Azael came back to awareness slowly, drifting up from the comfortable depths of sleep.
The first thing he noticed was the warmth. A pleasant, steady heat pressed softly against his right side, the comfortable weight of another person nestled close to him.
His arm had somehow ended up draped over her waist without any conscious planning on his part. It had simply settled there naturally during their nap, and neither of them had moved to change it.
He blinked a few times, his mind still foggy with sleep.
The light filtering down through the thick branches above had changed completely. What had been bright afternoon sunlight earlier was now transformed into thin, amber-edged rays. Nostalgic light that only appears in the short window before the sun finishes its descent.
Long, soft shadows stretched across the grass, and the breeze that brushed over them had grown noticeably cooler, carrying the faint scent of evening flowers and damp earth.
Evening had arrived.
