5:30AM. I am still awake.
The sounds of sleeping surround us. Three small hearts beat in unison, small furry bodies rap around the slow beats, only getting quicker when one of us stirs.
A constant ticking: tick, tick, from the wall beside the bed. The steaming rads knocking out Morse code, letting us know to be silent and content, they are doing their best.
The night sky is less dark. Not quite ebony but obsidian, showing transparent visions of light where the day fights to break through the black sky.
It's cold. Wrapped in blankets and trying not to move to keep in our body heat. I turn to you and stare at your face as you sleep soundly. So relaxed, so different from when you are awake and I catch your mouth turning down at the corners sometimes from the pressure of life. But only sometimes.
I burrow deeper into the covers and try to steal some of your warmth. We lie here and all of us settle into sleep, five hearts beating together in a slow, eventual unison.
