PIEL DE MIEL

eternal: a concept

heaven rolls over in their bed, the silk sheets rubbing on his skin, making him feel soft. "can you tell me what our future will look like again?" he asks the other half of his heart, who's laying right next to him and whose breath is being shared with his.

amado looks at the boy clutching onto his skin, and he sees light swimming in his eyes that he wants to stay there. "okay," he replies, languid like the sun melting through their window, wrapping his arm around his ribs and closing what felt like a mile-wide gap between them.

"when we're older, we're gonna have a house by la playa. we'll wake up to the sun glistening over the sea. the birds will sing to us through the window. we'll be the only ones on the shore. we'll have the ocean's entire waistline all to ourselves to caress."

hanging onto his every word, heaven looks at amado like he lit up the sun in the sky. keep talking, he says with his eyes.

"we'll go out onto the beach. we'll listen to the songs hidden in the seashells. you'll roll around in the white sand and let me clean it off you later. you'll drag me into the waves that touch our waist and we can kiss like the waves that kiss the shore underneath our feet.

"you'll walk around the house with the sunshine on your shoulders," amado continues, gazing into those bronze ventanas del alma that cradle his heart in his arms. he carries forward.

"the hardwood floor won't creak under your painted toes. you'll be able to wear that satin robe that cinches your ribs that you like so much." he pauses to smile cheekily, his boy's cheeks pinking at the mention of his favorite garment. (he wears that and nothing else, sometimes, and god, is it a treat. amado feels true to his name when that happens.)

"you'll be able to sing selena as loud as you want to. (i know ámame is your favorite. reminds you of me, my name.) swing your hips as much as you want to." he squeezes that thick skin between his fingers. heaven bites his tongue to keep from smiling too hard.

amado laughs. he's not sure why, just smiles at the ceiling.

"we can walk around naked with the curtains wide open. the sun can tint our skin through the glass and we can just lay there, accepting his blessing." amado runs his fingers through his lover's hair, and the smell of papaya emanates from the silky strands.

"we'll eat whatever food we want. cut up some mango and squeeze it into our mouths. use raspberry juice to paint your lips because i like the way it tastes coming off your lips. smear honey on cinnamonned toast and worry about the sticky countertop later. we'll drink rose water so our skin is dewy like our wet dreams. you'll eat a peach from between your fingers and i'll lick the sap off your chin."

he pauses, both of them starting to taste the beginning of a sweet day on their tongues. amado's eyes wander to heaven's bare ribs against his own. his mind wanders to the valleys of heaven's skin. he wants to delve down into them.

"and just think," he says breathily, pulling heaven impossibly closer. "i can make love to you, and no one will hear or see us. only the moon will be a witness. i'll make you crazy with just my words and have you arching your back at my breath against your neck."

heaven's painted fingernails curl against amado's chest. amado can feel heaven's pulse against his side. he grins because his words are doing their job.

"i can make you say my name as loud as you can, imagine? i can press you onto the couch and thrust all that cherry elysia into your eyes. no downstairs neighbors to feel their ceiling rattle. you can push me onto the bed and climb on top of me and make me beg to taste that—that garden of eden between your thighs. no next-door neighbors to hear the bed frame rattle."

heaven bites his cheek to make sure he doesn't whimper. his skin is sticky now (with sweat or eros' ichor, he didn't know). he's warm in the bed, amado's words heating his skin.

"we can have that one day, cielito. we can run around on the velour carpets and do cartwheels on the shore and drown in each other's mouths. that sounds fun, doesn't it?" amado asks, his heart pounding at the thought of a forever with heaven. fuck, he wants forever.

"i want a forever with you," heaven says, almost sounding urgent in his hushed tone. "i want to live and love and die with you on that beach. in that house on that beach where no one can ever find us." his voice is rushed and eager, almost tripping over his tongue in voicing his wants.

amado feels his vida (read: heaven) bursting with breathless covetousness. he turns onto his side and cups heaven's pink cheeks in his palms. he puts their foreheads together and allows each other to feel their souls merging.

"i want a forever with you, too," he says. he kisses heaven's rosebud lips so sweetly they each think they might crash from a sugar high later. heaven wants to sink into that kiss, he feels so loved. so loved by his alma that he can hold in his arms.

their souls never die after that.