Author's Notes: This triple drabble was originally posted to AO3 for Seasons of Drabbles Exchange's 2024 summer round. Colress and Rosa are both over the age of 18 in this fic, as are all characters in my fics.
Of all the information Colress had meticulously, subconsciously filed away pertaining to Rosa, her height had somehow slipped through the cracks. This oversight became painfully apparent as he found himself craning his neck in an attempt to secure a book from the topmost shelf. (So much for his carefully cultivated image of self-sufficiency.)
The realization hit him unexpectedly, blindingly: there were, in fact, countless details about Rosa he'd overlooked. Her evening showers, for instance—a habit he'd absently noted but never truly considered—now revealed themselves as quiet acts of consideration; each morning's scalding bath, towels already laid out for him, served as a wordless I think of you.
Breakfast, too, underwent a paradigm shift in his mind: the day-to-day repetition of dishes (which he'd chalked up to culinary apathy) was a calculated effort to keep his routines smooth and predictable. Suddenly, he remembered her telling him once, in that warm, chipper tone distinctly hers, that she preferred to cook something new every day. "But I know how much you dislike change," she'd concluded.
And then there was his coffee: with lots and lots of sugar. ...How had she known that without having seen him? He always made sure he'd had his coffee before she woke up.
As these revelations percolated through his mind, Colress felt an unfamiliar warmth blooming in his chest. His heart picked up its pace, too, as though anxious to process... whatever this was. If this cocktail of sensations really constituted what everyone called "love," this long-term pair bonding he'd always viewed with skeptical curiosity—
"Here you go!"
Colress registered first the sharp corner of a hardcover, then, Rosa's slender fingers. When their hands brushed, he fleetingly believed his breathing had stopped.
They were living together, and still, Colress had so much to learn about love.