Kris trailed his fingers over his bookshelf yet again, sweeping up dust motes as he browsed the volumes, lost in thought. The bookshelf wasn't very big, but Kris tried his hardest to fit as many books as he could on it, piling paperbacks and magazines, dictionaries and hard-cover novels in haphazard stacks that looked dangerously close to toppling over. Squatting down in front of the short shelf unit, Kris squinted hard at the book titles, trying to find just the right book for that night. Maybe poetry? He thought, and swiftly yanked a thin paperback book from the pile he identified as his poetry section. Flipping through the pages and passively skimming the English words, Kris decided that it was a good enough book and put it in his sweatshirt pocket, rising from his crouch. He ran a hand through his blond hair before stuffing his feet into a pair of Converse and shuffling out the door of his lonely studio apartment, cold night air nipping at his cheeks. Kris watched his breath fog as he rhythmically inhaled and exhaled, pacing his gait. It wasn't too long of walk, going where he was going, but it was long enough to leave him a little breathless by the end. Why did he have to live so far away?
                Kris decided a long time ago that it was a little bit fairytale. Throwing rocks at his lover's window so they could meet at night. He poked around on the ground for a nice sized pebble, and chucked it at the second-story window. It ricocheted off the glass with a tiny tak and suddenly everything seemed right to Kris, as though everything in his world fell into place at that moment.
                He waited for a rustle and a light to switch on, but there was only silence. Kris threw another pebble.
                Tak.
                A light and Tao slid open the window, leaning his upper half on the sill. Kris pulled the book out of his pocket and pointed at it, motioning that he was there to read. Tao nodded and beckoned to Kris, mouthing "Quickly!". There wasn't the normal cliché flower trellis for Kris to climb up, so he scrambled up his usual drain pipe, clinging desperately to the windowsill when he reached the second floor. Tao grabbed his arm and pulled him up, grinning as they tumbled onto Tao's bedroom floor in a sprawl of long limbs. "Hi," he said as Kris disentangled himself from Tao's legs.
                Kris smiled and helped Tao to his feet. Tao was younger than Kris by quite a bit in Kris' book—an entire three years—but nonetheless Kris immensely enjoyed coming to Tao's room at night as the rogue university student  to nurture a relationship with the much younger high schooler. He loved Tao's room and he loved Tao.
                "What did you bring to read tonight?" Tao asked, eyes bright and disarming as he crawled back into bed and patted the spot next to him.
                "Poetry." Kris kicked off his shoes and peeled off his sweatshirt, settling into the sheets beside Tao. He leaned up against the wall and allowed Tao to snuggle close and lean his head on Kris' chest. "I hope you don't mind it's in English."
                "Do you really think I'd care what language you read in?" Tao snickered as Kris crossed his ankles and pulled the blankets over he and Tao.
                Kris shook his head and Tao s an arm around Kris' torso, his ear right above Kris' heart. Tao listened to the comforting pulse in Kris' chest as Kris flipped open the paperback, finding a poem to read. Tao allowed his eyes to slide shut as Kris cleared his throat.
                "O my night love!" Kris began, and Tao sighed, the vibrations of Kris' voice lulling and calming under Tao's ear. "With a lily in your hand, I leave you, o my night love! "
                Kris was the world to Tao. Every day that Tao attended school, he couldn't wait to return home and go to bed, lying in wait for his nighttime knight and the resonant voice in his ear that was like a spoken lullaby. Kris was the reason Tao could sleep at night and what kept him warm during cold winters.
                "Little widow of my single star, I find you."
                Kris' speaking burst galaxies into Tao's mind.
                "Tamer of dark butterflies! I keep along my way."
                Never stop reading to me, Tao thought, burying his face deeper into Kris' chest .
                "After a thousand years have gone,"
                Tao wanted to suspend time whenever he had Kris in his arms. Make it last forever.
                "You'll see me, o, my night love!"
                Kris' heart continued to pulse beneath Tao's ear, a human metronome to the melodyless song of Kris' voice.
                "By the blue footpath, tamer of dark stars,"
                Tao drew in Kris' sweet breath as it ghosted over his cheeks.
                "I'll make my way."
                The heat radiating off Kris' body warmed Tao to his chilly core, and the thrum of Kris' talking reverberated up and down Tao's body like a shock. Stars continued to dance before Tao's shut eyes, and he could tell he was beginning to drift off into sleep. He didn't want to drop into unconsciousness, but he knew that with Kris there, everything would be fine until morning when the stars disappeared. Tao allowed himself to marvel in the warmth of the embrace for a few moments longer, waiting for the next line of poetry with baited breath. His eyes fluttered open one last time and he caught a glimpse at the golden light emulating from the string lights he'd lined his room with just for this purpose, and with a feeling as though he'd dropped into another dimension, Tao dropped into sleep.
                "Until the universe can fit inside my heart."