A/N: Wow okay so turns out it's really hard to write a piece without using character's names (a challenge issued to me by my tutor which I have done my best to succeed in- you be the judge). But I'm always looking to improve my writing so if you love it, hate it, have kindly words of advice or want to write me a sternly-worded letter then that's what the review button is for I guess. Usual disclaimers etc apply.
Fingers feather over his skin like the frayed edges of parchment, taking all his corners and pressing them together, holding them in. "Don't you leave again. Don't you dare leave me again," comes the frantic whisper, almost like a mantra, against the hollows and bones of his shoulder, breath tickling and dimpling the still-damp flesh. A single drop of water falls from the dark smoke of his hair, and a hand reaches up to knot its fingers through as the it mingles with the butterfly kisses on his chest. He smiles as he leans down and presses his pale lips to the spikes of sandy hair where they are pushed and nestled so desperately into his navel, presses firm, warm, alive hands to the shivering spine and rubs, runs his thumb over every vertebrae and simply feels. He feels each breath, each sigh and each small movement; feels every atom of these bodies he has learned to love so well. "It's okay," he murmurs, and thrills at the feel of his tongue and his teeth as the words fall out. "It's okay, I'm here. I'm alive." Green eyes raise themselves to meet his gaze, bright and hard, and daring. "You won't leave again?" He feels the words as well as hearing them; the deep vibration of a diaphragm against his torso and it electrifies him. "No," he breathes, and both bodies loosen and curl into each other, all panic finally gone. "No. I'll stay."