We lay awake listening to the sound of the rain falling outside our second-story window. Just Arthur and I relishing in the haunting tune that the rain created as it fell listlessly upon the pavement, how divine it blended with the sound of our beating hearts, with the sound of his soft breath as it came out smooth and warm upon my skin.

It had been ten years since I had last seen him….well before this night, he was a boy back then, a pretty, crimson cheeked boy that wore too much eye-make up and chipped black polish upon his fingers. Even then he was amazing. The way he would look at me, even then, was breath-taking.

This one could bring even Goliath to his knees with a gentle flutter of his lashes. Funny though, even when he was being sexy he was still immensely innocent.

I remember when we had shared that night upon the rooftop and his lips had curved around the soft skin of my neck and he marked me with tiny reddish-purple bruises as I moaned in delight, for that night I was branded "Arthur Stuart's", his and his alone.

Why the fuck had I let him go?

The same question roamed around my head for years, between the confusion of heroin and vodka and the fragmented remains of Brian's love was Arthur, dear, sweet Arthur with his heart of pure gold and the ghosts of an innocents that I had taken, up on the roof so many nights ago.

Thoughts of him were like a helium balloon that had slipped out of my reach and traveled higher and higher into the sky until I could no longer reach up to get it.

Then one day, one glorious day, my angel was found. He offered me his very own wings to fly up and find that damned balloon, while he stood below upon the ground and watched me with a smile upon his ruby lips and blood dripping from the wounds on his back.

My Arthur.

'Love?' he whispered softly pulling me away from my recollections and let his hand trickle upon my bare belly.

'Hmm?'

'Penny for your thoughts?'

I turned my head and looked at him. Oh, thank God! He was here, in my arms with me. Now that we found each other again, I'd be damned if I ever let him slip through my fingers.

No fucking way!

'I was just….thinking thoughts,' I replied with a light smile as I lifted up my hand and brushed the tips of my fingers over his arm.

'People usually do.'

I nodded and licked my lips as I allowed the words so slowly form upon my tongue and metamorphosed into pretty things.'I was thinking of you….of us.'

'Good thoughts? Happy thoughts?'

'Yes, Arthur.' My heart ached for his beautiful creature lying half-naked in my arms, my body ached to slither atop of him and feel every single inch of his form.

My lips wanted to taste him, the burning ache in my groin wanted to take him and lift him up to heaven.

'Tell me about them?' he asked with an almost innocent tone and I brushed my thumb along the fullness of his bottom lips as I replied.

'I'd rather show you….my love.'

He smiled a smile that I had seen once long before upon the rooftop a smile that dripped of hidden adoration and true affection, a smile that in its own sweet, timid way spoke as loud as a silver bell and said 'love me…need me.'

I could not help but smile back yet the movement my lips made seemed foreign. They had been trained to sing, to curse, to kiss yet somewhere along the way from here to my fragmented chaos they had almost forgotten how to smile. Arthur was reminding me how.

'I am so thankful, so thankful we ran into each other again, Curt….I….'

But I did not let him finish his sentence for I stole his words away with a kiss. Taking his tongue into my mouth I pulled him closer, arms wrapped around his slender frame tightly.

He instantly brought his arms up snaking them around my waist. I felt the palms of his hands being places against my skin leaving invisible burn marks upon my flesh that burned beautifully like a sweet, sweet acid.

'Arthur,' I uttered as I rolled on top of him and moved my lips from his mouth down to the smooth slope of his neck. 'Beloved.' I never realized the tears trickling out of the corners of my eyes until I saw them slither along his skin.

'Curt,' he whispered and looked at my red-rimmed eyes.

I once again shushed him by putting my fingers to his lips as the words I ached to say found their way out of my lips and slithered into the midnight air like a resurrected soul. 'Never leave…..'