"Maybe. But it's also practical. You built something here. I won't let my past destroy it."
"Your past isn't destroying anything. Some internet troll with a fake photo is. And if you leave now, you prove them right."
"Or I prove I'm not interested in dragging you down with me."
"Stop deciding what's best for me without asking."
Her voice cuts. Clean and furious.
I open my mouth. Close it. She's right. I know she's right. But the urge to bolt, to protect by absence, is overwhelming.
It's what I did before. When the arena threatened people I cared about. Disappeared before they could be used as leverage.
Kept myself free by keeping myself alone.
"I'm not asking you to stay because I'm noble or self-sacrificing." Maris's voice softens. Just a fraction. "I'm asking because I'm selfish. Because I want you here. And because we're better together than apart."
"You don't know that."
"I do. You're the one who doesn't."
Pebble meows again. Louder. Insistent.
Maris breaks away. Scoops him up. Buries her face in his fur for a moment. When she looks up, her eyes are wet but her voice is steady.
"Feed him. I need to open the café. We'll talk about this later. When you've stopped catastrophizing."
She sets Pebble in my arms. The kitten purrs. Tiny motor vibrating against my chest.
Then she's gone. Down the stairs. Leaving me standing in the kitchen with a kitten and a phone full of poison.
I don't feedPebble right away.
Instead I sit. Let him knead my arm with needle claws. His purr fills the silence. Relentless and soothing.
The anger is still there. Coiled tight under my ribs. Hot and familiar.
I hate this. Hate the helplessness. The way words on a screen can undo weeks of careful rebuilding.
My whole life I've been too big. Too visible. Too easy to point at and categorize.
The arena capitalized on it. Made me a spectacle. A monster for people to fear and bet on.
I thought I'd escaped that. Found a place where size didn't matter. Where I could just. Exist.
Stupid.
The phone buzzes. I ignore it. Probably more comments. More strangers deciding who I am based on a doctored image and their own biases.
Pebble headbutts my chin. Impatient.
"Yeah. Okay. Food."
I stand. Move through the motions. Scoop kibble. Refill water. Watch him attack breakfast like it personally offended him.
Maris thinks I'm catastrophizing. Maybe I am. But I've seen this before. Watched people I cared about suffer because they were associated with me.
Better to cut ties now. Before it gets worse.
