Inspired: I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe by OK Go

I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe

Gilbert felt sunrise cascade through the window and paint the bedsheets with warmth but he refused to open his eyes. He could hear the birds singing outside. The blankets wrapped around him were worn with age but comfortable.

It should have been pleasant. Instead, it was worrisome. Sunrise meant that it was morning and morning meant that it had been three weeks.

Three weeks was a long time. Gilbert was sure that the other man had finally left him.

Still, he was afraid to open his eyes and prove himself right.

So he kept them closed and tried to focus on his breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. In and out. In and out.

He was not looking forward to waking up alone. Not at all.

And then someone kissed him on the forehead.

"Good morning."

Gilbert cracked open an eye to see a blonde angel leaning over him. His curls were tousled and tangled, just like the first time he had met him. He was smiling and blushing as he looked down at him and tucked a curl behind his ear. His lavender stare was soft and compassionate.

Gilbert blinked in surprise.

"You're still here." It was more of a statement than a question. The angel laughed.

"Did you want me to leave?"

"No! Don't go!" Gilbert tried to sit up without warning and managed to smash their heads together. There was a moment of groaning before both of them dissolved into more laughter.

"Ow! Watch it, Romeo!"

"Ahahaha. I'm, hic, so sorry!"

The blonde trailed off with a mischievous little smile.

"Then you should show me just how 'sorry' you really are…"

Gilbert beamed and wound his fingers through his hair, pulling him down for a kiss.

"Okay."

It had been three weeks since Gilbert had first brought home this stranger. Now, he knew that his name was Matthew. At the time, he had just known that he was beautiful.

He had seen him running through the metro station in a faded red raincoat, flushed and brilliant and hopelessly lost. Matthew had been looking for the uptown train. Gilbert knew how to find it.

And the rest was history. He had followed Matthew to the bar and asked him back to his apartment after.

Matthew had not left since.

So every morning for three weeks, Gilbert expected him to leave and, every morning, he was still there; glorious and naked and lying beside him. It was the best one-night-stand turned three-week-affair that he had ever had.

It was also the only one he had ever had. Usually, Gilbert wanted the other person to disappear before the sun came up but not him. Not Matthew. He was different. Now Gilbert opened his eyes afraid that the other man would be missing and that the blankets would be cold.

Matthew kissed him back, gentle and searching. His fingers twisted into the linens on either side of his head, grasping and desperate and at odds with the sweet kiss. Gilbert bucked his hips and gasped at the pressure.

He could never seem to catch his breath around Matthew and that was another first. Butterflies and goosebumps were new to him. He had had many lovers but, apparently, none that he had loved.

He was starting to think that he might be in love with Matthew.

The sun continued to rise outside of the window but neither of them tried to disentangle. The kisses were pleasant and soft and constant, one after the other. Again and again.

Gilbert tightened his grasp on the other man and prayed that there would be another morning, at least one more, just like this.

Author's Notes:

I figured that I would just post something a little happier after 'Whispers', which is in the same vein as chapter eighteen of 'Inspired' here. Poignant, and necessary for my state of mind, but perhaps not the happiest piece… So here we go! Short but sweet.

I actually really like the band OK Go and this is one of my favourite songs by them. Strangely enough, it always leaves me feeling a bit breathless.