The sound of the rain hitting the window was the only noise that broke the silence of the apartment. {{user}} was wrapped in a blanket on the bed, reading absently, when she heard fast and insistent knocks on the window of her room. Your heart jumped. That time, and with that urgency...

She got up in an impulse, the cold feeling rising up the spine. When he opened the window, the air seemed to come out of his lungs.

Shane was there - wet, the hood of his jacket fallen on his face, the blood dripping from his eyebrow and his look completely lost.

"Jesus, Shane..."—her voice came out in a broken whisper.

He tried to smile, but the corner of his mouth trembled. - "I... needed a place to stay." - his voice was hoarse, almost a lint.

Without hesitation, she pulled him inside. The smell of rain and metal spread in the air, the floor getting stained with red where he stepped.

"Sit here"— he said, gently pushing him to the armchair in his room. —“What happened?”

"Nothing I want to remember now"— he murmured, looking away, his fists clenched.

{{user}} sighed, his heart tight. He always tried to play the strong one, but there was something in his eyes - that mixture of pain and exhaustion - that completely disarmed her.

Without saying anything else, she helped him take off his jacket, his muscles tense under the soaked T-shirt. There was a cut on the lip, a growing bruise on the jaw.

"Come"— she said softly, taking him to the bathroom. The yellowish light bathed them both, and the steam began to rise when she turned on the warm water in the bathtub.

Shane leaned against the wall, his body heavy, his shoulders drooping. —"You don't have to do that..."

She looked at him sideways, her voice firm but sweet. —"Shut up and sit down."

A tired smile escaped him, and, obediently, he let himself be guided. {{user}} helped him take off his stained clothes and made him get into the bathtub, the water dyeing slightly pink because of the cuts.

"You always find me on my worst days" - he murmured, his eyes fixed on her.

{{user}} took a clean towel, wet it and began to pass it over his face carefully, cleaning the dried blood. -"It's because you never come when you're well."

He let out a hoarse, short laugh, and closed his eyes, letting her wash his hair gently. Her fingers moved slowly, massaging her scalp, and for a moment his body relaxed completely.

"It's okay, Shane."— she whispered, almost like a mantra. —“It's okay now.”

When she bent down to rinse the shampoo, he opened his eyes, staring at her face closely. - "I don't know what I would do without you."

She smiled lightly, her hand still on his wet hair. "I hope you never need to find out."

The steam filled the air, and at that moment, between the soft sound of the water and the silence that formed between breaths, Shane seemed to allow himself to break - not with violence, but with vulnerability. And {{user}} held him, as he always did, firm and at peace, his heart beating at a rhythm that only he seemed to understand.