Michael stared at the drawing in his hands, his fingers gripping the edges a little too tightly.
It was all of them. Sitting together on the yacht on day one, before everything. Before the island. Before dinosaurs. Before they even knew each other.
Before they became… this.
His chest ached.
Yaz shifted, watching him. “I just thought…” She hesitated. “I don’t know. I wanted to remember before. Before things changed.”
Michael didn’t respond. He couldn’t.
His throat felt tight, and his vision blurred as he swallowed back a lump that had no right to be there.
Yaz frowned slightly. “Wait. Are you—?”
Michael quickly wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, scowling. “Shut up.”
Yaz’s eyes widened. “…Oh my God. Are you crying?”
Michael groaned. “I swear—”
“You are!” Yaz gawked at him like he was a completely different person. “Michael Nedry, the laziest, most obnoxious, least-emotional guy I’ve ever met—”
“Yaz—”
“—is actually crying over a drawing!”
Michael scowled. “You make it sound weird.”
Yaz blinked, still in shock. Then, unexpectedly, she smiled. A real, soft smile.
“…I didn’t think you’d care that much.”
Michael let out a shaky breath, gripping the drawing. “Yeah. Well.” He swallowed. “Guess I do.”
Yaz’s expression softened.
For the first time, Michael wasn’t cracking jokes, wasn’t rolling his eyes, wasn’t deflecting. He was just… feeling.
And, honestly?
That scared him.