I Won't Let You Wilt

Highs and lows

"It's so cold, Sunny. Mind if I turn up the heater?"

"Go for it."

The late October air seeped in through the walls of their apartment, chilling their room to frosty temperatures. Sunny had recently found out that Basil was very sensitive to changes in the temperature and weather. If the temperature of the room wasn't comfortable, Basil had trouble studying and would wake up repeatedly through the night.

Sunny tried every measure to make Basil feel as comfortable as possible while he was studying for his college midterms in bed.

"Oh—oh...you don't have to keep me warm like that...but, thanks..."

Like a cat, Sunny had cuddled around Basil to gently offer his body heat to him. Basil was lying down with his head on a pillow, and Sunny had curled up around Basil's shoulders.

Basil's soft hair brushed against Sunny's forearms. Sunny wanted to caress his boyfriend's hair; he refrained because he didn't want to distract him too much from the textbook that he was reading.

But Basil smiled when Sunny gently touched his fluffy golden hair.

"Thanks, Sunny. I'm starting to feel warmer because of you...hehe..."

"Glad to help."

With a curious turning of his eyes up, Basil reached up his hand to lightly grasp Sunny on the forearm. Sunny really liked the feeling of being held there, and he returned the gesture by brushing the hair from Basil's eyes, stroking his forehead.

"Hehehe...that tickles, Sunny..."

"Am I being annoying to you?"

"No, of course not! I'm not too worried about my midterm tomorrow. I think I'm ready."

Basil placed his other hand on Sunny's ankle. "I just like having a really warm cat to cuddle with when I'm cold."

"Haha..."

I wish I could be lazy like a cat.

Sunny snuggled closer to Basil to offer more of his warmth. It was actually a comfortable sleeping position, lying perpendicular to Basil across the pillow that his head rested on. He might try sleeping like this tonight and see if Basil liked it.

The warmth that filled the room as the heater turned up made Sunny's eyes grow lidded. It was only late in the afternoon, but Sunny had never felt so ready to fall asleep.

He wished it was still summer. He wished they were back on the banks of the lake at their old hangout in Faraway, him and Basil lying together like this, finding shapes in the clouds when they looked up at the clear blue sky. The image of that scene was so peaceful, so far out of reach.

"Basil, mind if I ask you a hard question?"

With a nod, Basil put down the textbook in his hands. "Sure, go ahead, Sunny."

"Do you ever think that we could've only gotten to where we are now because of all the things we did, both the good stuff and the bad?"

Sunny felt that the topics he was hinting at required caution, but by this stage in their relationship, he knew Basil was comfortable enough talking about them.

"I've thought about that, too..." Basil replied. "To tell you the truth, and...maybe you won't like what I'm about to say, Sunny...we might've gotten there because of a lot of the bad stuff that we did."

I didn't expect Basil to say something like that.

Not that I'm bothered by it, just that I'm surprised Basil appreciates how our relationship grew from our years of shared trauma.