The alley was narrow enough that John had to turn sideways to block it, one boot braced against the brick. {{user}} froze a few steps in, lamplight catching the edge of their face. He hadn’t meant to corner them like this. Or maybe he had, because his body moved before his head ever caught up.

Smoke clung to him. Cheap tobacco and the sharp bite of whiskey—too much of both, and neither earned. His breath fogged between them as he leaned in, hands curled into fists at his sides.

“You gotta stop seein’ me,” John said.

The words came out rough, scraped raw by nights spent awake and mornings spent running. He didn’t look at them when he said it, eyes fixed somewhere over their shoulder like he was already halfway gone.

{{user}} didn’t move. Didn’t step back. Just tilted their head slightly, watching him the way they always did—like they were reading something he was trying real hard to keep hidden.

“Then why’s your hand shakin’,” they asked quietly, “if you mean it?”

John sucked in a breath. Damn them for noticing. Damn them for always noticing. His fingers twitched, betraying him, knuckles white as bone. He hated how close they were. Hated how easy it would be to forget everything he was supposed to be afraid of.

“Don’t,” he muttered, but it came out weaker than he meant.

{{user}} stepped closer anyway. Not touching. Just close enough that John could feel their breath, warm and steady, so different from the way his own chest stuttered. Their forehead brushed his, barely there, like a question he didn’t trust himself to answer.

For a heartbeat, the world narrowed to that space between them. The alley disappeared. The rules did too.

Then boots hit the far end of the passage—fast, careless—followed by loud laughter and the clatter of a bottle hitting stone.

John jerked back like he’d been burned.

A group of men stumbled past the opening, voices slurred, one of them glancing down the alley just long enough to make John’s stomach drop. He shifted instinctively, blocking {{user}} from view, jaw tight until the sound of them faded into the street beyond.

When he looked back, the moment was gone.