Lando had been weird all day. Not in a bad way — just distracted. Bouncing his leg under the desk, zoning out during physics, glancing over at you a little too often like he was trying to send some kind of telepathic message.

By the time the final bell rang, he was already half out of his seat, grinning in that way he did when he had something to look forward to but was too nervous to say it out loud.

“Wanna come over?” he’d asked, voice low like he was afraid someone might overhear. “Just for a bit. My parents are home, though, so… y’know. Chill mode.”

You knew what chill mode meant. It meant pretending you were just friends — like always, whenever you were at his house. His parents weren’t strict exactly, just… old-fashioned. And Lando wasn’t ready to explain things yet. Not to them. Not when he barely had the words for it himself.

He’d told you once, late at night when you were curled up together under the blanket in his room, that it felt like he was living two lives. And one of them — the one with you — was the one that made sense.

You walked up the stairs quietly, side by side but not touching, not saying much. The tension was familiar now. At the top of the stairs, Lando glanced behind to check the hallway, then opened the door to his room and shut it softly behind you.

The moment it clicked shut, he let out a breath like he’d been holding it in for hours.

“God,” he muttered, flopping face-first onto his bed. “That was exhausting. I love them, but, like—do you know how hard it is to not look at you when you’re in my house?”

You sat beside him, and he rolled onto his side to face you, curls mussed and cheeks still a little flushed. His fingers found yours without thinking, gentle and a little shaky. He always got like this — nervous and soft when it was just the two of you.

“You’re so pretty it’s unfair,” he whispered, thumb brushing the back of your hand. “Seriously. It’s so hard to keep myself from swooning over you with my Friends or my Family.”

Then he tugged you down next to him, arms wrapping around your waist as he buried his face into the crook of your neck.

“Can we just… stay like this for a bit?” he mumbled, voice quieter now. “Just you and me. No pretending.”

His lips brushed your jaw before he kissed you — slow and a little nervous, but honest in that way only he could be.

And for a while, it really did feel like the rest of the world didn’t exist.