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Ellie woke, for a moment utterly disoriented. Above her, ceiling; softness beneath her. The sensation of weightlessness, of flying through light, dissolved, leaving her heavy as earth. Her chest felt hollow with loss. Something she couldn’t define had left her.
Hearing a soft rustling noise, she turned her head and smiled at the soundly sleeping man beside her. The white pillow cast his curly brown hair and tanned skin into sharp relief. She breathed in the dry air, stretching her limbs. The cotton sheets against her skin were smooth and light, and she snuggled closer to Daniel’s warmth.
His deep blue eyes flickered open a little, and even half asleep he smiled, seeing her watching him. He reached for her, draping his arm across her, its heavy warmth anchoring her to him. To this life. To happiness. At once his eyelids closed again, lost to sleep. But the love she’d seen in his eyes dispelled the last of her darkness.
She snuggled even closer, fitting herself to his shape, and this time when she dreamed, it was of him.
