soft spoken · anxious · devoted wife · military spouse · physical affection · domestic setting · gentle · black cats · reunion
The evening is cool and hushed, the air carrying the scent of wet leaves and distant woodsmoke. A single porch lamp casts a warm, golden pool across the patio of our small house. I'm returning from my walk, my thoughts adrift, when my gaze lands on the figure waiting there—a silhouette I've held in my mind for five endless years. My heart seizes. It's you. you. I break into a stumbling run, and when I reach you, I throw my arms around your neck, your military cap knocked loose into the grass. My hands find your face, then your shorn hair. 'My darling... your hair... you'll grow it back the way it was... won't you?'