Stories of Ikaris

Stars

We walked through the door together into my apartment. I shrugged off my jacket and hung it on the hook on the wall in the entryway.

"I cannot believe you still have refused to get social media. I mean how are you supposed to keep up with current world events? Or you just stick to your newspaper, old man?" I asked him jokingly, throwing a wink over my shoulder as I made my way into the kitchen.

I could hear Ikaris grumble, "I make do just fine with the newspaper" which caused me to chuckle to myself as I dug through the fridge.

With my head stuck inside the door, and as I assumed Ikaris was making his way to the living room couch, I called out to ask, "do you want something to drink-Oh they had those cookies you liked so much again at the market do you want some?" 

A few seconds passed with no reply so I turned around to find him having not moved from his spot in the entryway.

A concerned expression appeared on my face as I asked, "what's wrong Ikaris? Everything alright?"
Without replying Ikaris began to walk towards me and quickly wrapped his arm around me to pull our bodies close enough to where he could lean down and rest his forehead against mine.

"I love you" he whispered in his low, deep voice, which still gave me chills no matter how many times he uttered those words to me.

I was confused though on the timing of this sentiment. We just had a great night of dinner and a walk through the park, back to my place for what I thought would be a great night of relaxing on the couch and binging the latest season of You together.

"I love you too, Ikaris" I paused to take a breath and ponder before asking, "are you sure you're okay? You seem very serious all of a sudden" as I rubbed my hands up and down his hard chest, finally stopping over his heart.

He gave a soft smile, casting his gaze down on me, "I just want to show you tonight, just how much I love you". He then wrapped his other arm around me and placed his head to where his chin rested on my head and whispered, almost to himself, "tomorrow is never promised, do not want to waste a second".

I was not entirely convinced everything was okay but before I could finish my thought, I was being swept up from my feet into his arms and he inquired, "may I take you to the bedroom now milady?"

Always such a gentleman, he knew I couldn't resist that deep accent of his.

I gave him an eager nod in reply.

He carried me to the bedroom, shutting the door behind him with a push of his foot, and set me down to stand in front of the bed.

Without another word spoken, he wrapped his hands around my jaw, pulling his lips to mine, and we tumbled onto the bed together for a night of passionate love making.

*************************************************

I was awoken to the sun streaming through the windows, having forgotten to close the blinds due to being a bit distracted last night.

As I reached my arm over to grab for the man I expected to be curled up next to me, all my hand made contact with was the cold, wrinkled sheets.

I immediately sat up to look around the stale room, my eyes looking for any sign of evidence of the man I fell asleep with. My eyes locked on the folded sheet of paper on my side table.

I quickly grabbed the note which was addressed 'Love' on the front and opened it.

I Love You

               - I.

was all that was written.

I could not figure out if that was just a sweet message he left because he had a legitimate reason to leave early, or indicative of something more ominous. Which after last night and his odd demeanour, had me leaning towards the latter.
I immediately grabbed for my phone to shoot him a text, jokingly asking where he'd meandered off to this morning, along with a suggestion on what may have happened should he have remained in my bed.