The city slept under silver rain.
Theo woke before dawn, his body heavy, his mind quieter than it had been in months. The storm had finally broken, leaving behind a silence that didn’t feel empty. It felt clean.
Adrian’s apartment was half-dark, the curtains pulled back to show the pale glow of morning. The professor sat by the window, a book in his lap that he wasn’t reading. His bare feet rested against the cold marble floor, a faint shadow under his eyes betraying hours without sleep.
Theo hesitated in the doorway. He hadn’t meant to stay the night. He hadn’t meant for any of this to last. Yet here he was, standing in the echo of something that had begun as a lesson and ended as a confession neither of them had planned.
Adrian looked up. “You’re awake.”
Theo nodded. “Couldn’t sleep
