Safety changed the scale of desire.
Aaliyah noticed it in the way wanting no longer felt like a reach or a lack. Desire arrived without urgency, without the familiar edge that once demanded fulfillment or justification.
It felt… spacious.
She woke early, the apartment still wrapped in quiet. Rowan slept deeply, one arm thrown over the pillow between them. Aaliyah lay still for a while, noticing the simple comfort of being where she was without needing to move toward anything else.
The wanting, when it came, was small.
Coffee.
Light.
Air.
She honored it easily.
Later, she met Rowan in the kitchen, both moving slowly, uncoordinated but attuned.
"I've been thinking about wanting lately," Rowan said, pouring water into the kettle. "How it used to scare me."
Aaliyah nodded. "Me too."
"And now?"
"And now it feels like information," Aaliyah said. "Not instruction."
Rowan smiled. "That's a relief."
"Yes," Aaliyah agreed. "It really is."
The day unfolded gently.
