The World As It Is ; m.c.

Settled.

Home

noun

1. the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.

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"Michael, would you hand me that box?" I asked, looking over at Michael who was standing in the middle of all the boxes.

"Uh, which one?" He asked, looking around at the multitude of boxes. We had graduated one year ago, and had moved into a bigger city, further away from the town we had grown up in. We had moved away from our families and into the city that Michael had gone to University in.

It had taken us awhile to find an apartment, but we'd finally found this one that was surprisingly within our budget. It opened into the living room that had a great big window for a wall, which led into our kitchen. There was a small hallway that held the first bathroom and the stair case that led to the second floor of our two floor apartment.

On the second floor, I could look over the ledge at our living room and had decided then, that this is where I wanted us to live. We checked out the two bedrooms that were on this floor, along with the second bathroom across the hall from the guest bedroom. We entered the master bedroom and listened as the lady told us the different places we could put the bed. I think that's when Michael had decided he had wanted us to live here.

"It's the box that says fragile on it," I answered, I watched as Michael looked around at all the boxes, kneeling down to read all of them, before looking up at me curiously.

"They all say fragile," He told me, cracking a smile.

"What?" I asked, putting the lamp I had been holding on the ground to join Michael. I was met by the word fragile written on every box in my writing. "Why did I do that?"

"I don't know." Michael laughed, wrapping his arm around me to give me a kiss. I pushed him away, laughing.

"We have to finish unpacking," I told him as he pouted.

"I would rather kiss you," He smiled, taking me into his arms and covering my face in kisses, making me laugh.

"We need to, Michael," I persisted as Michael nodded, letting me go.

"So, which box?" Michael asked me.

"The one that says fragile on it, I've said this already Michael," I told him sarcastically, walking back out of the fortress of boxes, leaving him in the middle.

"So this one?" Michael asked sarcastically, pointing at all the boxes.

"Yes." I nodded, smiling. "Please unpack it for me."

Michael groaned sarcastically, beginning to open the boxes in our kitchen. I headed into the living room where the moving people had put most of our furniture. I began to take the plastic wrap off our couch and pushed it against the wall, facing the big window. We had quite the view of the city below us I realized.

I heard Michael putting things on the counters in the kitchen, putting away the dishes. It was hot in our apartment and Michael had already stripped to his underwear. I decided to change into different clothes that weren't the skinny jeans and sweater I was wearing. I took a couple boxes up the stairs onto the second floor of our apartment, so I could change while unpacking.

I opened up the boxes, beginning to put our clothes away into the closet. I picked out some shorts and changed into them, peeling off my sweater as well, so I was only wearing a tank top. Eventually, we began to make progress, more things were put away and the corner where we were throwing the boxes and plastic was becoming more and more crammed.

I was putting some books away in the bookshelf, when I felt someone wrap their arms around me. Michael hugged me from behind, resting his head in the crook of my neck. I felt him smiling against my heated skin.

"Are you done?" He asked me, his lips tickling my neck as he spoke.

"Almost. How does everything look?" I asked him, turning around so I was facing him.

"Amazing." He smiled, kissing me on my forehead. "So, this is where we live?"

"This is where we live," I answered amazed, before he took my hand to show me what the first floor looked like.

He and I walked down the stairs, he was still holding my hand, pulling me along eagerly. He led me into the kitchen, the boxes were all gone and I could finally see the floor. A little blue bowl filled with water was sitting in the middle of the table with a floating candle in it.

"I love you," I muttered, turning around to smile at Michael.

"I know." Michael smiled at me.

"Shut up," I groaned as Michael laughed at me. He still liked to tease me about that.

"I want to show you the living room." He smirked at me, leading me out of the kitchen.

We walked into the living room where he had set up a hundred little candles, there was a mattress lying in the middle of the candles. I smiled at the memory of the first time he had done this, looking up at Michael who was grinning at me. He leaned in to kiss me, still holding my hand, while placing his other hand on my lower back. I lifted my head to kiss him back, letting go of his hand so I could wrap my arms around his neck.

He lifted me up and walked us towards the single mattress in our living room lit by the tiny placed candles. Michael set me down on the mattress, never letting go of me. I continued to hold onto him, kissing him passionately now. Michael pulled away, looking down at me, the lights surrounding us glowing in his eyes.

"You're so beautiful," He whispered, giving me the look I loved so much.

"You do know this is a fire hazard, right?" I asked him sarcastically, smiling up at him.

"Would you shut up about the fire hazards?" Michael laughed, leaning down to kiss my neck. I wrapped my arms around his bare back as he wrapped his arms around me, his fingers playing with the hem of my tank top.

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I woke up later, most of the candles had burned out, but some of them had kept going. I looked over at Michael, his hair was matted down and cold sweat covered his body. He was sleeping, his body rising and falling with every breath. He looked beautiful in the peace.

I got up to blow out the rest of the candles, it was romantic, but it was a fire hazard. I heard Michael rustle in the sheets behind me, he murmured something but I couldn't hear what he was saying.

"What?" I whispered, in case he was only talking in his sleep.

"Come back here," Michael said more clearly this time. I blew out the last candle before moving back to the mattress. Michael moved closer to me, wrapping his arm around me and holding me to his chest.

I fell asleep like that, the stars and the moon visible through the large window, while Michael and I slept on the mattress. His arms were still wrapped around me, my head buried in his chest. Sleeping together like we had when we were teenagers.