Posting here mostly so I can keep up with it. If you've been on Tumblr, you've seen it and can feel free to ignore.

Charles felt like an interloper. A peeping Tom. As though he was eavesdropping with eyes that took in a picture worth ten thousand words. He hadn't meant to invade their privacy, but he had been drawn by the sound of a dish smashing and his father's loud curse. He reached his parents' bedroom just a few steps behind his mother, but something made him hold back to observe rather than interfere.

He watched as his mother took his father's hand in her own, smoothing away the tremors that plagued him. He watched as she pressed that hand to her cheek, and he watched as his father's eyes softened and breathing slowed. He watched as she took the edges of his father's shirt and carefully drew it together, working the buttons slowly and deliberately. He watched as his father's hands, no longer trembling, rested on his mother's hips drawing her closer as he gazed at her in open adoration. He watched his mother knot his father's tie, lip drawn between her teeth in concentration but still with a smile tugging at the edges. Finally, he watched as his father leaned forward to place a gentle kiss first on his mother's forehead and then on her lips. It was then that he retreated to leave them to their privacy, tearing his eyes from this portrait of selfless love.

He watched and he wished. He wished that someday he could find someone like his mother to love. Someone who would see all his failings and frailties and love him anyway. Someone who would see it not a burden to care but a privilege. Someone that he could adore as his father so clearly adored his mother. Someone with whom he could create his own masterpiece of love. Perhaps, someday.

And next the Chelsie...