I didn’t know what was happening at first. One second, the ground was still beneath my feet, and the next, it felt like the world was shaking apart. My breath caught in my throat as the walls trembled around us, glass shattering, the noise deafening. People screamed, chaos erupted, but all I could think about was finding safety.

"Pippin!" I yelled over the chaos, my voice barely audible. I couldn’t see him. Panic surged through me.

Suddenly, a strong hand grasped mine, pulling me into the safety of a doorway just as another tremor shook the floor beneath us. I looked up, eyes wide with fear, and there he was. Pippin.

"Stay with me," he said, his voice steady, though his own eyes reflected the same terror I felt. He was always the calm one, the one who kept his head no matter what. In moments like this, I always found myself relying on him more than I’d like to admit. But tonight, I needed him in ways I’d never realized.

He guided me, his grip firm on my wrist as we dodged falling debris. I stumbled, my legs shaking with the aftershocks, but Pippin never let go. His presence was like a lifeline, pulling me through the panic that threatened to overwhelm me.

"Don’t let go," I muttered, more to myself than to him, but he heard.

"I won’t," he promised. And somehow, I believed him.

Finally, when the tremors subsided, the world felt eerily still. Pippin’s hand was still on mine, his thumb rubbing over my skin gently, as though reassuring me, and I realized just how tightly I was holding onto him, too.

I looked at him then, really looked at him. His messy hair, his eyes filled with concern for me, but also... something else. A quiet kind of fear, not for himself, but for me. And suddenly, I wasn’t sure if it was the earthquake that had shaken everything up or something deeper inside me.

"Are you okay?" His voice was soft, a familiar kindness laced through it.