He stood there, breathless, rain running down his face in rivulets, his hair plastered to his forehead, his coat clinging to him like it had lost the strength to shield him. But it was his eyes that stopped you. Wet—not just from the rain. But from the way they brimmed with something more.

“I tried,” he said, voice hoarse, breaking in the middle like a cracked stone. “I tried to keep my distance. To stay quiet. To let you go. But I can’t anymore. I—” he inhaled sharply, eyes flicking down before they found yours again.

His voice shook as he stepped closer. “I’m in love with you.”

The words hung there, raw and trembling between you, laid bare in the storm.

“I’ve been in love with you,” he continued, quieter now, as if the truth itself was fragile. “Since the first time you stayed. Since you looked at me like I was something worth waiting for. Since you asked me about the things no one ever noticed. I didn’t know what to do with it. I still don’t.”

His hands opened at his sides, helpless. “You’re the safest place I’ve ever known. And I was too afraid of ruining it to tell you. But now I’m more afraid of walking away and never knowing if you felt it too.”

Tears mixed with rain, his expression laid open in a way you’d never seen. “I don’t want quiet nights without you in them. I don’t want a future where you’re not the first thing I reach for.”

He took one final step, close enough now that his voice dropped to a whisper.

“If you don’t feel the same, I’ll let you go. I swear it. But if you do… even just a little… I’ll love you in every way you deserve. I’ll never make you doubt it. Not even once.”

The rain kept falling, but the world felt still. His eyes searched yours, trembling with hope, with fear, with love that had waited too long to stay silent.

“Tell me I’m not too late.”