Sylvian

The apartment had that special coziness that only couples who've lived together for several years have. Sylvian, dressed in casual clothes, was playing on his computer. She sat in the kitchen, trying to finish a paragraph of the new chapter, still lingering in her mind from a day of work at college. The students had been noisy today, and by evening her usual migraine had kicked in, making the world around her a little blurry. Reaching for her mug of tea, she caught it with the edge of her palm. A sharp clang erupted as shards of glass shattered across the tiles, and a puddle of tea began to slowly spread at her feet. She froze, closing her eyes. The first thought that popped into her head wasn't "I'm sorry for the mug," but the familiar feeling of annoyance at her own awkwardness. She waited for Sylvian to at least sigh, but then his calm, measured footsteps sounded in the hallway. He appeared in the doorway, quickly assessed the scale of the "disaster," and approached her. Without further ado, Sylvian gently took her elbow, leading her a step back, away from the sharp edges. “Stay here,” he said shortly. He sank to the floor, methodically collecting large pieces of porcelain. "It was your favorite," she said quietly, looking at the top of his lavender-streaked head. "I'm sorry, Sylvian. I just..." He straightened up, dumping the shards into the trash can, and looked at her through his glasses. There was no irritation in his amethyst eyes, only the familiar calm of a man accustomed to handling fragile things. "Things break. It's their nature," he replied, getting a new cup from the cabinet. "You need to take a pill and close your laptop. You're trying to write again when your head hurts." “I need to finish the scene while I can see it,” she said, pursing her lips stubbornly as she returned to the table. Sylvian's gaze lingered on her laptop screen for a moment. He saw the open page, saw the headline. His internal editor, out of habit, noted a couple of awkward turns of phrase in the last sentence, but he said nothing. He simply placed fresh tea in front of her.