'Hey.' I smiled at James' entrance over my shoulder whilst busying myself with trying to match socks together. I knew I could so very easily do all the menial things in the house by magic, but it felt nice using my hands and doing something practical: it helped take my mind off of other things that I needed a break from. I found that if I only thought of the horrors of war, I could not summon the energy to get up off the sofa anymore. I felt the tension that I hadn't known I was holding ease in my shoulders and forehead. James was unharmed and had returned home to me again when I knew so many others didn't. It made me feel blessed.
'Hey.' He replied quietly giving me a warm yet tired smile; he rested his forearm against the doorjamb with ease and lent his forehead casually against it watching me. I turned my back on him, finishing with the pile of still warm, freshly washed clothes that I had just ironed into folded, slapdash halves. Although I wanted to do the housework, it didn't mean that I was very good at it.
My back tingled in the knowledge that James' intense gaze was wandering over me as he watched me work away diligently over our clothes.
'Did you see the dinner I saved for you? I left it on the-'
I turned to place the washing on the dresser but dropped it all on the floor as I happened upon James right behind me; our faces a mere inch apart.
'Well in all honestly,' He murmured in a voice that made shivers dance up to the roots of my hair and back down again to the tips of my toes. 'I was thinking of skipping dinner.' I fell into the deepness of his eyes with their hued colours of azure, gold and russet. I opened my mouth having no idea what I was going to say when James bent down and claimed my lips with such emotion I forgot all about the trampled washing under our feet...
Sometime later as James slept beside me, his warm, slow breath bathed my cheeks making my lashes flutter close in pure serenity, the washing long forgotten, I felt that I could carry on into another day of uncertainty.