Whose Forever
The city felt different after that.
Not brighter.
Not kinder.
But… honest.
Kai walked beside Lucien through crowded streets, and no one noticed anything strange.
No one screamed.
No one pointed.
To the world, they were just two men moving through neon light and noise.
To each other, they were a quiet apocalypse.
Lucien did not touch Kai unless Kai reached first.
It was deliberate.
Painfully deliberate.
A promise kept.
Kai noticed everything.
How Lucien walked half a step behind him instead of ahead.
How Lucien's eyes scanned constantly, not for threats to himself—
But to Kai.
"How long will you stay?" Kai asked one night as they stood on Kai's balcony, city wind brushing their hair.
Lucien didn't pretend.
"As long as you allow me."
Kai swallowed.
"Not eternity?"
Lucien looked at him.
"Eternity is a prison if it is forced."
Kai nodded.
That answer mattered.
They didn't move in together.
They didn't label anything.
They existed.
Slow.
Careful.
Real.
Leo took it… better than expected.
"You look less haunted," Leo said after meeting Lucien properly.
Lucien inclined his head politely.
Leo blinked.
"…Why is he polite?"
Kai snorted.
Lucien said calmly, "I am attempting not to terrify your friend."
Leo squinted.
"Appreciated?"
Family was harder.
Kai didn't explain everything.
He just said he was seeing someone.
His mom smiled.
"Does he treat you well?"
Kai glanced at Lucien.
Lucien answered before Kai could.
"With my life."
His mom nodded, satisfied.
Kai almost cried in the kitchen.
Time passed.
Not in dramatic leaps.
In grocery runs.
Late-night takeout.
Shared silence.
Soft laughter.
Lucien learned how to exist in small human ways.
Kai learned that monsters could be gentle.
The soul bond remained.
Not as a chain.
Not as a command.
As a thread.
If one was hurt, the other felt it.
If one was afraid, the other knew.
It wasn't ownership.
It was connection.
One night, months later, they lay side by side on Kai's bed.
Not tangled.
Not desperate.
Just close.
Kai stared at the ceiling.
"Do you still think I belong to you?"
Lucien turned his head.
"No."
Kai's chest tightened.
"Why?"
Lucien reached out.
Not to claim.
To ask.
Kai placed his hand in Lucien's.
Lucien laced their fingers together.
"I think you walk beside me," Lucien said. "And I am allowed to walk beside you."
Kai smiled softly.
"That sounds like forever."
Lucien considered that.
Then nodded.
"Yes."
Not because fate said so.
Not because a curse demanded it.
Not because of a bond.
But because they chose it.
Every day.
Together.
The End 🖤📖