"V?"
The nickna just slipped out of her mouth, feeling all old and familiar, and Voren froze right there in place.
He let the word hang between them, turning it around in his head like so old coin he hadn’t co across in forever.
A slow smile spread across his face, the soft and private kind that you can’t force or pretend at all.
"You used to call that back when we were younger." His voice got really low, like he was mostly saying it to himself instead of her. "Do you rember any of that stuff?"
Seraphine’s cheeks heated up quick. She glanced away from him, over toward the window or anywhere else that wasn’t right at his face. "I wish I did, honestly. I heard myself say it in one of those videos and it just ca out like that. It sounded right to ."
She tugged at the bottom of her sleeve, ssing with the fabric a bit. "But that’s exactly the thing I keep trying to work out. Why you started hating . Like, what actually went down between us? Because sothing definitely did happen, and nobody’s giving any real answers about it."
Voren stayed quiet for a little while. Instead, he reached out and wrapped his hand gently around her arm, nothing pushy about it, just all warm and steady, and he guided her slowly over toward the bed.
He flopped down onto his back with his arms relaxed at his sides, then tilted his chin toward the empty spot right next to him.
"Co on. Lie down. It’s way more comfortable talking like this anyway."
Seraphine had already started moving to join him when sothing suddenly clicked in her brain. She stopped right in the middle of it.
"Wait, I need to shower first. I’ll just use the guest bathroom, it’s no big deal."
"Sera." The way he said her na ca out different this ti, quieter and like it took so effort from him. "Just be comfortable around , okay? I miss this. I miss us so much."
Sothing tightened up inside her chest when he said that.
Seraphine wanted so badly to dig into all the details, to pull the entire story right out of him and finally get why her mory had these massive black holes everywhere. But every ti she got close to that kind of door in her mind, her head would start pounding hard like it was trying to shield her from whatever was back there.
She pushed the feeling way down and went to find the bathroom.
She pushed the door open and stopped completely in her tracks.
"Why is this bathroom so huge?" Her voice bounced around the tiles, echoing all over the place.
From the bedroom, she heard Voren laugh out loud, a real genuine laugh, not anything polite or put on. "Because I love to actually relax in there. Take your ti, no rush at all."
She stepped inside and let the door fall almost shut behind her. The shower was massive, with multiple heads spraying from all different angles, warm stone floors that felt nice underfoot, and lighting that was soft enough it made if feel like she was just relaxing in her room.
It was ridiculous, honestly. Rich people really lived in another world.
She turned the water on hot and stepped right in under the spray.
In the bedroom, Voren lay there staring up at the ceiling, just listening to the steady sound of the water running through the pipes.
A quiet look settled over his face, sothing hard to read, like a man sitting with emotions he’d carried around for years and had finally stopped trying to put into any kind of explanation.
"Sera." His voice was barely above a breath. "I lost you once before. That’s not happening again, not ever," he vowed to himself, his jaw tightened just a little bit. "This ti you’re stuck with . For good and all."
He ant every single word of it deep down.
"V!" Her voice cut right through the sound of the running water. "Can you get sothing to wear? I didn’t bring anything with ."
He blinked himself out of his thoughts, got up from the bed, and headed over to the closet, and stood there for a second looking inside.
He had already put together an entire section of clothes just for her the mont she’d agreed to co over — dresses, comfortable loungewear, everything exactly in her size, all picked out with real care and attention. His hand moved past all of those options though.
He grabbed one of his own shirts instead, and walked over to the bathroom door and knocked twice, keeping it easy and light.
The door was cracked open maybe six inches or so. He turned his back to the gap and slid his arm through, letting the shirt dangle from his fingers.
"Here. Wear this for now."
Seraphine’s hand appeared and snatched the shirt quick. There was a mont of quiet on the other side.
"I should probably just call Corvine and have her bring so of my actual clothes over here."
"Don’t do that." The corner of Voren’s mouth tugged up into a little grin. "I already have a whole wardrobe set up in there with your na on it, I promise you. But just... wear this one tonight. For , please."
She didn’t answer him right away, and he could practically hear her rolling her eyes through the door.
"Fine."
He stepped back and waited, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, staring off at nothing in particular. A minute went by.
Then the bathroom door opened all the way and she ca out, his shirt falling down to hit her mid-thigh, her damp hair hanging loose and free around her shoulders.
Voren had his phone up before he even made the conscious choice to do it.
The click of the cara was quiet but she still heard it clear.
"There." His eyes stayed on the screen, with sothing deeply satisfied showing in his expression. "That’s my new wallpaper now."
"Voren." Seraphine’s whole face went bright red. "What... you can’t just... what if soone sees that picture?"
"Nobody sees my phone that I don’t want seeing it." He was completely unbothered by it, already setting the image in place. "And honestly? It sends the right ssage to anybody who does happen to look."
Seraphine opened her mouth to argue back, and Voren just pointed over at the edge of the bed.
"Co sit. I’ll dry your hair for you."
She wanted to fight him on it. She really did. But sothing about the way he said it, not demanding at all, just sure and confident, like this was just a normal everyday thing they used to do, made her walk over and sit down without saying another word.
For a minute, neither of them said anything, and the quiet between them was the kind that doesn’t need to be filled up with words.
The kind that only exists between people who knew each other way back before they learned how to be careful around each other.
Then Voren spoke up, and the softness filling the room changed in an instant.
"Marigold’s mother." He kept working through her hair with steady hands. "She was your substitute." Seraphine’s whole body went completely still.
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