Se connecterNicoI found parking faster than I expected and practically ran from the car to the entrance of the hospital, my feet carrying me before my mind had fully caught up with the urgency driving them. The automatic doors slid open, and I was already moving through them, heading straight to the front desk to ask for the ward.The elevator took too long. It always took too long in hospitals, some cosmic rule about the one place where every second feels weighted. I stood in front of the doors and willed them to open faster, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, and when they finally did, I stepped in and pressed the button and stared at the numbers changing above the door like that would make them move faster.It didn’t.When I finally reached the right floor and stepped out into the corridor, I spotted them immediately.Maria was standing with her back against the wall, head tilted up toward the ceiling, the posture of someone who has been holding themselves upright through sheer st
NicoI woke slowly, reaching across the bed for Dex’s warmth out of habit.My fingers brushed against paper instead.I frowned, still half-asleep, and forced my eyes properly open. The space beside me was empty. No warmth, no weight, no sound of steady breathing. Just the bed and whatever was sitting on it in his place.I sat up and picked it up.The brown envelope.My heart stuttered the moment I recognized it. I opened it with hands that weren’t entirely steady and pulled out the single sheet inside.My test results.I already knew what they said. I had read them enough times that the words had stopped fully registering as language and had become something more like a shape that sat in my chest. But seeing them again, holding the paper in my hands in Dex’s empty bed, made it land differently than it had in the doctor’s office. Made it feel more real and more final in a way I wasn’t prepared for.Cancer. It was real. It wasn’t going to stop being real.Tears slipped down my cheeks be
DexA few days later, I was at Nico’s place. We’d just finished fucking hard — the kind of raw, desperate sex that left us both wrecked in the best way. Nico had fallen asleep almost immediately after, which had been happening more often lately without either of us acknowledging it directly. I had told myself it was because the sex was good. I was starting to suspect it was something else.I lay on my side, propped on one elbow, and watched him sleep.He looked peaceful in a way he didn’t always manage when he was awake. The small tension that lived around his eyes and the corners of his mouth when he thought I wasn’t watching was gone completely. Just his face, relaxed and open, dark lashes against his cheek, breathing slow and even.I was smiling like an absolute idiot, and I was aware of that, and I didn’t particularly care.A sharp knock at the door broke through the quiet.I frowned at the ceiling for a second. Then I slipped carefully out from under the covers, pulled on the swe
NicoThe man smiled warmly. “I’m Mr. Tommy, head coach of the Bulls.”My eyes widened, then my whole body relaxed. “Oh! No wonder you looked familiar.” I returned the smile. “It’s so nice to meet you.”“It’s nice to meet you too, Dex’s boyfriend,” he said with a knowing glint in his eye.I blushed and ducked my head. Coach Tommy chuckled softly. “Dex seems to like you a lot. He wouldn’t stop talking about you during rehearsals. And I never expected him to make such a bold confession on the ice today.”I bit my bottom lip, smiling. “Neither did I.”Coach Tommy gave me a sincere look. “I really wish you both the best of luck. Take care of each other.”Before I could thank him, a strange sensation hit me. Something warm trickled down my nose. Coach Tommy’s expression shifted as he pointed gently. “You’ve got a little blood there.”Shit.I quickly stood up and covered my nose with my hand. “Excuse me,” I muttered, hurrying toward the nearest bathroom.Inside, I stared at my reflection. Br
NicoThe past few days had blurred together in a way that was becoming uncomfortably familiar.I took my medication like clockwork, timing each dose carefully around Dex’s schedule. I slipped away to hospital appointments whenever he was at practice or team meetings, manufacturing small excuses that I had gotten disturbingly good at producing without any visible hesitation. The fatigue I managed by going to bed slightly earlier than usual and blaming it on a busy week. The pain I managed by staying very still and very quiet whenever it spiked, and breathing through it until it settled back into something manageable.I was getting scarily good at hiding all of it.Dex knew something was off. I could see it in the way he watched me sometimes, that particular careful attention he gave things he was trying to work out without pushing. He hadn’t asked directly yet. I wasn’t sure if that was because he trusted me or because some part of him wasn’t ready for the answer either. Either way I k
NicoA few days later, we laid Dex’s father to rest.The funeral was heavy in the way that all funerals are, but dignified too. The kind of service that felt like it was trying to honor someone properly despite everything complicated that had existed around them in life. Riven and Kael came to support us, standing quietly beside us through the whole thing without needing to be asked twice.When it was over, people lingered in small groups the way they always did afterward, talking in low voices about nothing in particular, the way people fill silence when they don’t know what else to do with grief.Eventually everyone drifted away back to their own lives.I couldn’t leave Dex.I went home with him and stayed, just as I had every day since the hospital. We were officially together now, even if neither of us had said the exact words out loud to anyone else yet. Behind closed doors that distinction didn’t matter much. Behind closed doors we belonged to each other completely, and we both
KaelRiven suddenly leaned closer and kissed me again.The moment his lips touched mine, everything else faded. I could feel the hard bulge in his pants pressing against my own, the heat of his body radiating through our clothes. My breath hitched.“Shit… what are you doing to me?” I whispered agai
KaelThe first thing I noticed was the sterile smell and the steady beeping of monitors. My eyes fluttered open to a white ceiling and unfamiliar walls. The dull, throbbing pain in my side reminded me exactly where I was — a hospital room.Dad was sitting right beside the bed, looking exhausted but
RivenThe taxi pulled up near the side entrance again. I paid the driver and stepped out into the cool night air, my legs still shaky from everything that had happened in the locker room.The moment I got out, May spotted me. She broke away from Kael and ran straight toward me, throwing her arms ar
Riven The room felt smaller and tighter the second Kael pushed his joggers down just enough.The waistband caught under the thick base of his cock, trapping it halfway, forcing the shaft to jut out heavy and obscene. I jerked my gaze away on instinct, my eyes snapping to the wall, the ceiling, or







