Knowing Her ( Norminah)

--Bonus--

the morning after their first time

It had been an idle worry, but a worry nonetheless, that the fire in her chest—the wreckage left in wake of the explosion that was Normani—would dissipate with nothing but a whisper, that the remnants left behind would be a mere flicker of the enormity of what she once felt. She entertained the notion that they would wake up and regret all the fighting, regret all the talking, regret every single choice that brought them to this moment in time, regret and decide that they should part ways for good.

She entertained the notion, yes, but it was only for a moment.

The first thing she was aware of as she opened her eyes was not that she was warm and content or that she could smell Normani's shampoo (her head tucked neatly into the crook of Dinah's neck). Instead, the first thing she was aware of was the calm. The silence, the peace, the sense that this was right, that this was always meant to be: waking up to find Normani in her arms, their hearts beating in synchronization, a harmony she'd never experienced with anyone else. Her thoughts strayed slightly as she looked at Normani , a fond smile somehow finding its way onto her face. She thought, for only a moment, of what it would be like to wake up to this every single day, for the rest of her life. She thought about how the thrilling novelty would fade, but the emotions involved would merely grow stronger. She thought about how Normani would still take her breath away, how it would still feel like being doused in icy water each time Normani arched into her touch, how her heart would pound in her ears as Normani's lips met hers, their bodies pressed together.

She shifted slightly as Normani dozed on, letting her fingers trail down the brunette's back, from her shoulder to her hips, reveling in the soft sound of her's breathing, reveling in the feeling of Normani's skin beneath her fingertips, reveling in this moment, a moment she couldn't possibly hope to replicate yet hoped she'd be able to experience again and again. (Because perhaps this moment—this exact moment, with the fluttering in her belly and the buzzing in her mind, making her feel drunk and high and elated and happy—wasn't something that could be replicated. But there were endless variations of it, endless moments just like this one, merely tinged with an endless number of other moments, moments they would build together.)

Maybe this was the real truth, the one that mattered. Perhaps, somehow, someway, she was built to love Normani and Normani was built to love her. Maybe, in a world full of people and places and problems, maybe they were meant to find each other, find each other and never leave.

She never believed in the notion of destiny and fate and soulmates, but for a moment, she considered them versus sheer luck, and she found that as implausible as the former option was, the latter option was absolutely unthinkable. Because she couldn't imagine a world without Normani, a world where they were not in some way connected, and even the thought that it was only down to luck—that there had ever been even the slightest possibility that this moment, this perfect moment, would not have happened—left her swallowing back a surge of pain.

"Getting existential on me?" Dinah—who'd been gazing at the trail her fingertips left, preoccupied with her thoughts—met Normani's eyes and felt a whoosh in her lungs, felt that air escape her, felt herself drown in dark. It took her a second to even realize Normani had asked a question.

"Good morning," she whispered, releasing her hold on the brunette, allowing her to shift so that they were laying on their sides, face to face, their hands tangled somewhere between them (as if somehow they'd been tethered, permanently connected, impossible to release herself from).

"What were you thinking about?"

"What?" She was preoccupied, she was caught up in the way Normani kept blinking, as if to wipe away the last vestiges of sleep, she was engrossed with the grogginess of the brunette's voice, the way her hair was a mess, the little bit of drool at the corner of her mouth. Dinah was enamored, oblivious for a moment, lost in the whirlwind of her own thoughts, in her own desperate frenzy to bring air back to her lungs.