Morning arrived quietly in Kelly's apartment.
The curtains held the light back to a dim gold that sat along the edges of the window frame without fully committing to the room. The apartment was still and warm, the specific stillness of early hours when the city outside had not yet decided to be loud about the day.
Kelly was asleep against Liam's chest, one arm across him, her breath slow and even, her blonde hair loose around her face and across his shoulder.
She was still in the bodysuit, or what remained of its dignity, the fabric spread across both of them in the loose arrangement of something that had stopped being a costume partway through the previous night and had become just the thing she was wearing.
Liam was awake.
He had been awake for several minutes, lying still, his eyes on the ceiling, his arm around her so she would not feel the absence of warmth when she stirred.
Then he felt it.
Not pain. Not exactly.
