Work Text:
Sizzle, sizzle
Celery? Good. Carrots? Good. Onions…? Terrible.
I sit beneath the kitchen table, waiting for scraps to fall from your cutting board. It’s a taste test, a little buffet of raw ingredients, the vinyl floor serving as my dining plate. The stereo sings and thumps, tinny voices making their way through. Slow songs, news, weather forecasts, annoying advertisements you always complain about (yet always mock alongside of).
You always give me food when I ask, of course, but this is an agreement we have both accepted. I’m saving you the hassle of cleaning up (which happens more than you’d like to admit). Portuguese swears burst from under your breath, signaling for me like a whistle.
It’s always my favorite when you make stew, even though I lack a palette for cooked meals; watching you sway on your feet to the rhythm of music, chopping celery loosely in time. My tail sways. It’s the love you put into it that makes it worthwhile.
You open a window, sticky summer air making its way in as the delicious smells and steam roll away. Vegetables, sweat, and the unmistakable scent of you. My Giovanna.
I sit beneath the kitchen table, bringing up my gaze from the sticky floor to look at you. My heart swells; how lucky am I to find you in my time. How lucky am I that I get to call you mine.
And how lucky am I to know you feel the same way.
—--
I wake- the loud bang of the movie scene catching me off guard.
My nose twitches at a scent, microwave popcorn in your lap, a few pieces scattered on the blanket beside us.
You apologize-- taking note of my annoyance, turning down the volume to a more acceptable level. Through the apartment pane window flows in the city streetlights, the warm glow of neon shop signs and passing car headlights.
And the moon.
So beautiful tonight, she is. And how she glows- so bright, so clear, providing more for us than we'd ever like to admit. Calmly in the background, always observing, her subtle grace of gravity sitting with us, always. Blurring the darkness, shifting the light, wavering the lakes and seas with every pull.
My moon.
My Giovanna.