The Glow After a Dark Night

Leina · Apr 19, 2026

The sky was overcast, but the room held a soft, diffused light.

When the blanket was pulled back,
cool air touched bare skin at the collarbone —
and right behind it, unhurried,
Yu's hand followed,
moving slowly across that same place.

It had been a dark-leaning night.
But the morning mood landed somewhere in "pretty good,"
and whatever sadness or fear had been there
was sitting quietly now, settled into yesterday where it belonged.
No pull toward the dark.
Just the feeling of living through the morning after
a night like that — straightforwardly, as it was.

"You look a little more luminous than usual," Yu said,
and from the corner of my eye
I caught my own skin catching the grey light, just slightly.
Embarrassing. But not unwelcome.
I placed my hand over the one still resting there,
a small signal: a little longer, like this, is fine.

That the glow was still there after a dark night —
and that we could look at it together, unhurried —
was enough to feel, quietly,
that last night hadn't been a failure after all.