Long days are often met with short evenings. The time just seems to slip away faster after all the busy work is finished, it’s like the calm causes the clock to turn faster. At least, that’s how I often feel. My mornings are often spent with my cousins, tending to the plants all over the garden. Springtime flowers blooming means all hands on deck for pollination, including me. I’m not able to do as much as the honeybee colony does, but I know my help is appreciated. With the crisp morning air, it’s honestly my favorite time of year. The soft blooms of primroses and winecups make for amazing beds for a noon nap, and the calm winds mixing all the fragrances of Spring together in the midday warmth make that nap all the more cozy. 

My afternoons are spent at home in my workshop until the evening runs around. I’ve got a long list of work to do from the whole garden that never seems to get finished. But I love the work, having my hands stay busy makes me happy. Though I do try to slip out and spend time with my friends or my girlfriend, Amber. Of course, she’s usually out with her band practicing, or just hanging out with her other girlfriend, Victoria, who sings in the band. With me heading out early in spring to help pollinate, we often don’t see each other until the sun’s almost down. But I look forward to it every single day.

But that’s my usual day. Today? Today felt different from the moment I woke up. Glancing out the window, it was looking like some pretty bad storms were rolling in from the distance. I’d have to stay in, it’d be too dangerous to fly around, and – I still really hate thunder. I’d have to start looking for my antennae covers so I won’t have to stress about hearing it. The frustrated groan I let out at the distant rumbling told all and was met with a surprising “well, glad you’re finally up,” from the living room.

I looked at the clock and – Wait, what? It was midday already? I slept in? I never sleep in. Walking into the living room I saw Amber sitting on the couch noodling some notes on her bass and writing things down on a notepad. She gave me the damndest smirk once she noticed me in the room, and I couldn’t help but blush and try to hide away. “Breakfast is on the table, but I’m sure it’s already cold by now. I was hoping to surprise you this morning with it.” she said, her attention going back to the music she was writing.

“O-kay?” I stammered, “I’m surprised you’re still here. I thought you loved storms like this?”

“Everyone else in the band’s busy, and I’ve got a few songs for our next set to write out,” she said, turning over another page and continuing to write.

I walked over to the kitchen table, and there I saw both our spots at the table set with plates full of food. Did she really go through all the trouble of cooking this morning if she wasn’t going to eat it? I had to have been standing there for quite some time, I was still waking up and the confusion of the ready-to-eat table settings left me even more in a daze. That daze was instantly uprooted by a bright flash that looked like it had been right outside the window, and I could feel every inch of my body coil up. I braced for the inevitable

BOOM!

I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking, nor the rest of my body from locking up. Seconds passed that felt like an eternity, and only a very distant rumble made its way to the garden. I began to let out a very pained sigh of relief, as two arms found their way around my shoulders. “Shhh… It’s okay. I’m here.” Amber said, in the softest voice she possibly could.

I let my arms meet hers, grabbing them firmly as I did my best to calm down. My labored breathing started to slow as she kissed the top of my head, each one sending a newer, more calming wave of comfort all the way down my body. “I heard that it was probably going to be a really bad storm outside today, so I decided to stay home,” she said, slowly swaying the both of us from side to side.

She held out her hand, showing my antennae covers, which I quickly grabbed and slipped on to muffle the outside storm. “S-sorry..” I struggled to say, “I-if I had known you w-were going to cook I’d h-have woken up t-t-to eat with you..”

“Hey, hey,” she shushed me again, “it’s alright. Take a deep breath, it’s all going to be okay.”

I did my best to nod, every breath becoming easier and easier as she slowly walked us to the table, pulling out my chair and gesturing to me to sit in it. “I turned off your alarm for a reason, but I didn’t expect you to sleep so long,” she said with another smirk, “this was supposed to be a nice surprise for you when you woke up, and now it’s all cold!”

“It’s still very nice of you, Amber,” I said, hiding my face again, “thank you.”

That damn smirk of hers, it always gets me, even at my lowest. Even if she didn’t spend the last few minutes grounding me, just a quick smile from her would melt all the worries away. She gets a certain glint in her eyes when she’s happy, it’s almost as if stars fell from the sky and landed right into each one. And those lips, soft, warm, irresistible, and – “Uh.. Darbee? Are you waiting on me to choke or something? What are you staring at me like that for? I promise. It’s not poisoned, just because I hardly cook, doesn’t mean I don’t know how,” Amber said, snapping me back into reality.

I was staring at her. I didn’t even realize. We’ve been together for so many months now, it shouldn’t be weird, right? Did I make everything weird today? She started giving me a very knowing glare, and then went back to eating. All I could feel was my face all flushed, as I started glaring at my food. I hadn’t even touched it, and she was almost finished. Taking in some much-needed deep breaths, I went ahead and started eating too. It was quiet for a while, up until Amber finished eating. She stretched as she got up, and went back into the living room to continue working. Meanwhile, I was still frozen with embarrassment.

The flashes outside started to build in both frequency and intensity, and the rumbling of thunder outside was getting louder, even through my covers. I suddenly didn’t want to be alone. Leaving my food and walking into the living room, there she was again. Going between playing a few notes and writing them down. She seemed lost in her work, as she often gets. She’s been the one writing all her band’s music since it was formed, before her own transition. Apparently, her lyrics started getting too obvious to everyone in the band except her. Things worked out nicely for her though, hormone therapy was exceptionally kind. Much kinder to her in some regards than it was with me, it’s hard not to feel jealous sometimes. She hadn’t gotten dressed and was still wearing her usual nightwear of yesterday’s shirt. Her hair was still a mess too. But honestly, the messy look suited her. – I guess I couldn’t help myself. I was staring at her again. At least this time she didn’t seem to notice. I really am hopeless sometimes, aren’t I?

My thoughts were halted by possibly the brightest flash of lightning so far, so bright it even seemed to catch Amber’s attention away from her music. My heart stopped as the sky tore open. The roar that followed shook our whole house; it was so deafeningly loud. You could feel the charge in the air that was left behind. Wherever it struck, it was close – and I was feeling every bit of it. I could feel the whole world collapsing in on me again, I couldn’t stop myself from falling into the couch. I couldn’t exactly control where I was falling, and I landed right onto Amber. She let out a quick yelp, as she wasn’t expecting me to plummet like I did, but it was far from a hard landing. Maneuvering her guitar down to the ground, she immediately adjusted and the back of my head was softly greeted by her hands.

The storm continued to rage on, but there didn’t seem to be a risk of another huge boom. I had all but shut down, the only thing keeping the whole world from caving in was her. Feeling her breathe, hearing her heart beating. It didn’t take much for me to feel safe in her arms, especially on a day like this. I was grasping at her collar as she gently ran her hand down my back. I couldn’t help my wings from twitching. It felt nice, and being this close to her was never a bad thing. Especially if it was helping keep me grounded. I’m not sure how long I laid there with her, minutes could have blended into hours for all I knew. I could only hope to lie there waiting for the storm to subside.

It was easier to ignore the storm the deeper I cuddled into her, at least that's what I was trying to tell myself. I just wanted to be closer to her today, we haven’t had time like this together in weeks. I had calmed down enough to be able to move again, and my breathing was settling down back to normal. Picking myself up enough to thank her for helping me again today, I was greeted by her warm smile. I guess it was her turn to be staring at me, she seemed to have been doing it for some time now. I lost track of how long I was laying on top of her. “Thank you,” I whispered, “today sucks.”

“Aww, breakfast wasn’t that bad, was it?” she teased, tugging on my shoulder.

I couldn’t help but giggle, “yeah, it was just a bit too salty today,” as I was lifting my head to better talk to her.

“I’ll just leave making everything too sweet in the mornings to you then,” she laughed, “I’m glad you’re feeling better. It sounds like the worst of the storm’s gone too.”

She was right, the rain had stopped assaulting the ground outside, and the thunder had finally gotten far enough away that I couldn’t hear it at all through my covers. I took off my covers and finished wiping my face. I didn’t realize how hard I had been crying. Amber gave me another warm smile, and I returned the favor. She started pulling me in close again, and I immediately went to rest my head on her chest again. I’m not sure what came over me, she’s been so soft and caring for me for the past while. But I couldn’t help myself, as I started gently biting above her collarbone. She let out a soft gasp as I did, and I felt compelled to move up. She honestly looked surprised when our eyes met. She had a lot planned today, I guess this wasn’t on the list.

I let myself get closer. It was like gravity was pulling me in, and I was letting it win. Letting my hand rest along her cheek, I slowly leaned in to kiss her. Too slow for her, I’m assuming, as she started gently pulling me in with her hand at the base of my neck. She had a lot planned today, I guess this was her changing plans. She didn’t waste any time overriding gravity and making our lips meet.

Kissing her melted away every remaining bit of anxiety and tension the storms had given me. Feeling her hands run through my hair and all the way down me, I couldn’t stop myself from swaying while on top of her. A soft, silent dance to the cadence of the moment. Pushing myself up just enough to see her face again, she was giving me that same damned smirk again. “Hi,” she said softly.

Her eyes pierced right through me, making me feel weak. She clearly wanted control over the situation, part of me wanted to give it to her. Another part of me though? Didn’t. I saw some faded marks on her neck. Tori always leaves a few when she and Amber have their nights together. I don't get jealous, but nothing else could really describe how I felt seeing them. I needed to leave some of my own. The moment my teeth met her skin, she let out a very audible sound of surprise crossed with pleasure. “Hi,” I smirked, letting the moment take over me.

The look in her eyes changed, almost as if she wasn’t expecting this from me. I went back to her neck to give it more attention, I didn’t quite leave the mark I wanted to. So I tried again, and again. Each time leaving a soft kiss behind. Her hands were firmly holding me close to her, her fingers gently clawing into my back. I couldn’t help my wings from twitching, I was feeling my whole body start to warm up. Firmly grabbing me, she pulled me in for another kiss. I went to adjust to better get on top of her and – miscalculated. I found myself staring at the ceiling. I lay there in shock hearing Amber’s uncontrollable laughter. Of course, I had to slip and fall right off of her! My whole body was still warming up, but for entirely different reasons now. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so embarrassed before!

After picking myself up, she helped me onto the couch again. “I’m sorry,” she said, laughing still, “you should have seen the look on your face when you fell!”

I could only glare at her, I was too embarrassed to talk. “Oh, come on, don’t pout,” she said, gently putting her hand at my cheek, “you’d be laughing at me too if you saw the face you just gave me.”

My feelings of embarrassment quickly turned to defeat, though. I ruined the moment by being a complete klutz. This was the first time in weeks we’d shared time together like this, and I blew it! I wasn’t able to stop myself from tearing up through my pouting. Something Amber very quickly noticed. She did her best to wipe away some tears before trying to console me, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Lifting my head up slightly so we could see each other, I struggled to get words out through the lump in my throat that came about from my crying. “T-things have j-just been so busy lately. It feels like I n-n-never see you anymore. I-I miss you, and I was en-enjoying time with you. But I b-blew it!”

She started looking at me with the most bewildered face I’d ever seen her give, and then, she started laughing again! “Excuse me?” she asked between giggling.

“You take one spill and think you’ve ruined the moment? Seriously?” she continued.

“But I–” she interrupted me with a quick finger to my lips.

“I think I’d tell you if you did. So you fell, big deal,” she brought her hands back to the side of my face, leaning in to kiss me again.

“If you want more time with me, you just have to ask. You know that” she said, as she finished wiping tears from my face.

Afterward, she went to rub her neck and I could only think that I may have overdone things a little. “Like you could fully kill the mood after what you were just doing to me anyway,” she said with a quick wink.

With that, I broke again and started laughing too. “There they are, there’s that smile,” she always knew exactly what to say to cheer me up.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” she said, standing up with a stretch, “I think I’ve earned a bit of quiet time in bed. That is unless you have – other – ideas?”

I felt my heart quickly jump back to where it was just moments ago, once again being compelled to be close to Amber. Before she managed to walk away, my arms were wrapped around from behind her. I gently nuzzled into her shoulder, “I have plenty of ideas,” I said, my voice slightly muffled by her shirt.

“I can’t wait to hear all of them,” she smiled, grabbing my hands and walking us to our room.

I found myself slowly swaying the both of us as we went, our dance continuing. The best thing you can do on weird, bad days, is to end them early. And this? I could always end a day like this.