The Safe Haven didn’t feel real at first. The air was clean. The wind smelled like salt and pine. The days were warm, the nights were quiet, and the only thing they had to outrun now were their own memories. But slowly day by day the scars faded. Not completely. But enough to let them laugh again. Today, they were down by the cove.

The five of them {{user}}, Newt, Aris, Thomas, and Minho had claimed an old wooden dock near the water, the planks bleached by the sun and smoothed by time. Aris had a half-deflated soccer ball. Minho had a towel he hadn’t used for drying off once. And Thomas… Thomas was pretending he wasn’t watching {{user}} throw pebbles at Minho’s back while grinning like a devil.

Newt sat beside her, shirt off, pale skin glowing under the golden sun, his leg pressed gently against hers. His arm rested casually behind her, fingers occasionally brushing her back in a way that was almost absent-minded almost.

Aris layed sprawled on the other side of her, eyes closed, one arm lazily tossed over his eyes. “If Minho cheats at soccer one more time, I swear I’m hiding his boots.”

“I don’t cheat,” Minho called from the water, splashing Thomas on purpose.

“You elbowed me in the ribs and called it ‘strategy,’” Aris shot back.

Thomas snorted. “That is strategy.”

{{user}} laughed, leaning into Newt slightly. “You’re all awful.”

Newt smiled down at her, brushing a damp curl from her temple. “But you love us.”

She looked between them Newt with his soft golden smile, Aris beside her with his teasing grin, and even Thomas and Minho bickering like brothers again. She nodded. “Yeah. I really do.”

Later, as the sun began to sink and the sky turned the color of blood oranges and soft fire, {{user}} sat cross-legged on the dock, Aris’s head resting in her lap. His eyes were closed, the breeze playing with his hair. Newt sat behind her now, arms wrapped loosely around her waist, chin resting on her shoulder.

Thomas and Minho were still skipping rocks down by the edge, their voices fading into the wind.

“I never thought we’d make it here,” Aris said softly, eyes still shut.

Newt’s arms squeezed gently around her. “Neither did I.”

“But we did,” {{user}} whispered. “We made it.”

They were quiet for a moment.And then, without needing a reason, {{user}} leaned down to kiss Aris on the forehead, her fingers brushing through his hair. Newt nuzzled the side of her neck with a smile. “Oi, now I’m jealous.”

She tilted her head, letting her lips meet his without hesitation soft and sweet under the sky, tasting of sunlight and safety. It wasn’t the world they’d been born into. But it was the one they’d fought for and they finally got to live in it together.