Awake

Flash fiction... micro fiction... an entire story in 250 words or less. I like the idea.

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Three months, four days, 7 hours.

“You’re awake?” she asked as her eyes flicked open and she turned, looking over her bare shoulder. “Before me?” Smiling, because they both knew that wasn’t the way it should be. He continued to watch her skin in the blue light of early morning. Her eyes were black, just a hint of white at the edges. Nocturnal. Distant.

He didn’t say anything at first, then, “I never went to sleep.” He leaned his body forward, head still on hand on his side, bringing his lips to her neck. A kiss. A blessing.

“When you get up, you won’t be coming back. I didn’t want to miss anything.” He said it quietly, but firmly. He’d been practicing in his head for hours. “I know it and it’s ok.”

He kissed her spine again, reaffirming the inevitable.

She didn’t try to fake surprise or confusion. Her eyes just softened and that smile brightened. She turned her face back to the pillow and closed her eyes, edging her body back against his. He buried his face in her hair. They curved in silence until she bowed her head away so that her neck was exposed. “Do that again,” she murmured. So he did.

He fell asleep with his lips against her.

When he woke later, she was gone.

She’d never denied it.