Adrian reached up to smooth his hand through Logan’s tousled hair, a faint smile on his lips. “You snore,” he commented.
“Shut up,” Logan replied, though a grin spread across his face as he closed his eyes again, filled with warmth for Adrian.
“Are... are you okay?” Adrian felt it necessary to check in after last night.
Logan opened one eye, still smiling at Adrian, looking satisfied, and nestled close to him. “I’m perfect,” he sighed, running a hand along Adrian’s side, causing goosebumps where his skin was touched.
“I have something on my heart,” Adrian confessed after several minutes. “I have been ready to tell you that yesterday and… well, we got a little distracted last night.” His voice was tender and careful.
Logan was alert in an instant, pulling up slightly from Adrian’s chest, alarm flickering in his eyes. “Is something wrong?”
“No, no,” Adrian said quickly, sitting up against the headboard. He reached out and cupped Logan’s face in both hands. “We’re okay. I promise. I didn’t mean to worry you. I just need to say a few things. I need to get it off my chest, and it’s... about last night, too. Why I left.”
Logan searched his face for a beat, then nodded. “Okay,” he said quietly. “Bathroom. Two minutes.”
When Logan came back, Adrian rose wordlessly and padded into the bathroom. By the time he returned, the room was flooded with morning light—bright enough to sting their eyes, so he closed the blinds a bit, letting it be dimmed with just a few rays of the morning sun.
Adrian stood by the bed, “Can I hold you while I tell it?” Adrian asked, his voice quieter now.
“You’re scaring me,” Logan replied, he was beneath the covers, turning toward Adrian without hesitation. He opened his arms like a quiet invitation, and Adrian slipped in beside him, their bodies meeting again in the middle of the bed like magnets remembering how to touch.
Logan reached up, rested his hand on Adrian’s cheek, light but steady. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m here.”
Adrian hesitated, his voice heavy with something raw and unspoken. “They’ve been with me through so much,” he began, the words slow and deliberate, each one heavy with the weight of years. “Dean, Tom, and I… we shared everything. Missions, training, even the little moments in between. For years, we lived in each other’s shadows. They became my family, more than my own in some ways. We’ve been through wars, operations… things I can’t even begin to explain. I spent almost every moment, awake or asleep, with them.”
Logan stayed silent, his fingers brushing lightly over Adrian’s cheek, encouraging him to keep talking.
“They stood by me,” Adrian continued, his voice fracturing, the pain unmistakable. “Even when… when everything fell apart, and I couldn’t even stand under my own weight, they stayed. You can’t just… put that aside, you know? I owe them. I owe them so much.”
Adrian’s voice faltered, and Logan, his heart twisting, pressed gently, “When what? Adrian, when what?”
Adrian’s body seemed to shrink in the dark, curling in on itself. “It’s a long story,” he murmured, and Logan heard the fear in his words, the fear of losing something fragile, something new.
“You don’t have to,” Logan said softly, his hand never leaving Adrian’s face, his thumb brushing a reassuring line along his jaw. “But I want to hear it. I want to know. I’m here, Adrian.”
Adrian closed his eyes, the pull of Logan’s unwavering presence anchoring him. There was a storm inside him still, but in Logan’s arms, it felt possible—if only for this moment—to ride the wave to its end. And maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t be left alone on the other side.
Adrian’s voice was low, steady at first, but every word carried the weight of something unrelenting. “I was a commander,Seren rank.It’s like a lieutenant in the Navy. I think. I led an elite commando unit in the special forces. Tom was at the same rank as me, and Dean was my second. We worked together like a well-oiled machine. Years of training, missions, and trust. On this particular day, it was just another drill. Routine, really. We were running an operation, coordinating with the air force, attacking from the sea. Everything had to be seamless.”
He paused, his breath hitching, his eyes scanning the room as if searching for a lifeline. Logan remained silent, watching Adrian’s hands tremble as though the memory was something tangible, clawing its way back.
“We got down from the ship,” Adrian continued, his voice quieter now. “Into the water. Weapons in hand, moving silently, the way we always did.They call us thepeople of silence,you know? It’s a name you earn. But that day…” His voice faltered, and Logan saw it—the moment Adrian’s walls cracked, the pain bleeding through.
“What happened?” Logan asked gently, his own voice barely above a whisper.
Adrian flinched, the words clearly dragging themselves out of him. “I had a negligent discharge.” The words were fragile, spoken like they might shatter him. “The bullet… it hit one of my soldiers.” His voice broke completely, and his hands covered his face. “He died that second. A nineteen-year-old. I killed a nineteen-year-old kid.”
Logan’s heart clenched, his instinct to reach out battling the sense that Adrian needed space to unravel at his own pace. “Adrian—” he started, but Adrian shook his head sharply, Logan felt his tears on his chest, so he just hugged him harder.
“They took my ranks. A few months before my service was supposed to end, they stripped everything. I spent seven months in military prison.” Adrian’s breath hitched, his voice a mix of anger and sorrow. “I deserved more, Logan. So much more. And Dean—” He choked on the name, his body trembling. “Dean was there. He testified for me, fought for me, and helped me with the lawyer. I didn’t have anything left, and he never gave up. He visited me, kept me sane. He was more than a brother to me. I never realized how strong that bond was until everything else was gone.”
Hot tears streamed down Adrian’s face. Logan could only watch, his chest aching at the sight of Adrian unraveling, every word peeling back a layer of the man he thought he knew. Adrian wiped his face roughly with the back of his hand, his breath unsteady.
“When I got out, I knew I had to leave for a while... Dean, Tom, and the others were planning this trip. They set the dates to match my release, and assumed I’d come. They wanted to bring me back into their lives, their world. But I… I couldn’t. I wanted to be alone. I needed to get away from everything.”
He shook his head, his voice quivering with emotion. “I worked for months, saved everything I could. Took what I had from the army, my savings, and just… left. No explanations, no goodbyes. I had to.”
Logan nodded, though his throat was tight, his words stuck somewhere between his heart and mouth. He wanted to comfort Adrian, to tell him he was still here, but it felt like anything he said would pale against the weight of Adrian’s story.
