Dahlia Mountain

Returning

I opened my bleary eyes slowly, the morning sun filtering through the trees into the bedroom and dancing across the down quilts. I was alone but I was in my big beautiful bed for the first time in months. For a moment I almost settled back down into my soft quilts but then wakefulness hit me hard and I bolted upright, a small headache pounding behind my eyes in response. Nathan! It took me a couple moments of rubbing the headache away from my temples and thinking through the haze of last night to convince myself that it was all real. He was back. The four of us had stayed up celebrating and laughing (and drinking) well into the early morning hours. I threw my legs over the edge of the bed was out from under the covers and hurrying to gather my clothes for the day. I had just thrown the closet doors open when I heard a stern voice from the entrance to the bedroom. "Back to bed little flower." Nathan's smooth baritone rolled over me in a spine tingling wave. I turned to see him leaned against the door frame, breakfast tray in hand. Oh yes, he was real, he was here, and there was food! My stomach grumbled loudly at the sight of it. I hurried back across the hardwood floors and slid in under the soft blankets.

Nathan crossed the room and handed me the tray momentarily as he slid into the bed behind me then pulled me across his lap so my back was tucked into him. He pulled the tray up to us, seating it in my lap. It contained hot tea, juice, all manner of cut up fruits and a huge stack of the fluffiest French toast I had ever seen. It was absolutely covered in maple syrup and powdered sugar and I could feel saliva begin to pool in my mouth. I moaned with delight. "Juice first" Nathan said handing me the glass. "It should help with the hangover," he chuckled. I took it and downed the glass before reaching to pull the plate of toast nearer to me. Nathan reached around me and picked up the knife and fork before cutting into the stack. "You gonna feed me too?" I quipped at him. "You better believe I am" he replied quietly, lips against my ear "open" he said lifting the fork to my mouth. I did as I was told and gods no food had ever tasted so good in my mouth. He was cutting up more pieces of toast and saying "you've lost a lot of weight petal. I'm afraid I could break you." I knew he was right. We didn't own a scale and I've never known my exact weight but my clothes had stopped fitting months ago. I had been borrowing Beth's pants and was still wearing my loose fitting Tee's three sizes too big for me. To be very clear I was still nowhere near thin but I felt uncomfortable in my skin. I had missed the softer rounder body that had once been Nathan's personal temple and I had started avoiding mirrors pretty early on during his recovery. I shrugged saying "I guess that's what happens when even if you could manage to keep food down the only two cooks in the house are barely passable. I mean, Nathan you couldn't toast regular toast let alone make french toast," I attempted a half laugh "and well, we both know I'm no chef." I finished. Nathan was sopping up syrup with the toast before spooning another warm fluffy bite into my mouth when he replied "well we're fixing that little problem starting now. I hope you're prepared to eat well over this winter." And he placed gentle kisses along my neck as he hand fed me pieces of sliced strawberries, the sweet juices tasting like all of the happiness that had been missing from my life. We stayed in bed late into the morning, his massive form curled around me as he fed me slowly licking the sweet and sticky messes he was making from my lips and face.

As we finished breakfast he had my head tilted all the way back against him slowly licking at my neck. His tongue curled around the silver chain of my Mountain collar when his head suddenly snapped up. "Where's my flower!?" He asked, sounding panicked. I looked at him confused for a minute. I was right here in his arms. His hand went to his empty ear. "Oh." I slid out of the bed and went over to the closet pulling my keepsake box down and retrieving the small silver dahlia earring. I brought it over to him, saying "they took it out at the hospital. It didn't seem like something you'd have wanted these last six months so I never brought it up. We'll have to make an appointment to have your ear repierced." Nathan took the flower from my hand, looking at it, sadness playing in his eyes. His eyes met mine and I saw his sorrow turn to frustration. "Like fuck I'm waiting for that and he was off the bed dragging me over to the vanity next to the garden tub. He sat on the edge of the tub pulling the first aid kit out from under the sink. He handed me the alcohol wipes and pulled his hair back as he dropped the flower back into my hand. I cleaned the jewelry and his earlobe before forcing the pin back of the earring through the healed scar tissue in his ear. I leaned back out to survey the job I had done and watched as Nathan let out a breath he had been holding as he reached up to touch the flower sitting back in her place. He wrapped his massive arms around me then pulling me to him. He had my face crushed into his chest and it took me a moment before I realized he was crying.