled up by the fireplace all alone. You need time to think.
On the one hand, your relationship is nothing like your past one. (a good thing, a voice in your head whispers. perfect things don’t last.)
On the other, Peter’s hiding something. How can you give him your whole heart, if you can’t trust him? How do you know he’ll stay? Or that he really cares?
You shake your head at that. That’s too far, even as shy as you are about entering another relationship. Peter cares for you. It’s in his eyes when he smiles at you. It’s in his actions when he makes you hot cocoa with too many marshmallows, even in the middle of summer, because you feel sad and it comforts you.
It’s in that kiss you two shared for the first time yesterday when he walked you home and snow started falling and you were struck by how the snowflakes caught in his hair and in his eyelashes. (and then all you knew was the soft warmth of his mouth on yours, the tickle of the hoods of your coats against your cheek, the strength in his arms wrapping around you)
So maybe you don’t need time to think?
Peter is still hiding something. But he just might be here to stay.