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Azu loves to watch the sunrise. She’s always been a morning person, ever since she was a young girl. When your entire family farms for a living, you learn to love waking up at the crack of dawn to milk the cows, get the eggs for breakfast, and start to plow the fields. Azu loves it anyway; even after leaving the farm, she’s always up with the sun, waking up early for fajr, repeating the rakah twice as she follows the familiar patterns of her prayer.
The morning is always a time for calm, for ease, for peace. And, these days, she has another reason to love the morning. She and Cel have recently begun seeing each other in, well, a romantic sense, and Azu falls more in love every day.
They aren’t telling anyone, yet. It’s a conscious decision, between the two of them - most of it is convenience, since everyone’s got rather a lot going on, what with Grizzop returning from Berlin soon, Zolf getting his Ph.D., Hamid traveling back to Cairo to celebrate his sister, Aziza, becoming the prima donna in an international opera company, and Sasha having to learn to manage the antique shop mostly on her own, what with Mr. Gussett taking a semi-permanent early retirement thanks to how good the shop is doing. So they’ve decided to wait until things calm down a bit - and with that decision has come a lot of dates in the early morning and late evening. They don’t want to be caught, and Cel made the very scientific evaluation that this would be the best way to avoid people.
It’s funny - the morning is Azu’s favorite time, but Cel’s the one who comes up with nearly all the ideas for what they should do on their early morning dates. They’re lucky that a lot of breakfast places open early, and that Cel’s been able to use their university connections to get them some regular spots at a few cafe’s nearly equidistant between Cel’s office and Azu’s flat.
Sometimes, they’ll go out on hikes on the weekends, before anyone else shows up, and there’s something magical about Azu pulling them into a crevice in a waterfall and pressing Cel against the wall to kiss them. Cel always responds enthusiastically, their arms wrapping around Azu’s neck as they drag her deeper into a cave, away from any prying eyes.
Other times, they’ll have breakfast picnics out in a park just as the sun is beginning to rise, and Cel will feed Azu strawberries and raspberries and Azu will lean up and kiss them to find their mouth tastes of blueberries. They can’t help laughing as they break apart, and then Cel will end up falling asleep with their head on Azu’s lap as she plays with their hair that defies the laws of gravity, watching the clock to make sure Cel isn’t too late to their first class.
Sometimes, on days when Hamid - Azu’s best friend and roommate - is out of town or has an exceedingly early start at the school he works at, they’ll have a lie in at Azu’s flat, since she only has one roommate and Cel has a couple, in the university-provided housing they stay in. These are probably Azu’s favorite mornings, getting to cuddle close to Cel and doze for the few hours that they can spend together.
She’s always fallen in love easily, whether it be a person, a scene, a piece of art, nature… anything. This feels different. Feels… she doesn’t know, but every time she looks at Cel, her chest feels warm, and her heart picks up a few beats. She’s surprised they haven’t heard it yet - or if they have, they haven’t said anything, but it must be impossible to not feel the beat of Azu’s heart when they’re lying down together.
Regardless of what they spend the morning doing, walking Cel to their office is Azu’s favorite part of the morning, of course. The sun, just starting to rise over the buildings, turns their hair golden yellow and the sunlight, dappling through the trees, casts their face in gorgeous shifting shadows.
Everytime they say goodbye, they have to be brief, since Cel is always, running late to their office hours, but she refuses to let them leave without getting a proper goodbye kiss. It lasts, as it always does, because Azu is loathe to let go of them, and when they finally back away from her, it’s always with an apologetic kiss on her cheek before they run off to their office to help struggling students, and Azu really can’t fault them for that.
—
Working under the cover of darkness has always been the way Cel has liked to do things. There’s more fun stuff to see in the dark, anyway, more secrets to be discovered than in the light. Ever since they were younger, they’ve stayed up late tracking the movement of the stars, watching the moon as it passes them by, and sneaking out of the house to collect samples of the strangely glowing flowers out by the pond in their backyard.
These days, Cel has another reason to stay up late into the night, one that doesn’t involve their standard set of chemical reactions and safety gear. The reason is Azu, and Cel couldn’t be more excited about it. It’s been a long time coming - a lot of time spent alone with each other, and Cel had realized that they’d had a bit of a crush. It had come on suddenly and unexpected, kind of like one of their explosions; one second they’d been listening to Azu tell a story about a client she’d worked with the day before, and the next, Azu’d touched their hand and their cheeks had heated up as their heart skipped a beat.
Anyways. Cel wasn’t one for self-control or waiting for things once they’d decided what they wanted, so they’d asked Azu out, and she’d said yes with a smile bright enough to light all the lamps in Cel’s office. (There’s only one, because it’s more of a closet, but, well, they know what they meant.) They and Azu have decided to keep it secret for now, which all works out for Cel regardless, cause they’re the one who still gets to kiss Azu as though their life depends on it.
But it does make scheduling time together a bit difficult. They don’t want to accidentally run into their friends before they’re ready to tell everyone that they’re officially together, so they end up having to go out incredibly early in the morning (terrible, really, but Cel always thinks it’s worth it when they’re able to see Azu light up as she sees the morning sun) or late at night (much more agreeable with Cel’s already botched sleeping schedule).
It’s not exactly what Cel had expected - they’d thought that they’d lead Azu around, show them some of their favorite places in the dark, and maybe steal more than a few kisses while they’re at it. They do do this, to be fair, more often than not, but Azu takes a vested interest in well, dragging Cel along to little hole in the wall bars with smoky air and hushed conversations and temples with beautiful artwork that stay open late to the public, and Cel sits by happily as Azu does her evening prayer, looking up what to do next on their phone.
On some nights, they go to wide open fields away from the city, laying on their back and giggling as they watch meteors streak across the sky. Cel will trace constellations on the palm of Azu’s hand, explaining the mythology behind them, and Azu will watch them with eyes more beautiful than any star in the sky.
Sometimes, they’ll just walk, fireflies dancing in the park around them, and Cel won’t be able to help but chase them, little firebugs that spark and flare just like their favorite potions. Azu will laugh and join them, fingers tangling together as Cel drags her along, cupping fireflies between their joined hands as their faint glow lights up the planes of Azu’s face, and Cel won’t be able to stop staring.
Regardless, walking Azu home is Cel’s favorite part of the night. Their regular tube station is close to Azu’s flat, so they’ll go up to Azu’s flat and press her against the stone outside the door to the building and kiss her silly, as Azu’s hands rest on the small of their back, warm even through their heavy coat.
Sometimes, when Hamid’s out of town, Azu will invite Cel up to the flat, and they’ll follow her, hands locked together, door shutting as Azu pushes them back against it. This doesn’t happen nearly as often as Cel likes, but they understand being careful here more than they do in the lab, usually, so they’ll live with it. It’s good enough to be able to leave with their lips tingling from how long they’ve been kissing Azu.
—
They trade off, early morning and late evening dates, depending on their schedules. Azu works at a local health clinic, and her hours always vary from week to week. Cel is a research scientist at a nearby university, with an entire team of underlings at their beck and call (they won’t pick favorites, obviously, but if they did, it would be Jasper - but of course, they don’t pick favorites, so it doesn’t matter).
Azu loves seeing Cel as the early morning sunlight traces shadows on their skin, holding their hand in hers as she rests her head on their shoulder. She’s always loved the mornings, of course, but looking at Cel… this is the best reason to wake up early Azu has found yet.
Cel loves staying up late and watching the moonlight brush gentle paint strokes across Azu’s face as Azu takes their hand and pulls them into a circle of fireflies, laughing. Cel’s always loved the night, of course, but feeling the warmth of Azu’s hand press against theirs… they can’t imagine ever having stayed up this late without that.