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She was still fast asleep, soft breaths puffing across his face as he studied her under a sky set to burst, dawn cresting over the horizon and causing color to erupt and bloom into being on her face, in her hair, her fair skin. The only color missing was her eyes and he could content himself a bit longer without seeing them as he marveled over the newness of them, of waking next to one’s beloved, and of being loved for one’s mortal self.
Could this be how every day begins?
Her ears twitched, the warmth of adoration spreading across his chest, before her nose scrunched up even more adorably, snuffling. Her face relaxed and he realized she could smell him, hear his breathing. Her eyes started to open, at first a million miles away before blinking away sleep and finally focusing as he watched. A joyful smile broke across her face and he had the sudden imagining of what it feel like to be shot point blank by a crossbow in the heart. His breath caught.
Before this moment, he had only been living in the twilight hours. This was first light; her adoring smile pointed at him, because of him, was like the sun coming up. The rust of her hair was in full bloom now, painting her dark brunette hair mahogany, and he could see the gold that ringed the inside of her irises.
Oh. Oh he was so ruined, once more.
For her, because of this mortal star, sunshine among the trees, he would never be the same again. And he would never go back.
“Love you,” she whispered in a sleepy voice. She stroked a hand down his beard and he turned to kiss her wrist before pushing his hands and arms under, over, around her to hold her warmth against his morning-chilled skin, tucking her into his chest and holding her tightly to him, trying to physically press all of the love he felt into her because the weight of it had rendered him speechless.
He buried his face in her hair, inhaling deeply and she giggled as his breath tickled her neck. His own personal sunrise for as long as she would have him.