“Of course, I would have to know what that meant.”
“You’ll get there. Especially if you keep using your compass, especially if you keep on practicing. That way, you get found instead of lost.”
The words settled, quiet and soft, around them.
He knew what it was like to be lost, and no amount of compasses or stars had ever made him feel like he could find the right direction.
He had learned the tools of survival, and he’d survived. But he’d been in the goddamned wilderness all this time.
Sitting here with her right now, beneath those brilliant stars that were like an arrow telling him which way he ought to go, he felt like the first time in a very long while he might actually be right where he was supposed to be.
Didn’t feel like his feet itched. Like he needed to find the next thing.
Like he needed to do more, higher, do something to quiet the agony inside of his soul.
Because right now it was quiet.
Wasn’t that a hell of a thing?
They sat out there in silence until she kissed him, andkissing turned urgent, and they went into the house, into her room.
And he found her North Star and took them both home.
They slept with the lights on.
The next thing he knew, it was morning, the gold light from the sun streaming in, outshining the light overhead.
Gold.
He could hear her bustling around the kitchen. And he couldn’t remember falling asleep. Couldn’t even remember struggling to do that.
It was a revelation.
That kind of rest.
Something entirely unfamiliar to him.
She was cooking, he could smell bacon, and there was a rattling of dishes.
When was the last time he had heard domestic sounds like this? Someone else cooking in his house? Someone else moving around?
He couldn’t recall.
Or maybe he was just trying to keep himself from recalling specifically because it might break through the haze of… He felt relative happiness right now.
Happiness.
What an unfamiliar sensation.
No dread. Just for a moment.
He knew one thing for sure; he didn’t want to spend the night without her tonight.
He stood up, hunted around for his underwear, pulled them on, along with his jeans, and walked out into the kitchen.
She turned from where she was standing at the stove, and her smile was the whole sunrise.
“Morning,” he said.
