The Firmament

"Death is scary. But for some reason, with you in my life, it doesn't seem as bad. I know we'd find each other. Somehow." The lonely eyed man said to his partner with a searching look. His voice was scratchy and sad, with a resonating undertone of passion.

"Into a firmament that always has a safe place for us, huh?" The other man said, his eyes soft and intimate. He was a bit younger, but that didn't matter as they had known each for almost thirty years.

The older man sighed, whispering like it was a secret that could be heard by someone judgemental. They were in fact, alone. "Like... our own safe house. A dreamy, timeless ether... where we all could all be together. No matter what."

They embraced tightly, and moved to look each other in the eyes.

"You're my starlit ether... you're my safe place. My dream and the light of the most beautiful universe,” the younger man concluded. Death had tried to grab them in many ways. Through addictions, alcohol, drugs and bad choices.

But now that they had truly found one another, healing was the only thing that could be resolved.

They wrapped themselves and each other in the firmament.

They saw the elements of space and time collide in a way that made it all be on a delicate pause. The moment was intense. Ethereal. Almost too lovely to be real. It was their forever. It was their realized mortality struck inside a slowly erupting volcano.

Soft patterns of light and shadow painted the odd couple, and they captured the essence of the galaxy ether until the first morning light.