The house was quiet. That kind of late-night silence that felt heavier than usual, stretched tight over the walls like fabric that might tear if you touched it wrong.

Simon had been home for four hours. He hadn’t sat down once.

His gear was laid out across the kitchen table in the same careful pattern you’d seen him repeat since the day you met him—rifle, sidearm, field knife, gloves, flashlight, each piece taken apart and lined up with surgical precision. He moved like he was alone. Not ignoring you, not angry—just elsewhere. Somewhere deep in his head, still half in a desert, half in a building that burned, half under the weight of orders he hadn’t questioned fast enough.

You’d kept your distance. Let him work through it.

But now it was past midnight, and the weight of the day—the worry, the waiting, the texts you hadn’t gotten—was starting to press down on your chest.

So you stepped into the kitchen, barefoot, slow. The soft pat of your steps against the floor was barely a sound, but his shoulders tensed anyway.

“I was thinking,” you said gently, “maybe we could just get some sleep. You’ve been at this for hours.”

He didn’t look up.

“Simon.”

He paused, his hand stilling on the cloth he’d been using to wipe the barrel clean.

“Just—five minutes,” you added. “I can help. Or you can finish in the morning.”

That’s when he set the cloth down, not gently. Not violently. But sharply. Like a break in the rhythm.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, not quite under his breath.

You blinked. “What?”

“Can you just—” He exhaled hard, jaw clenched, eyes locked on the weapon in front of him. “Can you let me finish this without talkin’? Just five bloody minutes.”

The silence that followed was thick. Sudden.

Your breath caught. Not because he shouted. He didn’t. But because you’d never heard him like this. Not at you.

He seemed to realize it the second the words were out. His eyes flicked up to meet yours, and the flash of regret there was instant. Crushing.

You stepped back, instinctively. Not hurt, exactly. Not afraid. But stung. He saw that.