“What?” I asked, for he was looking at me so seriously suddenly.
Nakht took my hand, my left with his left, so that when our fingers laced together, our braided rings touched too.
“We are as free as we choose to be,
Only captive to each other
With hearts entwined
like our promises that bind
and neither earth nor skies,
shall ever separate us again.
“We are as whole as we choose to be,
Only bare before each other,
With rings entwined
As symbol of heart and soul and mind,
and from now until the end of time,
you are all I need.
“Dusk to my dawn
Until even the gods are gone.”
Wellthatdidn’t stave off my tears.
“Show off,” I sniffled, and Nakht laughed with the most beautiful smile yet and eyes shining.
“You do the same with dancing,” he chided.
“For you? Always.”
“Foryou,” Nakht repeated, “always.”
I let the tears come then for nothing could have held them at bay after that.
Nakht wiped them away until they stopped falling, and then kissed each of my cheeks.
“Is that what you would be,” I asked, “if you could have chosen any life to live? A poet?”
“Oh, I never dared allow myself to wonder that. What would you have chosen?”
“Honestly? While I would prefer to be a free man, bound to no one but whom I choose to be bound to…” I brought our clasped hands to my lips to kiss our rings. “I think I would still want to dance. Maybe without the erotic end.”
Nakht snorted again.
“That I would save only for you. But to move someone, to move their heart, with just the motion of my body… I don’t think I would want to give that up.”
Nakht snuggled ever closer to me, entangling our legs and keeping our hands laced tight. “I certainly wouldn’t want to give up witnessing it, being a man always moved by your motion.”
“But what about you then? If you did allow yourself to wonder?”
