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Soft morning light flooded a tiny and tidy room. Crisp blue and white starched cotton curtains rippled in the salty breeze blowing off of the North Sea. Their first passion was shared under the cover of darkness.
Want you. Need you. No, I don’t wanna wait. Missed you too much. Love you. Tears. Sorrow. Laughter. Ecstasy.
And now in the light of day, they saw each other for the first time.
Naked. Bare. Scarred. Beautiful. Imperfect. Perfect.
He mapped her body beginning at the end. “Rose, what’s this scar?” He frowned.
“Was lost somewhere in the Brazilian rainforest. Snagged my ankle on this thorny-vine-thing. Always wore boots after that. And it must’ve been poisonous or something, because my ankle swelled up. Jake called me ‘cankle’ for a week.”
“Well that was rude.” He rubbed his thumb over the scar, and then traced his hand up her calf, stopping again. “Are these teeth — is this a bite?!”
“Yeah! Was in New Guinea. I think. Maybe. Anyway, the cutest furry little guy jumped on my leg, and then latched onto my calf. I had only tried to pet him. And he bit me!”
“Oh, the cheek!” This time, he kissed the scar. He settled himself between her legs and moved his attention to the other leg. He frowned, touching her left knee.
“That one on my knee, that happened skiing. Had to have arthroscopy to fix it. Crutches for two months. Got pretty good at hopping around on one foot.”
“Hopping for—“
“—our lives!”
He kissed her belly — dangerously low and close.
She hummed.
“Later. Soon. I mean sooner rather than later.” He winked, looking up at her. “So back to skiing. I’m glad you took a holiday between cannon jumps.”
“Tease,” she groaned.
“Oh, you have no idea. I have a feeling this body is going to be very, very naughty. So, holiday?”
“No, not a holiday. I wish. I was in the Himalayas trying to escape an angry yeti.”
“Oh! Brilliant! Yetis are fascinating creatures. But chasing you? That’s very odd. They’re extremely reclusive. So why would it be chasing you? Hmmm. Did you happen to wake it up in the middle of its four year hibernation?”
“Probably, given my luck that trip. Whatever happened, it was an accident. And I wasn’t so much skiing as sliding down the mountain on my bum with skinny plastic sleds tied to my feet. Until I started tumbling, and ended up crashing into a mountain climber’s tent.”
He laughed, and then kissed her navel and each hipbone. He sat up and then frowned. “Rose, this one. This isn’t what I think it is, is it?” He came close to the scar, but didn’t touch, pulling away at the last moment.
“Uh, well. Yeah. It is. Second year I was here, I had to have a mammogram ‘cos I felt something. A lump. I was scared out of my wits. Had to have a biopsy, and then a lumpectomy ‘cos it was malignant.”
“Rose—“
“Doctor.” Rose placed silenced him with her finger. “Let me finish. They got all of it. It was small. Didn’t even have chemo or radiation.”
The Doctor traced the white incision with a fingertip. His hand shook. “I would’ve been so easy to pop over to the clinic on Va—”
“Doctor, don’t. Please, can we be done talking about scars. That’s the past. We’re back together, yeah? And I’m sure I’ll get more scars, and you’re gonna get some too, eventually.”
“I’m a clean slate, aren’t I?” He stretched out alongside Rose, and pulled her close.
“Kiss me?” she whispered.
“Everywhere.”