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The Admiral sat in Melanie’s lap, purring loudly. Melanie ran her fingers over his soft fur. He was an old cat now, but he was still just as lovely. Melanie felt Georgie sit down on the sofa beside her and lean their head on her shoulder. Their curly hair tickled Melanie’s neck. Georgie and The Admiral, the only two beings on this Earth that made Melanie feel all soft inside, and she had the privilege of being surrounded by them for hours every day.
“Good morning,” Melanie said.
“Morning,” Georgie murmured. Usually Georgie was the first one to wake up — they often made breakfast for both of them — but last night Georgie had been kept awake by nightmares, so they’d decided to sleep in.
It was many years now since everything. Since The Horrors, as Melanie sometimes jokingly called it, adding a deep, exaggerated voice. Joking about it made it easier.
And it had gotten easier. Living life normally and all that. It had gotten easier.
Never easy. Just easier.
“Here’s your tea,” Georgie said, handing Melanie a warm cup.
Melanie took a sip. “Thanks.”
Georgie placed a kiss in the crook of Melanie’s neck. Melanie smiled and turned her head toward Georgie so they could kiss properly.
When they pulled away, Georgie asked, “Do you want to keep listening to that audiobook?”
“The one about the dragons or the one about the mermaids?”
“Isn’t that the same book?”
“No, one has dragons and mermaids, the other one just has mermaids.”
“Oh, right. Well, then I wanna keep listening to the dragons and mermaids one, obviously. Much cooler.”
Melanie smiled. “Agreed.”
Melanie felt Georgie stand up from the couch to go get their phone, and she immediately missed the warmth of her partner next to her. The Admiral meowed after Georgie, echoing Melanie’s thoughts. Soon, though, they were back, once again leaning their head on Melanie’s shoulder.
They turned on the audiobook, and they both sat there, listening to a fantastical story about dragons and mermaids.
Before, Melanie had preferred mysteries, true crime and horror. She didn’t anymore, for obvious reasons. Now, it was much easier to listen to fantasy. She often listened to cozy fantasy specifically. She needed that comforting escapism to get through the day.
That change in taste was just one of many, many things that had changed in the time after. Huge political changes, obviously, but also pretty big personal changes for Melanie.
For one, she had finally realized that she was demiromantic. She’d gone through so much of her life wondering why she so rarely got any crushes. Of what she could remember, she’d felt romantic attraction maybe three times in her life (including Georgie), and she’d always caught feelings for people she knew really well. For the longest time, she thought she just had really high standards. But deep down, she knew that wasn’t the reason. She just didn’t have any other explanations.
After everything was over, when things had started to settle down, when there was room in their minds to think about things other than The Horrors, Melanie talked to Georgie about it. Mostly just because she wondered if they felt the same way she did. They, in fact, did not.
They introduced Melanie to the concept of demiromanticism. Georgie knew quite a lot about these types of things already, since they’d done some research on both asexuality and aromanticism when they were dating Jon. With a gentleness and care Melanie hadn’t known she’d needed, Georgie had explained what being demiromantic meant and why it was a perfectly good thing to be.
Melanie had needed some time to process it, of course, but eventually she started to proudly identify as demiromantic. It was such a relief to finally know part of the reason why she’d felt so different growing up.
Georgie had also discovered some things about themselves. As Melanie had been questioning her romantic orientation, Georgie had been questioning their gender. Not long after Melanie came to the conclusion that she was demiromantic, Georgie came to the conclusion that they were nonbinary.
It was kind of funny, actually. One day, Melanie told Georgie that she’d landed on the label demiromantic. The next day, Georgie told Melanie that they’d landed on the label nonbinary.
Other things had changed, too. Melanie had gotten a job that was far away from the spotlight. Georgie and Melanie had moved away from London. They had Basira over for tea every month. They were planning on getting married soon.
Good changes.
When things got too hard, when it was all just too much, when Melanie couldn’t stop thinking about everything she’d experienced, all the people they’d lost, all of it, she reminded herself of that. Of the good changes.
And things would continue to change again and again and again, and hopefully those changes would be good too.