"Everything. She goes through the library the way other people go through streaming services." He turned the glass again, watching the light catch the rim. "She's faster than me, which is embarrassing given that it's my job."
"It's not a competition."
"Try telling her that."
Landen's mouth curved. That small smile, the one that changed his whole face. "She sounds interesting."
"She's been my best friend since first grade." Adriel paused. "She's also slightly terrifying."
"The best people usually are," Landen said, completely seriously.
Adriel laughed. It came out before he could stop it; a real laugh, surprised out of him.
The candle burned low between them. The city glittered beyond the windows, endless and indifferent. But Landen was watchinghim with that expression again. Open in a way that made Adriel's chest do something it had no business doing.
The warmth climbed Adriel's throat. Spread across his cheeks. He could feel it, could feel the heat of it, could do nothing to stop it.
He looked down at his glass.
"Sorry," he said. The word came out on instinct, the way it always did.
Landen was quiet for a moment.
"Don't be," he said quietly.
Adriel kept his eyes on the glass. Turned the stem between his fingers once. The silence stretched.
Adriel looked up. Landen was still watching him.
"I'm not used to…" Adriel started. Stopped. Started again. "People don't usually…"
He couldn't find the words. Couldn't shape what he meant.
Landen waited.
"I don't know how to be looked at like that," Adriel said finally. The words came out quiet. Honest in a way that scared him. "I don't know what to do with it."
Landen's expression shifted. Softened. Something flickering in his eyes that Adriel couldn't name.
"You don't have to do anything," he said. "You just have to let it happen."
∞∞∞
After dinner, Adriel drifted to the large window while Landen cleared the table.
He did offer to help. Landen had waved him off with a small gesture when he'd started to rise, a silentI've got itthat Adriel was still learning how to accept. So he'd moved instead to the glass, to the view, to the city spread out below like something from a dream.
It was beautiful. The buildings rising and falling in their familiar skyline, the streets traced in gold and white, the whole thing sprawling outward until it blurred into dark at the edges. High enough up to see the shape of it. High enough to feel, for a moment, like you were outside of it rather than in.
Adriel stood with his hands loose at his sides and let himself just breathe. The day fell away. The fear that had been riding him since the moment Landen had saidcome to my place tonight. It didn't disappear exactly, but it quieted. Settled into something background, something he could exist alongside.
He heard Landen move behind him. Soft footsteps. The click of the kitchen light going off. Then nothing for a moment.
Then Landen's arms came around him from behind. Slow. Unhurried. His forearms crossed over Adriel's chest, pulling him back against warmth. His mouth found Adriel's neck.
Adriel melted. There was no other word for it. He melted back into Landen without meaning to, his body simply going toward the warmth like it was the most natural thing in the world. Likehe'd been cold his whole life and was only now discovering what it felt like to be in the sun.
Landen kissed up the curve of his neck. His lips pressed to the skin just below his ear, then lower, then lower still. His tongue traced the tendon there, just once, and Adriel's breath caught.
