The dawn broke quietly through the last of the night,
and he rose with the sun.
As the morning light shown red and orange on the ceiling
he opened his eyes to the day's first flame.

Scott stirred, feeling the last of his dreams leave him to wake,
and felt a subtle yet prominent throb in the back of his head.
He felt the shape of her body curled into a ball beside him,
and briefly basked in the cumulative warmth they generated.
Turning away from her with a yawn he reached for the bottle
on the end table beside him, fumbling in the dwindling darkness.
The brandy was warm but still undeniably brandy as he brought it
to his lips and bit himself off a good swallow, grimacing.
He stood then, and strode to the window. The orange glow
from the rising sun contracted his irises and expanded his pores.

He felt whole. He was real here. He knew she was real too,
and that knowledge left him deeply satisfied as he turned to
explore her sleeping body with his eyes.


She heard him wake and take a gulp of that foul liquor he drank
twenty-four hours a day, recalling memories of his breath on her
from the night before. It wasn't that she was angry at his appetite
for *****, just sometimes it frightened her. She soulfully believed
he had a brilliant mind and just wished he would use it someway
other than a sponge for liquor. It was pity, she felt bad for him, and
a part of her thought that he knew it, and he fed off of that pity.
With this thought she turned and opened her eyes to the sunshine
pouring through the bay window at the foot of the bed, and saw his silhouette turn and meet her gaze at the same instant. For a moment
they just looked, pondering each other's doubts and certainties in a
way that made everything else in the room seem to fade out of existence.

He was surprised to see her looking at him in the earliest hours of
the day, she tended to enjoy sleeping in so he always considered
these moments of waking his own. Standing before the window,
and the rising sun shining through it, his shadow was cast perfectly
across her body if he were on top of her. At that thought a quiet
stirring of heat and primal instinct passed over his body and mind
and he smiled at her laying in his shadow, letting his eyes roll easily
over the hills and valleys of her naked body, further fanning the flame
in his *****. She smiled back at him and sighed, feeling the heat herself.

She saw him step forward and out of the light, and was briefly blinded
as his shadow moved from between the sun and her still sleep-ridden
eyes. Wincing and shielding her face from the sun with her hand, she
closed her eyes to the light and before she could open them again she felt his touch on her neck and on her outstretched hand as he brought
her face up to meet his. Lips full of static electricity touched her own
with a shock and she jolted, fully awake, and opened her eyes in surprise. When she saw the same expression mirrored on his face they
both laughed heartily into the long silence of the morning, breathing deeply in giant, hitching, breaths. Sighing and regaining his composure
he lay back down beside her and felt her curl up against him, almost
automatically at this point.

He played with her hair and she touched
his chest, feeling his heartbeat in rhythm with hers.

Comfort, she thought.
Comfort can be so dangerous.
Comfort is a double edged sword.

Brandy, he thought.
Brandy can be so delicious.
Brandy... I need to buy more.