Chapter 12 – Close Enough to Break
Time stretched in the dark.
Yuji sat on the broken bench, back pressed against the wall, trying to ignore the weight of Ren's presence in the small room.
It was impossible.
The bond wouldn't let him.
Every beat of Ren's heart thudded faintly against his own. Every shift in Ren's mood — that quiet vigilance, the exhaustion creeping under his calm — rippled through Yuji like it belonged to him too.
---
"You're going to pass out if you keep forcing yourself awake," Ren said finally, his voice cutting through the silence.
"I told you," Yuji muttered, "I don't sleep well."
Ren glanced at him over his shoulder. "You'll have to. We don't know how long we'll be running."
Yuji glared at the floor. "Easy for you to say. You seem perfectly fine."
Ren didn't respond right away. Then: "I'm not."
The honesty in his tone made Yuji look up.
Ren sighed and sat on the floor, leaning back against the opposite wall, stretching his long legs out in front of him. "But I've learned to live with it."
---
Yuji hugged his knees tighter. The ache in his chest was back. Subtle at first. Then sharper.
Ren felt it too. Yuji could tell by the way his eyes flicked to him.
"Come here."
Yuji blinked. "What?"
Ren patted the ground beside him. "The farther you are, the worse it gets. You know that by now."
Yuji stayed frozen. "I'm fine."
"You're lying."
---
The pain sharpened until Yuji couldn't take it anymore.
Cursing under his breath, he slid off the bench and sat beside Ren, keeping as much distance as the small room allowed.
It wasn't enough.
The bond pulsed like an unspoken command.
Ren didn't move closer. He didn't need to.
Yuji did.
Bit by bit, until their shoulders brushed.
The relief was instant.
And devastating.
---
They didn't speak.
Minutes passed, the silence heavy with everything unspoken.
Yuji closed his eyes, just for a moment, telling himself it was only to rest.
But he felt it — Ren's gaze lingering on him. The quiet warmth radiating from his body.
And beneath it all, something deeper.
Something Yuji wasn't ready to name.
---
When sleep finally came, it wasn't his own dreams waiting for him.
It was Ren's.
And this time, there was no distance between them at all.