Chapter Text
Her skin against his was like a smooth and tender kiss, at times a shy graze of a cold tongue that gave him shivers, at others sweet, perfect, like blooming vitality, the way a spring first tastes to a dying tree. When he brushed his fingers against it he felt the nurturing warmth of the sun and the innocent softness of a child, together in her sweet skin. He felt beauty, and he saw it, he saw pale moonlight, flushed heat, he saw a sandy beach at sunrise. This girl was everything beautiful to him. His eyes dared not close tonight as he lay with her, for here she was, curled into his chest, snoring softly, beautiful and vulnerable and everything he lived for.
Meruem lay propped up on his side in this dark room, cheek in his right hand, silent. With the other he painted featherlight lines up and down Komugi’s exposed arm, enjoying her warmth, the soft hairs he felt his touch raise.
Time was not present in this place he’d wound up in. There was only darkness, the darkness and stillness of night and the heat of their bed and Komugi. Lovely, luminous Komugi, the face of innocence, the wielder of so much strength. Her loud breaths and snores and mumbles mingled with the quiet, each small sound exciting a hot, slick throb in his chest.
Meruem loved her so much it pained him. He could not bear to be away from her, and at times, when he would see her smile, that angel’s smile, lighter than the gates of heaven, his throat would clog and his stomach would flutter and unexplainably, he would find himself ready to cry, able only to wonder where this overwhelming emotion had come from.
There was a time when Meruem had considered all of these things part of what made Komugi his weakness. Now, though, he didn’t think that way.
Never had he felt more alive than he did right now, he thought, with her breath against his chest and her soft legs tangled in his, that unruly hair tickling the parts of his skin it touched. Her small, gentle hand resting on his waist was like lightning; it ignited in him the fiercest love, an agonizing pulsation of his heart Meruem could not imagine was possible to feel.
No, this girl was not his weakness.
She was his strength, every ounce he possessed in his soul. She was his emotion, his passion, every smile that ever graced his face. She was his reason. The only one he needed.
And what baffled him most was that Komugi would never be able to fully understand these things. She had no idea the immensity of the effect she had on him, the overwhelming love for her that consumed him. Meruem was not even sure he understood it himself.
So he lay here tonight in this dark room swallowed by shadow and empty of noise, blind to existence, seeing only his love, his beautiful girl, his woman. Gingerly he lifted his hand and moved to brush away some of that thick platinum hair from her eyes, the sightless eyes he fell in love with the first time she opened them. Komugi roused, mumbling incoherent things that pulled Meruem’s lips into a grin he couldn’t smother if he wanted to, and shifted slightly.
“Mm,” her voice was broken, not even a whisper. “Mmmeruem…”
“Shh,” he soothed, smoothing her hair back from her forehead and planting the softest kiss there, so gently he was sure she didn’t feel it. “Go back to sleep.”
Komugi made contented sounds, snuggling impossibly tighter into him until he felt they were molded together, now only one body, one warmth. All of her limbs were secured around his legs and waist, trapping them against her small form. Meruem smiled again with a tired sigh, settling down into a resting position himself, nose burrowed deep into the top of her little head.
And he splayed his left hand out on the expanse of her back, feeling the ridges of her spine and shoulders with his fingertips, holding her so close he feared she would disappear if he let go. And he breathed in her scent with each steady breath, drowning in it, willing it to fill his lungs, his blood, every ounce of him, to consume. And as it was only with this woman, his heart was at ease, and Meruem was safe to forget the world, forget everything else, and simply hold her.
“I love you,” he whispered, but he barely heard himself, and in a moment everything else dissipated until nothing was real but the warmth of Komugi.