Location: Underground Safehouse – Hidden Clinic, Sector X-91
Time: 11:38 PM
The door slammed behind them.
Arya flopped onto the couch, wrapped in three layers of borrowed blankets, mumbling something about "needing thirty hours of sleep and five ice creams."
The underground safehouse was small—just two rooms and a hallway that smelled like antiseptic and secrets.
Vashti turned to the caretaker.
"Where do I sleep?"
The woman—old, gruff, unbothered—shrugged. "Clinic bed's taken by your wild friend. Only the emergency room has space. One cot."
Vashti raised an eyebrow. "And Shabd?"
The woman smirked. "Same cot."
Vashti stared. "You mean… we share a room?"
Shabd looked up, blinking. "We've slept in hospital lounges closer than this."
"That was in med school," Vashti hissed. "I didn't feel things back then."
He tilted his head. "You feel things now?"
Her cheeks flushed. "Shut up and walk."
---
Emergency Room – 12:07 AM
The room was barely bigger than a janitor's closet.
One cot.
One chair.
One flickering lamp.
Vashti stood frozen, arms crossed. "I'm not sleeping on the floor."
Shabd dropped his duffel bag. "Then don't. I'll take the chair."
She frowned. "You'll wake up with a broken back."
He smiled gently. "You've been breaking my spine emotionally for years, Vashti. I'll survive."
She almost laughed.
Almost.
---
1:45 AM
The lamp buzzed.
Vashti lay stiffly on the cot. Shabd sat in the chair, watching shadows crawl along the walls.
After a long silence, she spoke. "Do you ever think about what could've happened if you'd just said yes the first time I proposed?"
He blinked.
"Yeah," he whispered. "All the time."
She turned her head, surprised.
"But I didn't want to say yes because you weren't ready, Vash."
Her jaw clenched. "I've been ready since I was twelve."
He moved closer. "No. You were obsessed. You weren't in love."
Silence again.
Until she sat up, eyes fierce and glassy.
"Then why did you ghost me?"
He didn't lie. Didn't look away.
"Because I was scared that if I said yes, I'd ruin you. Your fire, your ambition—everything you wanted. And I didn't want you to shrink yourself just to fit next to me."
Tears welled in her eyes.
She whispered, voice breaking—
> "You don't get to decide what ruins me, Shabd. You don't get to leave and call it love."
He reached out. Gently.
Brushed a tear off her cheek with the back of his knuckle.
Their faces were close now. Too close. No more sarcasm. No more walls.
Just breath and bruised hearts.
> "I never stopped loving you, Vash. I just didn't know how to do it without breaking something."
She leaned in—pain and longing crackling between them.
But just as their lips were about to meet—
BOOM.
The ground shook. Lights flickered. Alarms blared.
Arya burst into the room, limping, wild-eyed.
"WE HAVE A CODE BLACK. THEY FOUND US."
---