I woke up as soon as Daniel got out of bed. He seemed to think I was still asleep, and I was content to let him. He was so careful, the way he shifted me off of him and then pulled the blankets back up around me to keep the chill away.

It couldn't have been later than five or so, but there he was, sitting by the window with his guitar and no clothes. I watched surreptitiously as he fumbled around with a melody, and I assumed that that had been what had woken him up. Lyrics to something or another frequently interrupted my own sleep.

I listened as he played, getting a vague impression of the way it should sound. The impression grew stronger as he added more, words beginning to form in my mind. His guitar was speaking to me, and only me, and I felt like it was a gift to be treasured, held above others as something that could be completely mine. Even if it was only for a while.

//Don't think like that. Carpe diem, Daz. Live for the moment, cos the moment might be all I have.//

I tried hard to squelch the pessimistic intrusion into my thoughts. I would commit everything about Daniel, about tonight, to my memory. As long as he wanted me, I would be his. //You can be my everything for as long as you want me. I'll be anything you need as long as you'll have me.// I stopped
for a moment and grimaced inwardly. //God, I sound like a bloody romance novel.//

Daniel had stopped playing and was looking over whatever he had written down. Then he started to play through it. I knew it would be wonderful, and the words that had been running through my mind began to spill out, even though I hadn't meant for them to.

"Maybe it's intuition..."

He looked so startled when I started singing. He almost quit, but I motioned for him not to.

"...some things you just don't question..."

I let him hear what I had, some parts just sketchy, some not even there, but I put all of my feelings into what was there. I would work on it later. For now it was just me and Dan, laying out our souls in the music and lost in what was being created. It had been almost empty without the words, but he knew how to augment it to give life to the song. I felt as if it were a newborn child. The lone guitar entwined with my voice gave it its first breath, fed it, made it grow.

When it was finished, it would be beautiful.

I got to the chorus and almost stopped, but he couldn't possibly know that it was for him...

"I knew I loved you before I met you..."

and for me. I meant it with everything in me. The dreamer in me wanted him to mean it, too, to hear those words from his mouth, directed at me. I wanted to know he felt the same way.

I sang the last note and almost started to cry. Our moment was over.

"That was beautiful, Darren."

I couldn't let him see that it was so real to me. To protect myself, I wrinkled my nose and attempted a smile, but it ended up a little lopsided.

"Kinda schmaltzy..." I started.

Okay, a lot lopsided.

"No way - that's exactly how I wanted it to sound."

He was grinning madly, and I stuffed my bad mood into a hole for a while. I had to say something light so he wouldn't know what I was about. "So, do you always write music in the nude?" I let my eyes roam freely, hoping to entice him back to bed - I was beginning to feel the cold bite in the air without him there to warm me.

"Do you?"

I laughed a bit and rolled onto my stomach. "So you *are* a musician, then."

"Only in my downtime."

//Wonder what that's all about?//

"So what *do* you do, then?"

"Oh, this and that. Nothing major."

//There's something important that he doesn't want to tell me.//

//What could he be hiding?//

//... anything.//

I tried to keep my voice from giving me away. "Always the mystery man." I rolled onto my side. "Who are you, Daniel?"

"No one special." He sounded so sad, and I could feel that it was eating him up that he couldn't tell me his secret. He changed the subject quickly. "You should write those lyrics down - that'll be a great song."

I almost never wrote my lyrics down. "No need to, it's all in here." I tapped my finger against my forehead. "That's a beautiful tune - did you just make that up?"

"Yeah, just then..."

"Wow..." That was impressive. My Daniel certainly had talent. Maybe he was involved in the music industry, a talent scout or songwriter on vacation, and he didn't want to get my hopes up, especially after he had kept complimenting my voice.

"Whaddaya mean wow?"

He put his guitar on the floor and pounced me. I almost got bounced off the bed.

"Your lyrics are amazing."

He pushed me onto my back and came down on top of me. I put up a token struggle, but I was laughing too hard for it to be any good. "Oh, really?" I managed to get out between snickers.

I knew damn well just what I was doing to him with all my squirming round, but he turned serious all of a sudden. "Really. How do you do it?"

"I told you. I write what the music tells me to write." I took his hand and put it over my heart. "It all comes from here."

"Darren, I have to tell you something."

"Shhh, not now."

I put my finger over his lips to shut him up, then exchanged my finger for my mouth. All I wanted right now was to be with him.

Everything else could wait until later in the morning.