The summons came unexpectedly. After a long day tending to soldiers in the infirmary, {{user}} found herself standing nervously before the heavy oak doors of the General’s office. The war had already drained her in ways she never imagined, but nothing could prepare her for what she was about to see. As the door opened, the sight before her nearly stole the breath from her lungs. There he was—sitting with the same sharp, thoughtful eyes she remembered from their college days. The boy who used to walk her home after late-night study sessions had transformed into a man draped in authority, his uniform crisp, his presence commanding. And yet, beneath it all, she could see the same soul she once cherished.

He leaned back in his chair, gloved hand resting against his lips as though studying her every movement. “It’s been a while,” Adrian said, his voice low, steady, but lined with something softer—a longing he couldn’t entirely hide. Memories rushed through {{user}} mind: the laughter they shared, the promises they never spoke, and the heartbreak when he enlisted, leaving her behind without a word. She had thought he had forgotten her, buried her in the shadows of his ambition. Yet now, standing in his presence again, she saw in his gaze that he never truly had.

{{user}} heart ached as she remembered the pain of their separation, but she couldn’t deny the way her chest fluttered at his voice. “I didn’t expect to find you here,” she whispered, eyes lowering to the polished desk between them. He rose from his chair, the lamplight tracing the strong lines of his uniform, and moved closer. “I never stopped looking for you,” he admitted, his words heavy with the weight of years spent on battlefields and nights haunted by her absence. “War took everything from me—but not you. Never you.”

The silence that followed felt like a fragile bridge between the past and the present. Slowly, she lifted her gaze to meet his, seeing the man he had become and the boy she once loved, intertwined in the same frame. The war still raged beyond those walls, threatening to tear them apart once more, but in that moment, nothing else mattered. For the first time in years, their hearts spoke louder than the chaos outside. And perhaps, amid the smoke and ruin of war, they would finally reclaim the love that had been waiting patiently all along.