Chapter 7: I Watched You Before You Knew Me

Chapter 7: I Watched You Before You Knew Me

Selene's first breath after the rebirth wasn't calm — it was fire threading through her blood, ice cracking in her bones. Her body shook as if the earth itself had snapped back into her chest. She opened her eyes, not to light, but to memory.

The first name in her mind was Aria.

She didn't know why. Just that it rang like a bell every time her heart beat. Aria. Her Aria. The girl she hadn't even met yet.

She started watching. Quietly. From afar.

At seventeen, Aria Solenne was still human. Still untouched by the supernatural storm brewing beneath her skin. She didn't know the weight she carried in her blood or the danger that bloomed every time she smiled.

Selene did.

She'd stand outside the school gates sometimes, eyes hidden behind mirrored sunglasses, hoodie pulled low, pretending to check her phone while watching Aria laugh with her friends. Selene hated how easily Aria trusted the world. And she loved it, too.

There were moments when fate felt like it bent just to let Selene see her again. Like that time Aria forgot her umbrella and ran through the rain, completely soaked, hair clinging to her cheeks. Selene had been across the street, leaning against a lamppost, unmoving, just watching. She didn't offer help. She didn't interfere. But she wanted to.

She always wanted to.

Sometimes Selene would sit in the back corner of Aria's favorite bookstore, long legs crossed, a thick jacket hiding her military frame. She never picked up a book. Just listened. Aria worked part - time then, always tucking her hair behind one ear when she was focused, always humming when she thought no one was listening.

Selene listened.

Once, Aria almost tripped over a loose brick outside the shop. Selene caught her without thinking — one hand around her wrist, the other on her waist, firm and instinctive. Aria blinked up at her, cheeks flushed, mouth parted. For a second, time stretched like honey. Aria's heartbeat was so loud Selene could feel it in her own chest.

And then Selene let go.

Aria had thanked her shyly, brushing her fingers over her shirt as if to smooth out the memory. She didn't recognize Selene. Not yet.

Selene had walked away before she said something she couldn't take back.

The hardest part was pretending not to care. Especially when Aria started showing signs. Small things at first. Static clinging to her fingertips longer than it should. Water pooling strangely around her when she cried. Her mirror flickering. Dreams she couldn't remember but woke up from flushed and breathless.

Selene watched it all.

She kept her distance, but not too far. She quit her job — left the private security contract, ignored the calls, ghosted the military. There was no paycheck worth risking Aria for. And she knew what was coming.

The world was shifting. Cracks forming. The apocalypse wasn't a maybe — it was already unfolding like a slow burn, too quiet to notice until it screamed.

Selene didn't care about the end of the world. Only about Aria surviving it.

So she built safehouses. Stocked weapons. Hid gear in abandoned buildings across the city. She mapped escape routes, memorized police patterns, paid off engineers to maintain power grids in dead zones.

All of it was for Aria. Always her.

Selene couldn't explain how she knew what Aria would need. It wasn't logic. It was instinct. The same kind that had brought her back from the dead. The same that made her walk across the city at midnight just to be close to her.

Even if Aria didn't know she existed.

Once, Selene had followed her to a bookstore downtown — some author signing, loud and crowded. Aria was tucked near the stage, clutching a copy of some myth retelling, eyes bright with awe. Selene stayed near the exit. When the lights flickered — just for a second — Aria had looked back.

Right at her.

Their eyes met.

And even if Aria forgot the face the next second, Selene didn't. She replayed it a thousand times that night, hand curled over her stomach, breath stuck in her throat.

Aria was magic. Even when she didn't know it.

And Selene? Selene was preparing for the day that magic would turn dangerous.

Because one day, the people hunting Selene would find her again. And when they did, they'd come for Aria too. She was the bait they didn't know they were laying traps for.

So Selene trained harder. Not for herself, but to be the wall between Aria and everything that wanted to consume her. She learned how to make silent kills, how to wipe out a threat before it even took form. She learned patience.

She became a ghost. A guardian. A shadow who could kill without blinking and disappear without a trace.

But sometimes… she was still human.

Sometimes, watching Aria laugh at stupid jokes, Selene forgot how much blood she'd spilled. How many lies she'd buried. She forgot the weight of the gun she slept with under her pillow.

All she remembered was the shape of Aria's smile.

Once, Aria fell asleep on a library bench. Her head drooped, book sliding off her lap. Selene stood just close enough to see the sun catching on the soft part of her neck. She wanted to press her lips there.

Instead, she walked away again.

She always walked away.

Because it wasn't time yet. Aria was still too soft. Too untouched. She needed to stay innocent a little longer.

Selene would protect that innocence even if it killed her.

She remembered the fever day too well.

Aria had collapsed in the back alley near her apartment. No one else saw. But Selene had been there. Always there.

She'd scooped Aria up without a word. She still remembered how light she felt — how warm. Like holding summer itself. Aria had murmured something against her neck, delirious, breath sticky and sweet.

Selene had carried her into her apartment, heart pounding faster than it should've. She stripped Aria out of her sweat - drenched clothes, the fabric clinging to flushed skin, and gently dressed her in an oversized shirt soft enough to cling where it fell. Her hands lingered, not out of lust but worry. Fever curled through every inch of Aria's body.

Selene sat her on the edge of the bed, cradled her head, and pressed cold medicine to her lips. "Swallow," she whispered.

Aria did. Barely.

Then — she kissed her.

No warning. No hesitation.

Fever - warm and open - mouthed, Aria leaned in and licked Selene's bottom lip before kissing her full. It was soft at first — shaky and breathless — then deeper, wetter. Her tongue slid past Selene's lips like it belonged there, tasting her, making a soft moan slip from the back of her throat.

"Mmm…" Aria breathed out against her. "You taste like snow…"

Selene froze.

She should've pulled back. Should've stopped this before it got worse. But the way Aria's hands had curled in the fabric of her shirt — the way her body leaned in, desperate and aching — made it impossible.

Aria's mouth opened wider, tongue sweeping again, needy now. "More," she whispered, voice thick and soft and heat - drunk. "I want more…"

She licked Selene's lip again like she was drunk on the taste, her teeth gently grazing.

Selene barely breathed.

She didn't kiss her back.

But she didn't move either.

Her body trembled with restraint, fingers fisting in the sheets beside her. She told herself it didn't mean anything. That it was the fever. The meds. The heat.

And that Aria would forget.

So she let it happen. Just for a second longer.

The next morning, Aria had woken slowly, blinking against soft sunlight and the smell of peppermint from the medicine bottle still open on the nightstand. She sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Did I…dream about kissing someone?" she asked, her voice still raspy.

Selene had turned her face away, carefully blank. Aria didn't even recognize her.

And that was how Selene knew she could survive loving her in silence.

Just a little longer.

Selene had lied. She said she was a neighbor who found her passed out.

Aria had laughed, cheeks pink, and thanked her again.

And Selene smiled like it didn't hurt.

That was the last time she let herself be close. After that, she returned to the shadows. Watching. Preparing. Becoming something brutal and sharp for the girl who was soft and sweet.

Selene was already lost.

She knew it.

Even if Aria didn't remember the kiss. Even if Aria never saw her the same way. Even if the apocalypse ripped the sky in half —

Selene would burn the world to protect her.

And wait.

Until Aria remembered her name.