They were stuck somewhere in a place between dreams and reality. They had surrounded themselves in their own little cocoon that neither was willing to step out of for a while. The material of his shirt surrounding her body grazed against his side as she sidled closer to him, running her fingers slowly over his chest. Neither was quite able to catch their breath just yet but the idea of moving away from him seemed almost ridiculous to her. She wanted to hold onto that feeling for just a little while longer. She still couldn't believe the things he had whispered into her ears as he kissed her shoulders and her neck. She still flushed at the way he caught her bottom lip between his teeth, sucking gently on it as if he knew it would drive her mad. The feeling of his arm wrapped around her, his hand painting lazy spirals all across the top of her back only caused her to push herself even closer into him. She could feel his warmth and the steadying rise and fall of his chest beneath her arm before she looked at him- Just looked at his face...

Only to find his gazed locked onto her already.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, closing her eyes as if she could block her shyness at his probing gaze.

"Like what?" She could hear the slight smile in his voice as he continued to look at her.

"Like I'm the last slice of cake on a plate..." She looked back up at him, smiling lightly before reaching up to brush her lips quickly against his. She couldn't get over it- kissing him without it being a prelude to something more. Kissing him just because she wanted to feel his lips beneath her own.

"I don't like cake."

"No?" She looked back at him, still feeling as if she wasn't quite awake just yet and as if her dreams had somehow melded into reality.

"No." His hand wondered to her midback, pushing her to rest even more snugly against him.

"Then what do you like?" His finger felt warm against her lips as he rubbed his thumb gently over them.

"Whatever this is..." He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, pressing his finger lightly onto the lipstick surface before he looked back at his thumb. "Really doesn't come off ne."

"Not really." She laughed lightly. "It came in the parcels when we got married."

"Must be some imported shit then."

"Must be." She was content to stop talking just then. She needed to sort out the feelings and thoughts running madly through her mind. She couldn't identify it. She was sure she had written about it but when it came down to it, it felt like nothing she had ever imagined. Her heart felt full...

For the first time in her life, her heart felt full as if all the missing pieces had been shaded in with a pencil colour. The gaps could never be filled but those spaces were no longer just truly empty. Without realising it, her hand had roved over his chest, across his ribs before settling on a spot to the left of his navel. She had done it so subconsciously, but her fingertips began to scratch lightly at the small piece of raised flesh before she looked down at it. It was a small, circular mark that was an almost dark tanned colour just a few centimetres away from his belly button. "What's this?" She asked, circling the mark slowly with the tip of her index finger.

"It's a birthmark." He stilled her hand beneath his own. "My dad has one in the same spot."

"Oh..." She mumbled, blushing brightly as she realised the effect she had on him just then.

Shit....

"Do you have any?"

She looked up at him, choosing not to reply as she shifted her leg to rest above his own..

"No?"

Her lips crooked to the side as she shook her head slowly.

"Yes?"

"Uhm hmm." His hands had moved slowly from around her back, before he brought it around her side to brush over the small buttons on the shirt covering her body.

"Where?" He could feel the deep, almost erratic rise of her chest beneath his palms as he opened each button slowly baring more and more of her white skin beneath his black shirt.

"I guess you'll have to just look for it..." He had unbuttoned all the buttons, allowing for a strip of skin to be exposed to him before he carefully pushed the material away from her.

"Am I close?" He asked, grazing his hands lightly over her stomach.

"No."

"What about here?" His fingertips had journeyed over her stomach to dance softly over her ribs as her body warmed beneath his own.

"Huh uh..." She pressed her hand gently against his chest, pushing him to lie against his pillow as his hand travelled further up her body.

"What about now?"

She could barely mutter out a response as his hand brushed against the beauty spots dotting the skin beneath her breasts. "No..." She whispered, brushing her lips over his again and again...

"What about..."

And all around them had faded away as he explored her body slowly and gently.

Till finally...

Finally, he found her birthmark.

...

"What's all this shit on the floor?" He looked down at the crumpled heaps of clothes beside their bed wondering how in the hell he had missed it before.

"Hmm?" Hoori opened her eyes, sleep evading her as his voice echoed throughout their small room. "They're clothes."

"I know they're clothes but what the fuck are they doing all over the floor?"

"Uhm..." How could she possibly answer that question?

"You were going to move out?" He asked softly, turning so that he faced her once again.

"Ya." She answered, cupping his cheek in the palm of her hand. "I'm sorry."

He only nodded his head before he looked down at the sheet covering her bare body. He wasn't sure how he had ended up here with her beside him. He didn't know how all the events that had played out had led him to this moment. He had forgotten his mother and his brother and that bitch back at the bar and he had even forgotten about Ihsaan. But he couldn't forget about what he had done at the club. He had walked in sure that by the end of the night he would have forgotten all about Hoori and her bullshit and the fact that she couldn't believe him but as soon as he saw the women around him, he couldn't do it. He couldn't touch them knowing she was waiting for him at home. He wanted her and only her and the realisation of it knocked him over like a ton of fucking bricks. He wanted her body against his and her lips against his.

He didn't know how it had happened but he had begun to memorise the feel of her body as he held her. He knew exactly which parts of her would brush up against him and he remembered the curve of her back and the shape of her mouth beneath his. He knew her perfume and he knew her touch and he knew the way her hands felt as she held him closer to her...

When he stepped out of the shower and saw her in her white nightie...

He was such a fucking asshole when they got married and nothing would change that but he was still baffled at how they had gotten to this point.

He didn't know how he had never seen her before. She was always there but he simply didn't want to see her. He didn't want to see her humour or her wit or her intelligence and he didn't want to feel the things he felt when they had slept together. He wanted it to only ever be purely physical without getting any more mixed up in their fucked up marriage.

He used to fucking think she was boring.

He was a fucking asshole...

"Hoori?"

"Ya?"

He didn't want to ask her but he had to know. It was driving him fucking crazy not knowing. "What made you change your mind?"

She ran her tongue slowly over her bottom lip, "You're a lot of things Mika. You're moody and you're grumpy and you're kind of mean sometimes." She grinned up at him as she said the last sentence, "But you're not a liar and you've never lied to me before. You've always been straight with me even when the truth wasn't something I wanted to hear."

He nodded slowly at her reply, "So I'm moody and grumpy?"

She laughed, shaking her head at him. "You know you're moody and grumpy."

He chose not to reply to her instead he leaned forward, watching her eyes flicker between his lips and his eyes. "You know," He spoke softly against her lips, "That thing you did when you were pissed off earlier was heluva," he brushed his lips softly against hers, "Heluva sexy."

He kissed her once again watching her eyes widen in realisation.

"Voetsek you." She pulled her sheet up to cover her cheeks as his words seemed to echo in her ears.

He called her sexy!

"I wouldn't mind a replay." He lowered the sheet, smiling at the way her cheeks flamed at his teasing.

"I'd only be tasting my own lipstick now though and I've tasted more than enough of it."

"Oh?" He mused, "So I need to go and kiss someone else for you to do that again..."

"Or you could kiss me again and we'll see what happens." She looked up at him, watching as he slowly leaned forward... "Mika, wait." She placed the tips of her fingers against his mouth, stopping his lips from touching hers.

"Ya?"

"Don't go back there again." She said, uncomfortably. She had never asked him not to do anything before and even though they were in a different place, she couldn't help but feel as if she were overstepping a boundary with him.

He looked at her closely, watching her shift uncomfortably as she waited for his reply. "Okay, but..." He lowered her hand that covered his mouth slowly.

"But what?"

"You're going to have to figure out a way to keep me here."

"Oh my God." She burst out laughing as his ridiculous whispers tickled her ears. "I am not the kind of girl who'll grind against you."

He smiled at her reaction, gripping her hand just a little tighter between them. "Ya," His tone caused her laughs to die out slowly as she looked at him. "You're definitely not." He tugged her gently towards him before he kissed her softly, just once.

And his unspoken words rang clearly in her ears as they finally closed their eyes...

Don't ever change.

And without realising it, they had both dreamt of each other after a very, very, very long time...

...

"Howsit?" Mikaeel's eyes widened as he opened the door. Is'haaq stood before him dressed in clothes that looked almost a size too big for him.

"You look like shit."

"I know." He smiled tersely. "You letting me in anytime soon?" Mikaeel stood back, allowing him to enter the house.

"Where did you go?" Is'haaq followed Mikaeel into the kitchen watching as he closed his laptop before putting it away.

"I went home for a while."

"Oh."

"I uhm..." He shifted in his seat, feeling as if he were still living in a daze ever since that day he found Farah and Ihsaan in bed together. It still made him feel sick as he remembered the way she moaned for him and begged of him and the fucker just complied... Fuckers. "I'm divorcing Farah."

"What?" Mikaeel jerked his arm as he pulled out a bottle of Sprite from the fridge.

"Ya. I just..." His words were interrupted by the doorbell and Sarafina's loud shouts that she would answer it.

"Just what."

"I can't forgive her. I don't want-"

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

Mikaeel's eyes widened as he recognised the voice.

He didn't fucking need this in his life just yet...

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Is'haaq turned around, his knuckles whitening as he took in the junkie fucker at the doorway. "What in the hell did Farah see in you. You look like fucking shit." Is'haaq actually reeled back at Ihsaan's appearance. His hair was stringy and oily and his face had become so gaunt and pale that he just looked fucking ugly.

"Go fuck yourself Is'haaq." Ihsaan looked at him, smiling crookedly. "Or better yet, go and fuck Farah. She needs it after this week."

Is'haaq's jaw dropped and before he knew it, Ihsaan's ass was on the floor and his knuckles had begun to bruise from the force of his blows. He didn't care that Ihsaan's nose began to squirt blood all over his hands or that his jaw creaked almost sickeningly as his fist smashed against it.

He was going to fucking kill him. The fucking piece of fucking shit!

He didn't even know where the fuck he was punching only that his hands began to swell with the crunch of bone against his knuckles but still he couldn't stop.

"Fucking stop!" Is'haaq winced as his elbow crashed into the tiled floor after Mikaeel shoved him away. "What the fuck man?" Mikaeel loomed over him, pissed out of his mind. "I don't need this fucking shit."

"Yeah, fuck..." Ihsaan screwed his jaw, spitting out the blood that had gathered in his mouth.

"Shut the fuck up." Mikaeel cut him off.

"Why?" Ihsaan looked up at him, sitting up as he watched Is'haaq stand up again. "This fucker is just pissed because his wife moans louder for me than she ever did for him."

"Fuck you Ihsaan." Is'haaq's jaw hurt as he ground his teeth against each other.

"It's true. She would fucking beg me for more and she would scream my fucking name so loud that I'm sure even your fucking neighbours heard her." He grinned up at Is'haaq, his teeth still stained red from his blood. "We both know she would have never fucked me if you were fucking her right."

Fuck.

Mikaeel barely had time to stop Is'haaq as he pulled a knife from the chopping block. He was seeing fucking red and he didn't give a fuck if he drained every drop of disgusting bitch blood from that fuckers body but he would fucking die.

Mikaeel tried to yank him back but Is'haaq was by far the biggest out of all of them. He was built like a fucking bear and getting him to stop was almost impossible. "Jurre man! Just fucking stop!"

"Leave me the fuck alone Mikaeel." He shoved him away, intent only on one thing as that fucker cowered on the ground beneath him. He didn't see anything else or feel anything else. His mind was like a vortex of anger and all he could feel was a swirl of murderous thoughts running through his head as he gripped the knife tighter and tighter within his clenched fist. He couldn't feel the tugs or the shoves; he just saw that fucker on the floor and he knew he would die.

"Just fucking..." Is'haaq felt the knife being wrestled out of his hand but he didn't want to let go. He stood his ground, clenching his jaw even tighter as his fist was being pried open.

"Fuck man!" He felt his knife pierce through skin and he felt blood splatters coat his hand.

"Oh fuck..." Ihsaan's panicked voice shocked him out of his thoughts...

"Oh fuck." Is'haaq dropped the knife immediately as he knelt down besides Mikaeel. He was moaning, holding his hand to his side feeling as if his skin had been seared open. "Mikaeel."

Fuck. Fuck fuck...

"Call the fucking ambulance, you asshole!" Is'haaq yelled at the useless bastard still cowering on the floor. "Shit Mickey. I'm so fucking sorry," he said, grabbing a kitchen towel to hold to Mikaeel's side ignoring his cries of pain...

"Don't fucking die." He rambled, feeling his eyes well with tears as he looked down at his friend, squirming from the pressure applied by the cloth. "I'm so, so, so fucking sorry. Just don't fucking die."

Please don't die.

Please don't die.

Please don't die.