"I walked through the door you didn't lock," Victor murmured again, like a line in a prayer, like it meant something more than just a door.
Like it meant Elias had left it open for him.
Elias glared into the dark but didn't argue. He couldn't. Not with the heat of Victor's body pressed against his back, and not with the way silence suddenly felt less suffocating than it had all day.
He exhaled and shifted slightly on the mattress, trying to carve space between them, but Victor moved too, seamlessly, an echo of instinct. An arm slid fully around Elias's waist now, firm and undeniable, pulling him back into the circle of his body.
Elias stiffened. "Victor…"
Victor didn't answer. Not with words.
Instead, his face pressed in close, nose nudging into the soft space just beneath Elias's ear. He breathed in like he was starved.
Like he hadn't drawn breath in days.
Elias's body betrayed him with a shiver, sharp and involuntary.
