Room 209

Intimacy in a numbered room. She knows him better now than she ever has, the shaking stops once the door closes, and she is not scared anymore. Held and lonely at once, she has never felt more alone than with his arms around her shoulders, until his face in the lamplight argues her back into wanting to live.

Happiness gets traded away for belonging. She does not need to be happy anymore, she just needs to know that she is his. And she keeps watch over two self destructions at once, his sleep hoped deep enough not to wake from, her tread kept light for fear he will go up in flames, and jealousy even of the safety someone else might offer him.