Mag-log inThe door to Elias’s room creaked open softly, the dim glow from the hallway spilling across the wooden floor. Kai stepped inside, his bare feet silent on the cool planks. The air was thick with the scent of rain from the open window and the faint musk of sweat from their earlier sparring session downstairs. Elias sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, head slightly bowed. The room was quiet except for the distant patter of rain against the roof.Kai closed the door behind him with a gentle click. “Hey… are you okay?”Elias lifted his head, his dark eyes meeting Kai’s. For a long moment, neither spoke. The tension that had been simmering between them for weeks—stolen glances during cooking, lingering touches that lasted too long.Elias’s lips parted, his voice low and rough. “Yeah… I’m good.”But the words hung heavy. Their gazes locked, brown meeting stormy gray, and something unspoken passed between them. Kai’s heart hammered in his chest. He took a step closer, then anothe
The walk back felt quieter than before.Not uncomfortable, just slower. The kind of quiet that comes after talking too much, when everything said lingers in the air and settles into something heavier. Bella walked beside me, her steps steady, but I could tell she was thinking. I did not interrupt it.We reached the apartment building without saying much, and for a second, I hesitated before stepping in. I did not know why. Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was just the feeling that something was waiting.Bella did not hesitate. She pushed the door open and walked in first.I followed.And then I saw him.Vane.He was standing in the living area like he had been there for a while, calm, composed, like this was the most normal place for him to be. His gaze lifted the moment we entered, landing on me first, then shifting slightly when he noticed Bella.The air changed immediately.Bella froze for half a second.Then everything snapped.Before I could say anything, she moved.Fast.Her ste
The night air felt different when we stepped out of the cinema.Not lighter, exactly, but easier to breathe. Bella stretched beside me like she had just woken up from something more than a movie, then bumped her shoulder lightly against mine.“You definitely owe me food now,” she said.“For what?” I asked.“For sitting through a movie with someone who barely watched it,” she replied without hesitation.I shook my head slightly. “You were talking the entire time.”“Because you were not paying attention,” she said. “Which made it my responsibility to fix the situation.”“That is not how that works.”“It is tonight,” she said, already walking ahead.I followed.The restaurant was not far. Small, warm lighting, not too crowded but not empty either. It felt like the kind of place people came to talk more than eat, which, knowing Bella, was exactly why she chose it.We got a table by the window.She sat across from me, immediately grabbing the menu like she had not eaten in days.“I am orde
“I am bored,” she said, stretching across the couch like she had already decided something. “We should go out.”I glanced at her. “You just woke up.”“And?” she replied, turning her head toward me. “That does not cancel boredom.”I leaned back slightly. “You got suspended.”She smiled. “Exactly. That means I have free time.”Kai said nothing from where he stood, but I could feel his attention shift slightly, like he was listening without interrupting.Bella sat up suddenly, her eyes lighting up with that familiar spark I had not seen in a while.“Let’s go watch a movie,” she said.I hesitated for a second.Not because I did not want to, but because it felt strange, stepping out like everything was normal when it clearly was not.Bella noticed immediately.“You need it,” she added, softer this time. “Stop thinking so much for once.”I exhaled slowly.She was not wrong.“Fine,” I said.Her smile widened instantly. “Good. Get ready.”—The cinema was not crowded.That alone made it easie
I woke up to quiet movement.Not loud enough to startle me, but enough to pull me out of sleep slowly, like my mind was trying to catch up before my body did. For a moment, I did not move. I just lay there, staring at nothing in particular, trying to place where I was.Then I felt it.Warmth, Close Breath.Bella.She was still there, curled slightly into my side like she had not moved much through the night. Her breathing was soft and steady, her hand loosely resting against my arm like she needed that small point of contact to stay grounded even in sleep.I exhaled slowly, careful not to wake her.For a second, everything felt… normal.Not perfect, not simple, but in a way that did not demand anything from me. No questions. No tension. Just a moment where nothing was pulling at me.I stayed like that for a while.Just listening to her breathe.Then eventually, I shifted slightly, easing myself out from under her without breaking that calm. She stirred a little, her brows pulling toge
We did not realize how late it had gotten until the silence in the apartment started to feel deeper.Not the kind that comes from a quiet evening, but the kind that settles in when the day has taken too much out of you. Bella had stopped talking at some point, her energy finally dipping after everything she had said, everything I had told her.She looked at me, then at the bed.“I am not leaving you alone tonight,” she said simply.I let out a small breath. “I was not planning to ask you to.”She nodded once like that settled it.We stood up almost at the same time and walked toward the bed, neither of us saying anything else. It did not feel awkward. It did not feel strange. It felt nice.We both slipped off our shoes without thinking, small movements that felt automatic, like we had done this a hundred times before even though we had not. Bella moved first, climbing onto the bed and pulling the covers over herself without ceremony.“I am exhausted,” she muttered.“That is obvious,”
We didn’t make it far.The subway rattled us downtown, then we switched to the L train, heading toward Brooklyn. Isabella had her head on my shoulder, half-asleep, the hood of her borrowed sweatshirt pulled up like camouflage. I kept one arm around her—not possessive, just steady. The train car was
The bass was a living thing inside my chest.I leaned close to Isabella’s ear so she could hear me over the drop. “Give me a minute.”She pulled back just enough to search my face—sweat on her temples, pupils wide from dancing too much, her lips parted like she was about to argue. Then she saw wher
We never made it back for dinner.After breakfast at the little café, pancakes drowned in maple syrup, endless coffee refills, and Isabella telling me about the time she snuck out of boarding school to see a midnight movie in Paris—we just… kept going. No plan. No schedule. Just momentum.Around fo
The silence after Elias left the room was the kind that grows teeth.Mother sighed again, dreamy and satisfied, already pulling up Pinterest boards on her phone. “Peonies really are timeless. And the venue—oh, we could do the vineyard upstate. Sunset vows. String lights. It’ll be perfect.”Claire s







