silver linings; jackson wang

i.

one

The sun shining through the curtains of the mass window kissed the bare shoulder laying next to her. Willow's eyes squinted against the light and she rolled over slightly and stretched her legs subtly enough to not wake his slumbering state. The white sheets lay gracefully over his naked body, slipping up to the base of his navel and exposing his bare torso, as he was laying on his back. She took in his dormant face, eyelashes fluttered gracefully onto his cheeks, and his hair winding in every direction possible. It all seemed ethereal laying in the cloud of sheets with the sun rising and gleaming upon the two. She wanted to brush the hair out of his eyes on instinct but she restrained herself when she came back to reality.

She looked down to his chest once more before quickly turning over under the thin sheets, not acknowledging the flexible movement of the bed as she moved. After she was settled, she felt him shuffle behind her before eliciting a low groan from the base of his throat. She took note of his recollectant pause before the sheets began to ruffle once more, along with a nice amount of unnecessary movement on his behalf. She figured that he had turned to face her as she had the sense of eyes upon her back. She shivered when she felt his fingertips lightly grazing along her exposed arm, and dancing back up when he reached the bend of her elbow. The tickling sensation left a hot, burning pulse in her chest that nearly ached until she abruptly got up, taking one of the sheets with her as her feet touched the hardwood floor.

In her peripheral, she saw him propped up on his elbow as he reached to snatch up a portion of the other sheet covering his delicate goodness, that she nearly brought along with her. He continued to stare at her as she approached her drawers, rumbling through them to find a hair tie. She heard him release a breathless laugh and it was barely audible, but it still reached her hearing. She turned to him, disheveled hair that he had attempted to push away from his face and milky skin relishing in the sunlight. She clasped the white sheet to her bosom and a thought that they both shared was that the sight in front of them was purely angelic, though they refused to speak it. She gave him a dismissing glance before tucking the sheet at her chest and reaching her arms up to tie her hair into a careless bun in front of her hanging mirror.

"You will always be my favorite," he spoke up in his deep and sultry morning voice.

Willow didn't acknowledge his words in the first few moments as she was still tying up her hair, but when she finished, she turned back to him and held the thin blanket against her once more.

"I'm sure I am no longer a priority in your range of options," she spoke with the corners of her mouth slightly upturned.

He let out what seemed like a refreshing sigh, one that you would let out after taking a sip of a nice, cold lemonade after basking in the summer warmth for hours on end. A breathless "ahh" as he fell back down on the sheets with his arms spread, letting his fluffy hair encase him once more at the impact.

"No," he spoke up with his voice sounding clearer than before. He turned his head toward her, arms still spread across the bed. He tried to pat the empty spot where she had previously laid but it only turned out as a fluff of the blanket. She still understood what he was gesturing but she remained stoic.

This was one of the hard parts about these kind of mornings. He smiled gracefully at her raised brow and his expression remained until she slowly crept toward the bed and sat the very edge to make a point. His small laugh made its painful appearance again and he only continued to watch her. His eyes traced the areas of her skin that the thin sheet didn't cover, "just because we aren't together anymore doesn't mean I care any less about you."