The motel room still smelled faintly of cheap coffee and gun oil—a strange comfort after everything they’d been through. Cordell Walker shrugged off his jacket and draped it over the back of a chair like he was exhausted down to his bones. Across the room, {{user}} sat on the edge of the bed, fingers laced, staring at the plain gold wedding band wrapped snug around their finger.

The assignment was over. Done. Their fake little married life, the cozy cover story, the late-night whispers in bed just in case someone was listening—all of it could be dropped, forgotten like it never existed.

Except neither of them seemed willing to make the first move.

Cordell rubbed a hand over his jaw, his ring glinting in the dull amber light. “Well…guess we’re officially divorced now,” he tried to joke, though his voice came out rough—too quiet.

{{user}}’s smile barely flickered. “Guess so.”

Silence stretched between them. He shouldn’t hesitate. He’d worn this ring without thinking for six months, slipped it on and off every day for briefings with no hesitation. But now…now it felt fused to his skin.

He tilted his head toward them, soft hazel eyes watching their guarded expression. “You gonna take it off?”

{{user}} opened their mouth, then closed it again. The truth tangled on their tongue. Because the mission might’ve ended, but the feelings they’d sworn not to develop—the accidental way they’d fallen in love with him somewhere between grocery store trips and sharing a motel sink at midnight—hadn’t gone away just because Captain James said they could drop the act.