The storm rolled in with little warning.
Dark clouds swallowed the sky, and thunder cracked like gunfire. Aelina stood by her apartment window, watching the city disappear behind sheets of rain. Her instincts twitched. Nature had never lied to her — and this storm didn't feel natural.
Then the power went out.
Lights blinked off. The hum of the building died. Silence fell, broken only by the pounding rain.
Aelina didn't move. Didn't panic.
She lit a candle. Sat on the floor. Waited.
She was good at waiting.
An hour later, someone knocked.
Not the doorbell. A firm knock — intentional. Not desperate. Not casual.
She opened the door to find Kael standing there, soaked to the bone, rain dripping from his white hair, suit jacket unbuttoned.
He didn't speak. Just held up a thermos and a bag.
"I assumed you hadn't eaten."
She blinked. "How do you know where I live?"
He gave her a look. "Aelina."
Right.
She stepped aside wordlessly, letting him in.
The apartment was dark, lit only by candlelight. Kael set the thermos and bag on the small table, then ran a hand through his wet hair, slicking it back.
"This building wasn't built for storms like this," he said. "You're lucky the windows haven't shattered."
"I've been through worse."
"I know." He looked at her. "That's what worries me."
She paused. That... wasn't the answer she expected.
They sat cross-legged on the floor, sharing food straight from containers. He didn't touch his phone once. Didn't act like a CEO. Didn't act like a king.
Just a man in the dark with someone who intrigued him.
"I hated the forest," she said suddenly.
Kael looked up, surprised. "You did?"
She nodded. "It was all I knew. But I still hated it. The silence. The fear. The emptiness."
"You don't seem like someone who fears anything."
"I fear everything," she whispered. "I just don't let it stop me."
Kael studied her like she was a language he didn't speak but desperately wanted to understand.
"You said once that people are watching me," she added. "Why?"
He hesitated.
Then finally said, "Because you don't fit. And anything that doesn't fit becomes a target."
"Is that what happened to you?"
Kael didn't answer right away.
Then, softly: "I used to think I could mold the world to fit me. Turns out… it just made me harder."
She stared at him. For the first time, he looked tired.
Not physically.
Tired in the soul.
---
When thunder boomed so loud it shook the window, Aelina flinched.
Just slightly.
But Kael saw.
Without speaking, he moved closer. Sat beside her. His hand brushed hers — not grabbing, not demanding. Just there.
And she didn't pull away.
They sat like that for a long time. The rain softened. The wind calmed. And in the stillness, something changed.
The silence between them wasn't empty anymore.
It was filled with the unspoken.
Later, Kael stood to leave.
Aelina followed him to the door, hair falling loose over her shoulder, eyes unreadable in the candlelight.
He turned to her.
"I'll send someone to check the building in the morning."
"I'm not helpless, Kael."
"I know," he said. "But I still worry."
"Why?"
He looked at her — really looked at her.
"Because I don't want to lose something before I even understand what it is."
She didn't answer.
But she didn't close the door until long after he was gone.