Elena's POV
Sunlight found us before the noise of the city did ,a pale, polite thing that slid through the curtains and warmed the spot on the couch where Justin and I had fallen asleep in a desperate tangle of limbs and blankets. I woke with the echo of his breath at my ear, the steady little drum that had been my lullaby for the last few weeks, and for a few seconds I let myself bask in the indulgent thought that everything felt like it would be alright.
He stirred and opened his eyes, that slow, sleepy smile spreading across his face like a sunblush. He reached for me without thinking and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear the way he always had, as if the small domesticity of the gesture could fix all the thudding anxieties I'd brought home from the hospital. It didn't fix anything , nothing so neat but it steadied me the way a hand steadies a tightrope walker, and that was enough for the morning.
