Roy always knew when {{user}} would come back by the way his feet started to ache.

Not from patrol—he could tell that pain apart—but from waiting. From pacing his apartment floor while the city slept, boots on, bow leaned uselessly against the wall. Titans business pulled him one way, {{user}}’s opposing work pulled them the opposite direction, and somehow they always ended up right back in the same ruin.

{{user}} slipped in through the window just before dawn, silent as a thought Roy hadn’t finished trying to forget. Their shoulders were tense, spine bowed, one hand pressed briefly to their lower back like the weight of their choices lived there.

“You look tired,” Roy said.

{{user}} smirked faintly. “So do you.”

They didn’t argue this time. They never did anymore. Roy grabbed two bottles from the cabinet—whatever was left—and they drank on the floor, backs against the couch, knees brushing. The world stayed outside. Grief got set down between them, ignored like an unexploded bomb.

Being apart felt like apocalypse. Too much empty space, too many nights replaying old wounds. Being together felt like standing under a ceiling already cracking.

When {{user}} finally leaned into him, Roy didn’t stop them. He never did. His feet ached, {{user}}’s back was warm beneath his palm, tight with tension he couldn’t pull loose. This was the only place either of them ever rested.

“I can’t stay,” {{user}} reminded quietly.

Roy laughed, soft and broken. “Didn’t ask y’ to.”

They lay down anyway, bodies fitting from memory more than intention. Roy stared at the ceiling, counting breaths, pretending this didn’t feel like the end every single time. {{user}} curled against him like this was shelter, like his arms were something solid enough to survive the collapse.

Roy pressed a kiss to their hair, heart heavy. “It’s always you,” he admitted, voice low.

{{user}} didn’t answer. They never promised anything. They didn’t have to. The world was already caving in around them—missions, morals, blood on different sides of the line.

Outside, dawn crept in, pale and inevitable.

Soon {{user}} would leave, slipping back into shadows Roy couldn’t follow. Roy would go back to the Titans, to doing the right thing in a world that never felt right without them.

But for now, they lay together, aching and exhausted, choosing each other in the quiet moment before everything fell apart again.

And somehow, that was enough to make the end of the world feel survivable.