Nico wakes first, the morning after. Dani's lying on her side, with her back to him, and Nico can't help a smile, once all the memories of their night of passionate love making flow back into his mind. Kissing her neck to wake her, to continue where they left off, is so very tempting, but they've hardly slept and he does think Dani needs the rest. He goes downstairs, where his clothes are still scattered on the floor, dresses and wanders into the kitchen.

If Nico was in any way poetic, he could have voiced something about the sense of wonder he was feeling, of falling in love again, something he honestly believed would never happen to him again. And how it was almost surreal, that this person around whom his whole world had begun to turn, actually existed.

But Nico's not a poet. If anything he's sparse with his words, with the amount of them he's willing to use. He has said all he needed to say to Dani yesterday and has shown her everything after. Still, as he is looking outside of the kitchen window, into the garden where autumn leaves are flying and dancing in the wind, on this day that really is just a day like any other, there isn't a single part of him that doesn't understand everything is different from now on. That from now on, his life will be divided into time spent with her and time spent without her. He can't look into the future, but in a way he already knows. That he'll consider her to be his wife long before he asks her to marry him - which won't even be that long. That she'll be his lover and his best friend, his late nights and home-cooked meals and mornings in bed and talks about football. That in time, he'll learn every curve of her body blind and will love her kids and that he'll still sneak up on her every chance he gets, just to hear that half-exasperated, half-amused groan one more time.

What he does know, and knows completely, on that windy Autumn morning, is that she got hurt, and that she was lonely, and as it turned out, so was he, and that he already loves her more than anything or anyone he has ever loved before. Somehow, this doesn't make him nervous anymore. If anything, he is impatient, to get on with it, to start this. He will make coffee and then wake her up, Nico thinks, and heads towards the coffee machine. He's just about to fetch cups from a top drawer when he feels Dani wrap her arms around his torso - something he'll never tire off, starting in that moment.

'Mmm, smell of coffee woke me.'

'Hey! You snuck up on me. That's supposed to be my job.'

"I know. Come back to bed."

"I'm already dressed, Dr Santino." Teasing her now.

"I know. Come back to bed."

"It will be midday soon. When is Lindsay coming home?"

"Tomorrow morning. We have all day. Come back to bed."

In the end, Nico does go back to bed.

—-

THE END