"Damn, I ate waaay too much. It's your fault for making something so delicious... you really outdid yourself this time, Alice," I said, leaning back in my seat as I patted my bloated belly, my eyes closed in bliss.

She smiled at my compliment, standing up to take the dirty dishes away and, hearing her steps, I snapped out of my daze and followed suit, picking up as much as I could safely carry and moving it to the sink, where Alice was already turning on the tap.

Thankfully, it was a short trip—we had eaten at the kitchen table, after all. We had a bigger one in the living room, but it was for when we entertained guests, which hadn't happened in... forever.

The living room wasn't exactly in presentable condition at the moment, either.

That reminds me...

"Hey, Alice?" I spoke up as I absentmindedly moved beside her, opening the dishwasher from mere force of habit.

"Yeah?" She said as she rinsed the dishes, taking off the bulk of the gunk before handing them over to me to put them in the dishwasher.

"So, that sofa... I think we have to do something about it. It seems to be quite... dirty, honestly. How can you even sleep there?" I asked, wincing inwardly at my crude question.

She thankfully didn't take issue with my words, simply responding with a pensive "Yeah... it's pretty disgusting, isn't it? It was just so gradual I sorta overlooked it..."

I smiled wryly at her words, glad that she agrees. "Yeah, it's bad. There's no way you can keep sleeping on such a, er, filthy thing," I continued, hesitating as a stronger-than-expected came out of my unsuspecting lips. 

Was that because of Eloquence? I thought it was supposed to be on my side!

"So... we're throwing it away, then?" she asked after a small pause, snapping me out of my thoughts, and although she tried to mask it, I could feel in her voice a hint of... something. Not quite sadness; hesitation, perhaps. A sort of reluctance in her words.

Well, yes, at this point we have to get rid of it...

Something stopped me from saying that, though. Maybe it was Eloquence, maybe something else.

I couldn't see the couch from the kitchen, but I could easily picture it in my mind. That's when I realized where her vacillation came from.

Nostalgia.

---

A clean, empty home. A blank slate, holding endless potential.

A woman, black hair tied up in a ponytail, in paint-splattered overalls and rolled up sleeves.

"So, how about this? The TV on that wall over there on top of that little cabinet we ordered, then the sofa a few meters back, like over here."

Slow footsteps. A sweating man, paint-stained shirt soaked through, stopping beside the woman.

"Yeah, that looks good. It'll also let us put up a table against the back wall... what color do you want for the couch, though?"

A cheeky grin.

"How about pink? Hot pink! Or magenta maybe?"

"...Maybe we could go with light gray, instead?"

 

---

 

A gleaming, furnished room. A man and a woman, moving a gray sofa the last few centimeters.

"Huff... huufff... damn, I thought it wouldn't fit through the door." A heaving chest, covered only by a sports bra.

"We... haaahh... we really should've bought one of those that... huff... that come in parts." A shirtless torso, defined muscles visible despite the thin layer of fat.

"Well, what's done is done. Let's see how comfy it is!"

Poof. Poof.

"Aahhh... this is heaven..."

"Yeah... this is really nice."

"I concur... hey,"

A cheeky grin.

"So… how about we give this thing a test run?"

A bra flung through the air.

Another grin, mirroring the first.

"Well, I suppose we do have to break it in, don't we?"

Pants falling to the ground, followed by boxers.

"Oooh, I see you're already primed for action. Come here, big boy. "

"I aim to please."

 

---

 

A cloudy night. A dark room, illuminated only by the screen of the TV.

Two figures lying on a gray couch, one on top of the other.

A finger tracing lazy circles through a moderately muscled chest.

"So... tomorrow's the big day, huh? Time really flies."

"Yeah... I gotta give it my all in that interview. I mean, the job is perfect. Just a fifteen minutes ride, and I mean, it's AmaZone!"

An amused grin.

"I mean, you know you don't really have to work at all, right? With my parents..."

"I don't want to rely on them." A snapped answer.

"Sorry. Still, they already paid for the house, and that's already going to take us a while to repay; I can't put myself in their debt even further." A softer tone.

"Oh, you worry too much. With how much they like you..."

A peck on the lips.

"Let's not fight over something this stupid, alright? I think I need to get to bed, anyway. Tomorrow I gotta be up with the sun."

"Alright. I'll stay a bit longer. Good night, dear. Love you."

"Good night. Love you too."

 

---

 

A winter evening. A chilly air, despite the closed windows and the heater's best efforts.

A pair huddling under a blanket, watching some movie while eating instant noodles.

"So, you start tomorrow, right? Even though you don't really need to work, with your parents..." A teasing tone.

"Oh, shut it! It's just a part-time gig, since it got boring being home alone all the time!" A pouty reply.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm suuure it's just that." A warm smile. "Seriously, though, you don't have to justify anything to me, Alice. Do whatever you want to do; I'll always support you." A gentle squeeze. A peck on the cheek. A mouth moving right next to an ear.

"Your husband's got your back."

Whispered words, carried by hot breath.

A pause. Heavy breathing.

"Y-you fucking bastard..."

A raised eyebrow. "Hm?"

"How can you say those things so casually, you rouge! Smooth-tongue thief! Womanizer! Now I'm all hot and bothered, no way will I be able to sleep like this!"

A rougish grin. "Oh? Maybe I can help you with that?"

A growl. "You better. Pants off, now."

 

---

Snapping back to reality, I realized I'd completely spaced out, and now Alice probably thought I was acting like a weirdo.

I muttered an embarrassed "Sorry", then cleared my throat to buy myself some time to sort out my thoughts.

That sofa... it holds so many memories. Perhaps..

The gears that gere turning in my head finally settled down. My mind was made up.

"Hey, Alice, so I was thinking..."

"Yeah?"

"...maybe we can still salvage the couch? I'd like us to try at least, if that's okay with you. We'll throw it out if it's really beyond saving."

A delighted smile bloomed on her face at my words. It was so unexpected and beautiful my heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

"Yeah! I would love to help you with that. I knew you wouldn't just give up on it. After all, you didn't give up on..." Her voice trailed off, face reddening, but I got what she was trying to say.

A gentle smile tugged at my lips.

She paused for only a beat, speaking back up a moment later. "A-anyway, we might have to throw it away anyways, but I would like to try to save it. Together."

I couldn't help it. Seeing her radiant smile, my body moved on its own and, the moment she stopped speaking, my lips crashed against hers, my hands on her head and grasping her hair, combing through it.

She moaned into my lips, her hands drifting to my chest, but she regained control of herself a moment later, and weakly pushed me away.

I stepped back immediately, of course. "S-sorry," I uttered.

"N–no, I loved it," she said breathily, "I just... if we kept going, we might not stop, and... we still have a couch to save, right? We–we'll do it later, okay?" She said, shooting me a flustered smile.

"Of course,” I said, smiling right back.

---

The sun was long gone by the time we finished, dinnertime having flown by with us eating some quick snacks from Alice's stash. But finally, we were done. As if rehearsed, we simultaneously collapsed into an exhausted heap, sitting back to back so as not to lie down in the cold, damp grass.

We'd decided to carry the big piece of furniture outside to give it a thorough watering with the hose in order to rinse off whatever could be removed that way. Then began a rather harrowing process that involved scrubbing the couch with so many tools and products I couldn't even name half of them, all in order to scrape off layer after layer of disgusting buildup.

Naturally, we did not come out unscathed. We were both a sweaty, stained mess; at least we'd had the foresight to put on some old pants and sweaters that we could throw away without much grief.

Still, that was totally worth it.

Craning my creaky neck to the side, my gaze landed on the sparking clean couch. It was dripping from the last hosing we'd given it to get rid of all the foam and remains of the cleaning products, so its color was darker than it should be, but it otherwise looked a lot like I remembered. There was barely any wear-and-tear on the fabric itself.

I smiled, moving to stand up.

Which made me acutely aware of the way my profusely dirty, wet clothes clung uncomfortably to my body, doing a rather poor job of protecting me from the chilly night.

"Hey, Alice, we should get inside so we don't catch a cold. I also think a shower's called for. I'm gonna take the upstairs bathroom..."

Before I could realize what I was saying, my words made an awkward mood settle over us. Alice's gaze shifted to anywhere but me.

"Ah... um..."

A question hung unsaid in the air, neither of us brave enough to voice it.

"Do you want to shower together?"

I could probably force myself to ask with Eloquence, but I didn't want to push her. Even if it was something we'd done dozens of times as husband and wife, I was more than fine with taking things slowly.

After a moment, Alice stammered out a "Th-then I'll shower downstairs. See you in the bedroom."

And she rushed off, her parting words having thrown me for a loop.

Ah. That... makes sense. The couch is going to be wet until tomorrow, and the guest room is unusable. Where would she sleep otherwise?

I was not grinning like a dog given a treat. Not at all. Nuh-uh.

Schooling my expression, I skipped into the house and up the stairs, headed for the bedroom.

---

 

After a visit to the bathroom and a very cold shower to calm my thoughts—along with a quick shaving to get rid of the 5-o-clock shadow that had began appearing over the last couple of days—I took some very rarely used pyjama pants and shirt from the wardrobe and put them on; I wasn't about to sleep in boxers like usual if Alice was coming.

I quickly tidied up a few odds and ends in the room, such as picking some discarded underwear from the floor and making the bed, then proceeded to wait for my wife's arrival like a soldier awaiting orders. 

The next few minutes felt excruciatingly long, as if time was hesitant to move forth, every second stretching impossibly until I found myself pacing around the room, looking at System screens to distract myself since I didn't want to be scrolling through my phone when Alice arrived.

When the door finally opened, the sight behind it made my heart melt. My beautiful wife was wearing a set of cute pink PJs, with equally pink, furry slippers sporting floppy bunny ears. She had one hand on the door and the other pressed tight to her chest—between her perfect breasts—with her head down, perhaps trying to hide her flushed face.

After a moment's pause, she gathered her courage and rushed at me, throwing her whole weight into a tackle-hug that made me fall back onto the bed, her body now on top of mine. Before I could react, her lips were on mine, tongue ravenously invading my mouth and making fireworks go off in my head, my arousal spiking all at once.

Ah... her lips are so soft.

I never stood a chance. I grew hard immediately, all thoughts of decency thrown out the window, as I returned the favour with all my fervor, making her moan into my mouth as my tongue played around with hers in a thrilling yet familiar dance.

She's... warm. 

We knew the other's body like the back of our hands, and it showed, as we did our best to please each other, doing what we knew we would like, until our world narrowed to one single point, to the electric contact between our lips and tongues, to the love shown through our passionate caresses, to the intoxicating dance of our own making, the way we naturally, flawlessly weaved and flowed around each other like we were made for this, pressing out bodies together in a perfect symphony of love and lust, so sweet and beautiful we never wanted it to end.

But it had to, eventually. And the end came in the form of a mutual withdrawal, if a reluctant one, bridges of cloudy saliva connecting our panting mouths and stretching until they snapped and... fell on Alice's face, making me realize we'd rolled over at some point, my body now on top of hers, pressing her down onto the bed.

"Haaah... Haaahhh... That– that was... wonderful, darling." 

A pause. Her eyes, cloudy with tears, gazed into mine with concern.

"But I... I don't know if I'm ready to..."

Alice's words broke me out of my stupor, and I was suddenly made acutely aware of the way my erection rubbed against her clenched thighs. The way one hand rested on the small of her back, fingers near her plump cheeks. The way my considerably larger body pinned her down against the bed, restricting her movements. Constricting her.

I hurriedly rolled off her, my back now against the bed, and uttered, "S–sorry about that! And don't worry, I won't push you for anything you don't feel ready to do. Take all the time you need." With considerable help from Eloquence, I managed to regain my composure halfway though my words, and was rewarded with a dazzling smile from my wife.

Yeah, this wonderful woman is my wife. Goddamn, I'm a lucky man.

Seeing me smile back, she gave me a quick peck on the lips, then muttered in a small voice, "Seriously, I couldn't have found a better man to fall in love with."

Louder now, she continued; "When you say these things, my heart is so happy I don't even know what to do with myself. You keep making me fall deeper and deeper for you..."

Perhaps embarrassed by her words, she turned around as she finished saying her piece, sliding beneath the thick blanket.

I simply gaped at her like an idiot for several seconds, my face heating up like a damn oven.

After regaining my wits and containing my desire to just ravage her then and there, I considered moving forth to spoon her, but a glance at my still-hard member, which wasn't about to go down any time soon, made me dismiss the thought. Having it pressing up against her would probably make her uncomfortable, and that was the last thing I wanted.

Instead, after draping the blanket over my body, I slid over so our backs were pressing up against each other's, and despite me thinking that my arousal would make sleep impossible, a combination of Alice's warmth against my back and the inner peace of knowing my dear wife loved me as much as I loved her allowed oblivion to take me before I realized it.