I slowed as I reached her, out of breath, heart pounding harder than it had in any firefight I’d ever been in.
“Why do you always run?” I asked, my voice hoarse from more than the cold.
“Because staying means letting you see me,” she said without turning. “And I don’t know who I am when I’mheard.”
“Then let me figure it out with you.”
She turned then — slowly, like she was afraid I’d disappear if she moved too fast.
Her face was soaked, her hair plastered to her cheeks, those mismatched eyes burning into mine.
“You deserve someone better,” she whispered.
I stepped closer. “So do you.”
She blinked. “Noah—”
“No,” I cut her off gently, voice thick. “Let me say this. Please.”
She held still.
“I used to think I wasn’t built tofeelanything,” I said, rain dripping off my jaw. “I was trained to suppress. To cut off emotion like a vein before it bursts. And it worked — for a long time. I could kill without blinking. Lie without guilt. Survive without flinching.”
She watched me. Silent. Breathless.
“And then I met you. And everything I’d buried… started clawing its way back to the surface.”
I took another step toward her. She didn’t move.
“I didn’t think I was capable of this. Not this kind of feeling. The kind that makes your chest ache when someone leaves the room. The kind that turnsyour thoughts into chaos every time they smile. The kind that feels likehome.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
“You didn’t fix me,” I said. “Youwoke me up.You made mewant.Not just survival. But something more. Something real.”
The tears on her face mingled with the rain, indistinguishable now.
“I don’t know what happens next,” I whispered. “But I know I can’t go back to who I was before you.”
She finally exhaled, like the wind had been knocked out of her.
“I…” she began, voice shaking. “I want to say it back.”
“You don’t have to.”
“But I want to.” Her hands trembled. “I just… I’m scared. I’ve been wired to fear that kind of love. To use it or lose it before it uses me. I don’t know how to give it back without breaking.”
I stepped in, so close now I could feel her heartbeat through the space between us.
“Then break with me.”
Her eyes met mine, and something in her cracked — wide and honest and human.
“I don’t know how to love,” she whispered, “but when I’m with you, it feels like I could learn.”
I reached up and gently cupped her cheek. “Start there.”
She leaned into my touch like it was the first time anyone had touched her without asking for something in return.
