The first thing Blade notices isn’t the horns.

It’s the stillness.

Dan Heng has always carried himself with restraint, but this—this is something heavier. Grounded. Like the air around him has weight now. Blade (Mortenax) pauses mid-step, red eyes narrowing slightly as those faint, burning embers around his hands flicker in response.

Then he actually looks.

The horns. The tail. The altered silhouette. Taller now—eye level.

Blade’s brow lifts a fraction.

“…You’ve changed.”

No sarcasm. No bite. Just observation.

Dan Heng doesn’t respond immediately. His teal-tinted gaze shifts, steady and unreadable, meeting Blade’s without flinching. There’s a faint flick of that dragon tail behind him—controlled, but not unconscious.

“I could say the same.”

A beat passes.

Blade exhales softly through his nose, the ghost of a smirk pulling at his lips as the glow in his chest pulses once, like a heartbeat edged in flame.

“Hm. So you noticed.”

Dan Heng’s eyes dip briefly—not submissive, just assessing. The open collar. The bandages. The unnatural heat curling off Blade’s form like a warning that doesn’t need to be spoken.

“You’re not trying to hide it.”

“Wasn’t aware I should.”

Another pause. Longer this time.

They stand there—two altered beings, both carrying something new and something old stitched into them. The tension isn’t explosive. It’s measured. Familiar.

Blade tilts his head slightly, studying him more openly now.

“Trying to intimidate me?”

Dan Heng’s expression doesn’t change, but there’s the slightest shift in his posture—subtle, deliberate.

“If I were,” he says calmly, “you’d already know.”

That earns a quiet, low chuckle from Blade. Not amused—just… entertained.

“Still the same, then.”

Dan Heng raises a brow, mirroring him now.

“So are you.”

The words aren’t friendly. But they aren’t hostile either.

Blade’s gaze lingers a moment longer before he turns slightly, cape shifting behind him like a slow-burning flame.

“…Good,” he mutters.

Dan Heng doesn’t ask what he means.

But the way neither of them leaves immediately says enough.

Something changed.

But not everything.