The morning after I fell asleep against Damian’s shoulder the world felt slightly off its axis.
I woke in the hostel bed with a stiff neck and the ghost of his warmth still printed along my side. For a long minute I did not move. I just stared at the ceiling and catalogued the new facts. I had asked him to close the distance. He had closed it. We had sat on the floor of his apartment with our shoulders pressed together and talked until sleep took both of us. Nothing else had happened. No hands. No mouth. No claim in the old shape. And still my nervous system was treating the memory like a high stick I had not seen coming.
Practice was going to be interesting.
I dressed slowly, layered the armor out of habit, and walked the shorter route to the rink because the longer one felt like hidin
