timeless melody ↝ eddie vedder

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

The next morning, I woke up first.

I rolled over, spinning myself in a way that would allow me to stay within his embrace.

It had been the first few rays of sun shining on my face through the open curtains that had woken me up. For a while I had laid still in that state of half consciousness, where you slowly become aware of everything around you one at a time before you actually wake up. The first thing had been the soft sun on my eyelids. The second had been the extra weight on top of various parts of my body- something extra over my waist, a bit of weight on one of my legs and something under the other. The third thing had been the on-and-off rhythmic tickle of air hitting the skin behind my ear, moving a few strands of hair in that spot ever so slightly in 3 or 4 second intervals. The fourth was something stiff, firm, but not uncomfortable under my head. The fifth was the hand resting one of my breasts.

My eyes opened at the last realisation, not out of concern or alarm, but out of curiosity. The placement of the hand didn't feel deliberate, or sexual, or suggestive, but more subconscious, or automatic. Intimate and comforting. I blinked a few times so that I could clear the sleep out of my eyes and actually see. The first thing I looked at was the very early beginnings of the sunrise out the window, and the second was the time displayed on the digital clock on my nightstand.

5:19 A.M.

I let out a soft breath, blinked a few more times, and then did the slow spin around so that I could face Eddie. I made sure that his arm stayed wrapped around me.

I studied his face for a minute; he looked younger when he slept- not that he looked particularly old when he was awake. He also looked a lot more calm- not that he looked particularly angry when he was awake, either. It's a hard thing to describe, how a person looks when they sleep. It's just... different, from when they're awake.

I gently reached my hand up and smoothed over the faintest of lines that sat between his eyebrows with my thumb. After I did that I moved my hand down, resting my palm on his cheek while I used my index finger to touch the  beginnings of the crows feet forming that splayed out from the corners of his eyes. I smiled softly. All of these lines were faint enough that you had to be about at least three inches from his face to see them, but being as close as I was and seeing them for the first time, I appreciated that even with a life so short, he was still expressive enough to already have them, even if they were weak and barely noticeable.

My hand naturally slid down and rested on the space between his collarbone and neck while I just watched him sleep. Occasionally I let myself indulge in a finger or two smoothing over the soft skin on his collarbone for a moment.

A decent amount of time passed, though I wasn't sure how long, as my back was now to both the clock and the window. I felt colder than when I had woken up, and it took me a second but I built up the nerve to gently wiggle closer to Eddie. He was like a fucking furnace.

When I did, I felt him pull me closer with his arms and loop one of his legs around mine. He let out a soft sigh before groaning softly.

I froze- unsure if he was awake or not.

"You're like a plank of wood, relax." He mumbled sleepily with his eyes still closed. He lazily smoothed a hand down my back.

I relaxed and whispered softly, "I didn't wanna wake you up."

"You didn't." He trailed off, drifting back into sleep.

"Seems like I did." I was wide awake and bored of waiting for him to wake up.

"Now you're waking me up, so shh." Eddie moved one of his hands and lazily put a finger over my mouth.

I giggled and pushed his hand away. He started laughing as well, and soon I could tell that he was waking up more. Still, we laid in silence for a while longer.