Flowers bloomed on your bedside table; fresh, smelling of the purity of spring days and the serenity that now boldly spread across your bed. It's a little unusual; Theo is a free cat, appearing in your home whenever he pleases, even if it's with that charming smile of his.

Lying next to the sleeping sun. Theodore looks serene, in the clean white sheets that barely show the few traces of fatigue that are inherent to young men trying to figure out how to survive amidst taxes and utility bills. But with every quiet exhalation, something inside you creaks, breaks, scrapes nastily.

There's not a breath between your bodies, but there's a deep chasm between your souls that he won't let you fill.

"Where are you going?" his voice fills the flowery air with a husky whisper as his fingers move the disheveled curls away from his eyes; his other palm passes over your ribs, thumb counting them.

Pulling you back. The morning is charged with a thin haze of uncertain hope, when deep sleep is replaced not by a rush to work and separation without goodbyes, but a light kiss on the shoulder.

And then consciousness pierces the brain. It's Saturday. Theodore doesn't stay for the weekend, preferring to disappear from your life until the next work week, but today is Saturday.

Today is hope for something more and another lazy kiss on your bare shoulder. And with your skin, you can almost feel his lazy morning smile.

"What's that thoughtful face, doll?" whispers Theo, strangely distracted and unperturbed; too soft, too important an image for your heart. "Just thought it was time for me to stop running away."

Your further questions are cut short by his playful bite, because you know - Theo is independent and free. Even though it's Saturday morning and everything seems to be changing, your mind has to work rationally.

And rejoice in even this small display of affection as you try to piece Theo together. Trying to put your lives back together after the war and staying in the serenity his brain won't accept.