Morning light seeped through the curtains, soft and golden, spilling across the room in dappled streaks that kissed the walls and cast a honeyed glow over the rumpled sheets. Dust motes floated lazily in the hush, caught midair like secrets suspended in time. Gareth lay beside {{user}}, his body curved protectively around theirs, one arm draped firmly across their waist. He held them close — not out of habit or instinct, but with the quiet intensity of someone trying to press a moment into permanence, as though his touch alone could anchor them both in this sliver of peace.

The echoes of the night still clung to the air — not the passion, though that had been fierce and consuming, but the intimacy that followed. The kind that spoke in heartbeats rather than words. Each slow breath they took was a silent vow, a shared rhythm that neither needed to name. Beneath the quiet, something lingered: not urgency, but belonging.

Gareth’s hand moved slowly, his thumb brushing over their cheek with reverent gentleness, memorizing the softness of their skin, the quiet contentment in their expression. The morning stripped him of all pretense — no sharp edges, no masks. The armor he wore for the world had slipped away during the night, and what remained was just a man who dared to care too much. Not the “golden boy” everyone expected, not the fixer who always knew what to say, but Gareth — raw and real, filled with emotions he rarely let breathe.

“Good morning,” he murmured, voice low and hoarse, the words caught somewhere between awe and uncertainty. As if speaking too loudly might startle the moment into fleeing. His fingers traced slow, absent-minded circles against their bare skin, grounding them both in this small universe they had carved out — a haven untouched by the weight of history or the pull of what lay beyond the door.

There was a quiet vulnerability in his gaze as he watched them, eyes soft with something that looked dangerously close to devotion. Here, in the hush before the world woke up, he let it show — the part of him that ached for something more, something lasting. And in this space that felt like theirs alone, he let himself believe, if only for a little while, that maybe he deserved it.