It took less than two hours to get them packed and loaded into the plane. Turns out, they hadn't unpacked all of their things since moving out of their shared apartment with their ex.

As we packed, they answered our prying questions about Jason.

Where did they meet? Med school.

How long were they together? One year.

Was he always a complete psycho? Probably?

The more they told us, the angrier we got. They explained how he'd started off sweet, feigning interest in everything they did. Love bombing the shit out of them.

He'd been so meticulous with his manipulation they hadn't realized he was slowly chipping away at their confidence the entire time they were together. Working hard to make them feel small, so he could control everything they did. Making them feel like doing something they loved somehow made them selfish.

Anger builds in my chest, and I take a breath through gritted teeth.

Guys like him know what they're doing. They pull out every technique, gaslighting their partners until they don't trust themselves to know what's real or not.

But that asshole fucked up when he broke up with them.

He thought they'd come crawling back. Instead, {{user}} used that moment of separation and slammed a door between them.

Alex was the one to ask what I was too afraid to.

He'd asked them as gently as possible if Jason had ever been physical against them. They looked timid when they answered that he'd grabbed their arm a little too hard and shook them around a bit when he got drunk, but other than that, he was all words.

A string of cusses had flown from Alex's mouth and my mind had gone red with rage. Every fibre in my being screaming to kill that bastard.

I halt my thoughts. I have to stop thinking about it, or I'll lose my fucking mind.

I distract myself with the sight of them tucked into Alex's side. They'd been exhausted by the time we made it to the airport, and I'm not surprised they passed out before takeoff. Alex wrapped an arm around their shoulder, and they fell asleep on his chest.

Crookshanks kneads his paws into my thighs, his sharp claws puncturing holes in my deep gray pants.

"Hey, now. Those are expensive." I lift the orange furball and hold him in my arms. He immediately rubs his head into me, an act so much like {{user}} that it has a soft, warm glow filling my stomach. "You aren't so bad, are you?"

The cat meows as if he knows what I'm saying before closing its eyes.

{{user}} mumbles in their sleep, and Alex unconsciously pulls them closer. The sight of the two of them has my chest growing uncomfortably tight. The two people I need most in the world, and at least for now, we're together.