NOAH
Consciousness did not return all at once. It came in fragments, like light filtering through deep, dark water. For a long time, there was no Noah... there was only the sensation of drifting. I was suspended in a void where gravity didn't exist, a place where the edges of my body were blurred and indistinct. I was dreaming, surely. I was caught in a haze that felt thick and sweet and terrifying all at once.
Then, the world began to manifest in textures.
The first thing I felt was the softness. It was an overwhelming, luxurious silkiness against my skin. High-thread-count sheets, cool and crisp, yet warmed by the heat of a body. I knew this texture. My fingers, heavy and unresponsive as lead, twitched against the fabric. It was familiar. It was the bed in the hotel suite... Cassian's bed.
