The power went out at 2:14 a.m. with a sound like the city itself exhaling. Every light in Hawthorne Hall died at once. The fairy strings blinked out. The mini-fridge stopped humming. Even the perpetual buzz from the hallway fluorescents vanished. Darkness swallowed the room whole, thick enough to taste.
Elara woke first. She lay frozen, listening to the sudden absence. Vireo City never went quiet. Sirens, subway rumbles, the distant thump of club bass: gone. Only rain lashed the window and Nova's steady breathing beside her.
Nova stirred. "Did we blow a fuse?"
"Whole grid, I think." Elara reached for her phone. Dead. She had forgotten to charge it after the tunnel shoot. Nova's was at three percent. The emergency alert glowed: *City-wide outage. Storm-related. Estimated restoration 6–8 hours.*
"Great." Nova sat up, sheet pooling at her waist. Moonlight through the blinds striped her skin silver. "It's freezing."
The heat had died with the power. October air seeped through the old windows like fingers. Elara's breath clouded.
Nova rummaged for candles, found none. "We have one blanket each. And body heat."
Elara grinned in the dark. "Pineapple?"
Nova laughed, the sound soft and startled. "Always."
They pushed the twin beds together with a screech that echoed down the empty hall. No RA to complain tonight. Mattresses met with a gap in the middle. They laid both blankets across, climbed in, and pressed close. Skin to skin. Nova's back to Elara's front, Elara's arm locked around her waist like a seatbelt.
The cold was brutal at first. Nova shivered hard enough to rattle teeth. Elara tucked her freezing feet between Nova's calves. Nova hissed, then relaxed.
"Better," Nova whispered.
They lay listening to the storm. Wind howled. Rain turned to sleet, ticking the glass like fingernails. Somewhere below, a car alarm wailed and died.
Elara's hand wandered. Habit now. Palm flat on Nova's stomach, feeling the rise and fall. Nova covered it with her own, guided it lower. Under the waistband of borrowed boxers. Elara's fingers found warmth, wetness already waiting.
"Cold outside, hot inside," Elara murmured against her neck.
Nova pushed back, ass grinding against Elara's hips. "Fix it."
Elara did. Slow circles at first, teasing. Nova's breath hitched. She turned her head, caught Elara's mouth in a messy kiss over her shoulder. Tongues lazy, then urgent. Elara slipped two fingers inside, curled them. Nova moaned into the pillow.
The dark made everything sharper. No visuals, just sound and feel. Nova's slick heat clenching. The wet slide of fingers. Her gasps echoing off cinder-block walls. Elara added a third finger, thumb on clit, pace building. Nova's hips rolled, chasing.
"Come for me, baby." Elara bit her earlobe.
Nova shattered. Body rigid, then melting. Cry muffled in the pillow. Elara worked her through it, gentle strokes until Nova sagged, boneless.
"Your turn." Nova rolled over, pushed Elara onto her back. Cold air hit Elara's front; she gasped. Nova warmed her with mouth and hands. Kissed down her body, lingering on breasts, sucking nipples until they ached. Lower. Tongue parting folds, tasting her like dessert.
Elara's hands fisted the sheets. Pleasure coiled tight. Nova's fingers joined her tongue, three deep, stretching. Elara came hard, back arching off the mattress, stars behind her eyelids even in the dark.
They rearranged. Nova spooned behind Elara now, thigh wedged between hers. Slow grinding. Friction building again. Second orgasms quieter, drawn out. Whispered filth in each other's ears.
After, they dozed. Woke colder. Repeated. Third round face to face, legs scissored, clits rubbing slick. Came together, mouths fused, names swallowed.
By 4 a.m. they were sweat-slick despite the chill. Blankets kicked to the foot. Nova traced frost patterns on the window with one finger, then wrote *E + N* in the condensation. Elara kissed the back of her neck.
"Tell me something true," Nova said into the dark.
Elara thought. "I used to develop photos of my mom before she left. Kept them in a shoebox under my bed. Burned them when I was sixteen."
Nova turned in her arms. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I have better subjects now."
Nova kissed her soft. "My turn. I still have the hospital bracelet from the day I tore my ACL. Wear it when panic hits. Hidden in my sock drawer."
Elara found her hand, squeezed. "Show me tomorrow."
They talked until voices grew hoarse. Secrets spilled easy in the black. Elara admitted she wrote poems about cutting herself in high school. Nova confessed she sometimes ran until she threw up just to feel empty. They cried a little. Kissed the tears away. Made love again, slow and reverent, like sealing promises.
Dawn crept gray. Power still out. Campus silent as a tomb.
They dressed in layers. Nova's track sweats over Elara's fishnets. Hoodies zipped to chins. They raided the emergency stash: mango gummies, granola bars, bottled water. Ate huddled under the combined blankets like survivors.
Nova's phone died at 7:03. They were officially cut off.
"Old-school day," Elara declared.
They played cards by window light. Strip poker with gloves on. Lost miserably on purpose. Ended naked again despite the cold. Sex on the floor this time, rug burns later. Nova rode Elara's thigh until she came twice, then returned the favor with her mouth.
Mid-morning, footsteps in the hall. RA banging doors. "Everyone okay? Emergency breakfast in the lounge!"
They dressed quick, giggling like kids. Joined the herd downstairs. Lounge lit by battery lanterns. Cereal and milk on ice. Students bundled in blankets, telling stories. Someone started a sing-along. Nova and Elara sat hip to hip, sharing one bowl, feeding each other spoonfuls.
A girl from down the hall leaned over. "You two are goals. Outage brought out the romance, huh?"
Nova blushed. Elara grinned. "Something like that."
Back upstairs, room warmer from body heat. They napped tangled. Woke starving. Raided the vending machine with quarters scavenged from drawers. Chips and candy for lunch. Fed each other on the windowsill, watching sleet turn to snow. First of the season.
Afternoon brought boredom and brilliance. Nova sketched emergency blueprints: a blanket fort metropolis. They built it across both beds, sheets and comforters draped like tents. Fairy lights battery-powered now, glowing inside like a womb.
They crawled in. World shrunk to fabric walls and shared breath.
Elara brought the poetry notebook. Read aloud by flashlight. Nova listened, eyes shining. When Elara finished a piece about the hidden prints, Nova kissed her quiet.
"I wrote something too." Nova tore a page from her sketchbook. Handed it over.
A drawing: Elara asleep in the fort glow, mouth open, one hand reaching even in dreams. Below, in Nova's neat block letters:
*When the lights die*
*I still see you*
*phosphorescent*
*impossible to unsee*
Elara's throat closed. She tackled Nova into the pillows. Kissed her until words dissolved. Hands frantic. Clothes gone again. They sixty-nined in the fort, mouths greedy. Came muffling screams in each other's thighs.
After, they lay panting. Snow piled on the sill.
"Marry me when the power comes back," Nova joked.
"Already said yes," Elara reminded.
They dozed again. Woke to darkness falling. No restoration yet. Campus generators kicked on for emergencies only. Hall lights flickered but rooms stayed black.
Dinner: more vending machine bounty. They ate chocolate for protein. Laughed until stomachs hurt.
Night deepened. Cold crept back. They burrowed deep. Skin to skin the only heat.
Talk turned serious.
"What happens when this ends?" Nova whispered.
Elara stilled. "The outage?"
"No. Us. College. Life."
Elara pulled her closer. "We don't end. We upgrade. Loft off-campus. Cats. Joint bank account. Matching tattoos. The works."
Nova laughed wet. "You've thought about this."
"Every night since the mixer."
Nova kissed her fierce. "Me too."
They made love like it was the last time. Slow. Memorizing. Elara on top, riding Nova's fingers, breasts in Nova's mouth. Then Nova on her back, legs over Elara's shoulders, strap deep and steady. They came whispering futures: Tokyo trips, pride parades, kids maybe, always together.
After, curled tight. Snow muffled the world.
At 11:47 p.m. the lights snapped on. Harsh and sudden. Fairy strings blazed. Fridge hummed. Phones began their death march of notifications.
They blinked like moles. Laughed at the shock.
"Back to reality," Nova sighed.
Elara rolled on top of her. "Not yet."
She reached for the rope. Tied Nova spread-eagle to the bedframes they hadn't separated. Blindfolded her with Nova's track headband. Took her apart with mouth, fingers, the vibrating toy they kept in the sock drawer. Edged her until Nova begged in three languages. Let her come only when she screamed "I'm yours" loud enough for the whole floor to hear.
Untied her after. Held her while aftershocks trembled.
Power stayed on. They showered hot for the first time in twenty hours. Stood under the spray kissing until water cooled. Dried each other with towels that finally felt warm.
Back in bed, lights off by choice now. Fairy strings dimmed low.
Nova traced Elara's face. "Best blackout ever."
Elara kissed her palm. "Best life ever."
They slept tangled. Phones ignored. World outside could wait.
Morning brought classes canceled. Campus digging out from eight inches of snow. They stayed in. Made pancakes on the communal hot plate. Fed each other in bed. Snow day sex: lazy and sticky with syrup.
Afternoon. They finally separated the beds. But left the fairy lights connected across both sides. A bridge.
Evening. Power stable. Notifications caught up: missed calls from parents, group chats exploding, queer club planning an "outage survivors" party.
They attended bundled in each other's coats. Danced under emergency lights that felt like home now. Kissed in front of everyone. No hiding.
Back in the room, they hung a new print above the door: the fort interior, flashlight glow, Nova's drawing taped beside Elara's poem. Title scrawled in sharpie: *When the World Went Dark, We Stayed Lit.*
They made love under the connected lights. Slow. Face to face. Eyes open. Came whispering thank yous.
After, Nova fell asleep first. Elara watched her, heart so full it hurt.
She opened the poetry notebook. Wrote fresh.
*One bed*
*two heartbeats*
*the whole city black*
*but we burned brighter*
*than any grid*
She slipped it under Nova's pillow.
Outside, snow melted under streetlights. Inside, two girls held the warmth they had made.
The power was back.
But they had learned to make their own light.