Just a little something I was thinking about the other day. This is loosely inspired by Phil Collins' "This must be love". Let me know what you think? :')
The thin, white curtains have turned pink with the first rays of sunshine. Mimi stretches languidly, her head burrowing deeper into the pillows. Just after waking up, she's in that state where every position is comfortable, the sheets feel extra soft against her skin and the day's just young enough to allow her to turn over for "five more minutes."
Usually, she's good at not listening to the very tempting whisper, eager to start a new day with a shower and her to dos ready to be tackled, but there's a very good reason to give into it today.
Tai's lying flat on his stomach, the sunlight pouring over the muscles of his back appealingly. Mimi reaches out blindly, the back of her hand stroking softly over his skin, and he sighs contently in his slumber. She wonders how he's this warm when he's been sleeping without a shirt when she hears him sigh again, but it doesn't sound pleasant this time.
She hears the alarm on his phone going off then, and he groans into his pillow.
"I got it," she says, sitting up and reaching over him to pull the charging cable from the phone. She flops to her back again, cancelling the offending alert.
"Thanks, Mi," he says, his voice raspy with sleep.
"Anytime," she says, distracted. She stares at the screen, looking at the generic picture of bursting colours against a black background.
She swipes left to open the camera and flips it into selfie mode.
Her hair is messy and her eyes puffy. She licks her lips to give them a little moisture after a long night, and pulls them into a sleepy smile.
Click. Click. Click.
Tai stirs at the shutter sound, but she's concentrating on the task at hand. She pulls at her pyjama top a little, the white cotton revealing more of her collarbones. She pulls more, baring her shoulder, and takes another photo. Happy with the result, she rolls over, taking Tai's hand into her own.
"What are you doing?" he asks, face still pressed into the pillow.
"I need your hand to unlock your phone," she says, trying to put his thumb on the home button without breaking his arm.
"Why?"
"I wanna set a picture of me as your lock screen."
He lets her lift his left hand, but when his thumb touches the button, nothing happens.
"I need your right hand."
Another sigh, sounding suspiciously like when his alarm went off, escapes him, and he moves to roll onto his back.
"Do you have to do this now?"
"Yes," she insists, letting his hand drop uselessly to the mattress once his phone is unlocked. "I can't believe I'm still not your lock screen. You've been mine for weeks."
"Have I?"
She rolls her eyes without taking them off his phone. "You know you have."
"Hmmm. Thought you –" He yawns deeply. "Thought you just liked how you look in it."
She shrugs. "I do. But it's not my lock screen 'cause I fancy myself."
He chuckles, his eyes still closed.
There's silence for a few moments, interrupted only by the slight rustle of the now golden curtains and the sounds of the phone keyboard.
"There," Mimi says, putting it onto his chest.
"Well done," he says, pushing it away onto the mattress. "Now come here."
"Don't you want to look at it?"
"Nah."
She pouts, scooting down to put her head on his chest. "I look really cute in it though."
"I don't doubt it."
She breathes deeply, inhaling the smell of her sheets mixed with a distant whisper of his cologne. A car honks somewhere in the distance, and her eyes get heavier again.
Just when she thinks she could fall asleep again, his voice picks up again.
"I'll look at it later. Because… The first thing I want to look at today," he says, the rasp in his voice deeper, "is you, you know. Not a photo of you."
She buries her face into the crook of his neck, hiding her smile against him.
"That's a pretty good excuse, to be honest."
"Isn't it?" He stretches, putting his left arm under his head and the right one around her shoulders. "Must be…" He licks his lip, hesitant.
"Must be what?"
"Luck," he says, just a little too quickly. "That I get to look at you all the time."
Mimi presses her lips against his pulse point. "You'll get anywhere when you talk like this, just so you know."
He laughs. "Good to know." His hand draws patterns on her arm, hypnotising her back to sleep.