Work Text:
I’ve seen you a thousand times, yet something about you is different. I’ve heard your voice a thousand times, but something has changed. I’ve felt the space you filled a thousand times, but I’ve never missed it before.
Not until now, I guess.
You seem… brighter around the edges, like the sun is constantly shining behind you. I notice every scar on your face and hands in painstaking detail, etching patterns across your skin like constellations. Your laugh is rough, yet I could listen to it all day if you’d let me. Making you laugh is one of my favourite things. I wish you’d come back and sit with me for a little longer. We never have enough time.
I wish I could tell you, even though I’m not quite sure what I’m feeling, exactly. It’s different from the other thousand things I think about you, though. It’s softer, glowing with this quiet light I can’t ignore anymore. I don’t know when it ignited, but it’s here now, and I can’t look away.
I can’t look away from you, to be honest. Your eyes are such a deep, warm brown, like tree bark in sunlight, or hot chocolate reflecting the hearth. Sometimes I lose my way in them, staring so intently you have to wave a hand in front of my face with a chuckle. I want to take that hand and interlace my fingers with yours and never let go. I want so many things.
And they all have to do with you.
I see the beauty in lots of everyday things.
The fountain glistening in the park, people walking down the streets without a care in the world. I look for shapes in every cloud, breathe in the light at any time of day. I smile at anyone who passes, not caring if they smile back.
I’m starting to see the beauty in you, too.
Your jokes, your grin, that thing you do with your hands when you’re nervous.
I think all of it is special.
You aren’t a gentle person. You used to beat people up for looking at you wrong. You’d steal from anybody just to survive another day. You threatened me quite viciously when we first met. You didn’t care if I gave you a chance or not.
I did it anyway.
Look at me now, gazing at you like you’re a galaxy far above. Admiring everything about you like you’re a favourite song. Wishing…Wishing that you’d kiss me. That you’d lean in, and laugh when I’d kiss you back. We’d just sit there for a while, realising that we were loved. Realising that we both thought about the little things the other did. Realising we both saw the beauty in each other.
I see that now.
I love you, and one day I’ll be brave enough to say so.