Not a Fan (Wilbur Soot)

Good Morning

Midmorning sunshine they both were pretending was the sunrise cresting over the water. Faint wafts of sandalwood and aftershave. The occasional minty gust carried her way when he laughed. The feeling of calloused fingertips drawing shapes over her back.

"Good morning."

Green swirled through the darkness behind her eyelids, as she kept her eyes tightly closed. The sound of Wilbur's voice reverberated through his chest, making the color of his voice somehow more vibrant.

"You draw stars wrong." Aurora answered. Her plan of sinking her face deeper into his chest was foiled when he grabbed her shoulders, pushing her away enough for them to lock eyes.

"Excuse me?" Wilbur asked, a laugh almost immediately following.

"Stars. You've been drawing them on my back for a while." Aurora trailed off, finally opening her eyes. She wasn't sure, but she could've sworn she saw-

"You can't draw stars wrong." Wilbur teased, pulling her focus back to the man in her arms.

Such a strange concept- there was a man in her arms. She shared her bed with someone last night. Aurora invited him into not only her home, but also her heart.

"Yes you can- you do." Aurora shrugged, ignoring the strange background color she continued to see. There must be a light bulb buzzing or something along those lines. It'd happened before, where her ears became desensitized to a random background noise but her vision wouldn't, leaving her wondering where rogue colors were coming from.

"Well, since drawing stars wrong is apparently such a great offense to you, how about I make it up with breakfast?" Wilbur offered.

As much as she knew she was well overdue for a decent meal, all Aurora wanted was to pull herself back to Wilbur's chest, fall asleep to the hum of his voice, and be rocked back to sleep by the repetitive rise and fall of his breathing.

"Nope- not happening." Wilbur disputed, as though he could read her mind. Granted, she had already pulled herself closer and Wilbur of all people knew how easily she fell asleep.

Aurora groaned and tried to hold onto him more tightly, even as he began to sit up. She let him pull her to the edge of the bed, occasionally letting out a mutter under her breath.

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not your personal jungle gym." Wilbur said with a laugh, prying her arms off from around his shoulders. As a lackluster form of protest, Aurora dropped herself back onto the bed with a ceremonious thud.

"I can't believe you just said that to-" Aurora paused, opening her eyes again.

"Are you alright? I feel like something's distracting you." Wilbur asked with a laugh that was coaxed in worry. Even the color of his voice appeared less pigmented than before, like the hesitancy in his tone was polluting his color.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm-" She paused, looking around once more before shaking her head, as though she could shake the color out of her mind. "-I'm fine, really. There just has to be some electrical buzzing or something. I keep seeing a random color out of nowhere." She finished, looking back at Wilbur.

Even though she had given a confusing and borderline anti-climatic response, the look of relief on Wilbur's face was clear as day. She wished he wouldn't do that- panic and assume she was going to change her mind about him- about them, so easily. It was increasingly obvious that he feared her distracted mind was rooted in overthinking about their current situation.

"You know..." Aurora started, holding out her hand as Wilbur stood. Her fingers grazed down his arm until just their hands were loosely held together.

"I know what?" Wilbur asked, the look on his face solely amused now, the stress no longer present.