He lounged back against the arm of the lazy swinging bench, his arms wrapped around the waist of a tall woman. She had slid down in his loose grasp, her head now resting softly on his stomach and her toes nearly falling over the other side of the bench. The boy pulled his knees up, creating a fence on the unsecured side of her torso to prevent her from accidentally rolling off the swing.
She rested her forearm along his thigh and tousled the frayed ends of the worn knees in his jeans with her fingertips. “These jeans are getting old,” she murmured as the wind danced through the leaves above them. Tipping her head back, she stopped when she could see his face.
“So are you,” he replied, smiling down at her. She grinned and let her head fall forward.
“Yeah, but you don’t believe that, do you?”
“Mmm, no.” He kissed the top of her head and she hummed.
The chains supporting the bench creaked and groaned with every swing back and forth, but it was rhythmic and somehow calming instead of irritating. A few blossomed flowers drifted down from the trees, the wind having shaken them loose, and they graced the boy’s black hair. He absently brushed one off, but grabbed the other and held it down in front of her face.
“For you,” he said, and he knew that smile was spreading even before he heard her giggle. She put the flower to her nose and breathed in, murmuring something about it smelling beautiful before reaching back to tuck it into her hair. “Let me.” The boy took it from her and brushed back a few locks of striking auburn hair behind her ear, placing the flower just above the curve. He grinned.
“Can I tell you something?” He whispered, grabbing her hands in his and crossing them over her stomach.
“Mhm,” she hummed in drowsy reply, settling herself into a comfortable position prime for sleep.
“Your ears are pretty,” he whispered, his lips near her ear.
She twisted her head to glance at him, her expression strange and disbelieving.
“What?” He asked, the smile continuing to grace his lips.
“My ears are pretty?”
“That what I just said isn't it?”
“Yeah, but…no one’s ever told me that before.” She turned back around and relaxed against him.
He couldn’t stop grinning to save his life. “Well I am honored to be the first one to do so.” Being silly, he kissed her ear and she laughed, pulling up her shoulders in attempt to shy away.
“You're silly, you know that?” She continued to giggle as he hugged his arms tighter around her.
“Yes, and I love you, you know that?”
Her gaze traveled down to the intertwined fingers of their left hands and the rings glimmered dazzlingly in the sunlight filtering through the leaves. “Yes,” she replied dreamily. “Yes, I do.”
She twisted around in his arms, smiled, and kissed him.
