Author's Notes: For the "getfraserlaid" prompt 264: "Love does not just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new." Ursula LeGuin
This would never have been finished without the patient help and guidance of Sageness, and the encouragement of china_shop. A thousand hearts to you both.

I struggle for the right words to convey
What's in my heart; I know too well that men,
Unnerved by talk of feelings, grow wooden.
You never shied from telling me. From Day
One it was partners, duet. I called you Ray:
But still I feared to risk my heart again -
We almost broke because I would not bend.
Alone, in icy logic's grip I lay

Till thawed at last by instinct's warm embrace.
We've now embarked upon life's endless Quest.
And while survival dominates our days,
Each night I revel in your touch, your taste;
I learn the nature of our love at rest -
A fire banked, now kindled to a blaze.