number 46 🥺
46 - hold me just a little longer!!! here’s some post ‘i love you’ softness for u!!
Ben’s internal clock pulls him out of a deep sleep before he’s ready.
Everything is shrouded in dusty, deep blue light, the very first touches of dawn hesitating over the market top.
They’re still lying in the position they fell asleep in, facing each other, only now curled impossibly closer. Ben pushes his face deeper into Callum’s neck, trying not to wake him as he swallows around the lump in his throat. He wonders if Callum can feel how fast his heart is beating, how hard it’s thumping against his ribs; the way it has been ever since he’d uttered those words, ever since Callum has signed them back to him.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
“Callum,” he whispers softly, trailing his fingers over his boyfriend’s arm. He’s breathing is deep, his lashes are fanned out softly and his brow furrowed slightly.
Callum shifts, nose scrunching as he makes a tiny noise in the back of his throat. Finally, he blinks his eyes open, pressing them together harshly before blinking rapidly. He makes a snuffling sound, lifting his hand from Callum’s hip to run it over his face.
“Morning,” Ben murmurs, and there’s something nervous bubbling under his fingertips, something that reminds him of how he’d confessed his love last night. Callum’s hand drops back to his waist, and he tugs him closer with a gentle sigh.
“Mornin’” Callum sniffs, nuzzling his face closer. Ben lets out a shuddered breath as Callum’s fingers start to trace the skin of his back, patterns of hearts and stars soon littering the space there. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he exhales. Callum leans down to press a soft kiss to his lips, holding him there for so long, just breathing. “The best I’ve been in a long time, actually.”
“Good.”
“Need to get to work though,” Ben says as he pulls away regretfully. Callum lets out a little whine, pouting.
“’s too early,” Callum huffs softly, ducking in to kiss Ben’s neck. His eyes drop closed.
“It’s eight o’clock” he says, “it only feels early because we didn’t go back to sleep till gone six.”
“Was worth it, though,” Callum replies, eyes burning into Ben’s own. And then he pulls away slightly, turning his face up to the ceiling, mouth settled in line. “I wish we could just lie here forever.”
And that, Ben hears. He always does. “So do I,” he whispers, and then “hold me just a little longer.”
At that request, Callum tilts his head back to face Ben, searching his eyes. He leans in and kisses him with purpose, huffing out a sharp breath when Ben’s hand comes to rest on his jaw, pressing closer. They kiss lazily, slick mouths and soft fingers that press in just the tiniest bit. Slowly, the light around them lifts and blue becomes purple.
“Pass me my phone, will ya?” Callum asks, hand wafting around, finger and thumb pointing out in a what a child would probably say is a phone, and Ben can only laugh at that, sitting up slowly. Surely that isn’t the actual sign for mobile phone.
He passes the phone to Callum, doesn’t miss the mischievous glint in his eyes. “What ya doing?” Ben asks.
“Come on,” Callum smiles softly down at him, tugging at his hands as to pull Ben back down on the sheets. “We’re taking a photo.”
Ben pinches his brows together, gives Callum a puzzled look, but Callum just presses a kiss to his forehead and grabs his hands, tugging him down.
“Are we?”
Yes.
“You’re the one who brought me the scrapbook for my birthday,” Callum says, warm. “I want to add more photos, ain’t going to stop till it’s full.”
“And then?”
“And then you’ll buy me another one,” Callum says, and Ben doesn’t need to hear the obviously to know it’s said.
"Go on then," Ben says, rolling onto his back, flailing his limbs out dramatically and head rested on Callum’s shoulder. "Snap me up."
He feels the laugh that punches out of Callum reverberate in his fingertips, straight to his heart. Ben barely has time to set his face before the little flash fills their world, and die out as quickly as it comes to life.
Callum flashes the photo in Ben’s face, a proud grin taking over. The first thing Ben notices is that he isn’t looking at the camera, but rather his eyes are locked on Callum, a half-smile teasing one side of his face, as the corner of his lip is tucked between his teeth.
He looks in love.
Callum’s own eyes shine the camera, and Ben sees everything in them; happiness, love, home.
And maybe, just maybe is Ben’s favourite photo in the world.
