The apartment door creaked with its usual old sound, and Lee's warm, calm voice broke the silence:

"{{user}}, I'm home."

The echo of his footsteps filled the hallway, hurried and eager to find you. When he finally saw you, he stopped in the doorway, as if he needed to soak it all in, to memorize you. He smiled —that smile that seemed to hold the whole universe, made only for you. In the blink of an eye, you were wrapped up in his arms, receiving kisses that always tasted like home, summer, a forever kind of youth. Welcoming kisses. Tender ones. Full of love.

He grabbed your hand and, almost like an excited kid, pulled you toward the kitchen. On the table, he dropped a large bag, overflowing with stuff: candies, face masks, a nail polish you'd casually mentioned once, a silly keychain that said "meow" because he remembered you liked cats... It almost seemed like he had swept through the whole store thinking only of you.

But your excitement froze when your eyes fell to his hands. Fresh scratches. A bandaged wound on his forearm, poorly covered.

"Lee...?" you whispered, hesitant.

He rushed to answer, just like always.

"It's nothing, babe" he said with a soft laugh, shrugging his shoulders. "Tripped unloading some boxes at work. You know me. Clumsy."

You wanted to believe him. You tried, like you always did. You let him lace his fingers through yours, let him offer you that silent promise that everything was fine. Because you loved him. And he loved you.

More than anything.

More than his hunger.

Every night the desire between you grew too intense —every time his lips wandered too low, too slow, too desperate— Lee would remind himself: not her. Never her.

So he went out, when you were sleeping peacefully between sheets that still smelled like his cologne. He hunted. He chose carefully —only the ones who deserved it, only the ones no one would miss. It was his way of protecting you. Of protecting what you both had built.

And tonight, after leaving another nameless body behind, after washing the blood from his hands and filling a bag with gifts, he came back to you. To your laugh. To your kisses. To your pure, beating heart.

Because in the little world Lee created just for you, he wasn't a monster.