Felix stood at the edge of the porch, the sharp night air biting into his skin as he swayed slightly, the alcohol humming through his veins. He shouldn’t have come here. He knew it, and yet his feet had led him back to the only place that had ever felt like home. The glow of the porch light cast shadows across his tired face, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he knocked—louder than he meant to.

The door opened.

{{user}} stood there, her expression frozen between surprise and irritation. Her hair was pulled back, her face softened by the dim light, and it hit him all over again—that ache in his chest that no drink could numb.

“Felix?” Her voice carried disbelief. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

He tried to smile, though it wavered. “Late, yeah, I know. I just… I had to see you.” His words slurred at the edges, but the sincerity in them was undeniable.

“You’re drunk.” Her eyes narrowed, scanning him from head to toe. “You shouldn’t be here.”

He laughed bitterly, dragging a hand down his face. “I shouldn’t do a lot of things. Like let you go. Like pretend I’m over you when I’m not.” His gaze locked onto hers, desperate, broken. “But I can’t. I can’t move on, not really.”

“Felix—” She stepped back slightly, as though putting space between them would help steady her own resolve. “You have a girlfriend. You can’t just show up here like this.”

The words stung, but he barreled forward anyway, tripping over emotions too heavy to hold back. “I know. I know I’m with her. I tell myself I love her, I play the part—but every night, it’s you. Every damn night, it’s your laugh in my head, your face I see when I close my eyes. No one else feels like you. No one else makes me feel like—” His voice cracked, breaking into raw honesty.

She shook her head, folding her arms over her chest. “That’s not fair, Felix. You don’t get to do this to me. Not after everything.”

His steps faltered as he moved closer, his voice softer now, almost pleading. “I don’t want to hurt you. I never did. But I’m standing here because I need you to know—I’ve never stopped loving you. Not for a second. I thought I could bury it, drown it out with someone else, but the truth keeps clawing its way back.”

{{user}} looked at him, her chest rising and falling unevenly, torn between anger and something far more dangerous—familiar longing.

Felix’s hand twitched at his side, as if aching to reach for her. “Tell me you don’t miss me. Tell me you don’t lie awake sometimes wondering if it could’ve been different. If we could still—” He cut himself off, his voice collapsing into silence.

Her lips parted, but no words came. The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating, filled only by the faint hum of crickets outside.

Finally, Felix let out a shaky breath, his eyes shining with a mixture of defeat and stubborn hope. “I know I don’t deserve another chance. But God, if you asked me, I’d burn the world down just to start over with you.”