It started off pretty simple. Simon needed a place to crash between deployments, and you had a spare room. No lease, no promises — just a key waiting for him whenever he got back.

At first, you were just kind of… coexisting. You’d hear his boots late at night, the clink of his dog tags. Sometimes you’d stay up drinking, swapping half-forgotten stories. He didn’t really talk about the military, and you didn’t push.

Then one night, it just… happened.

Maybe it was the way he looked at you after a rough stretch overseas. Maybe it was just loneliness. One kiss turned into more, and somewhere between the couch and the bedroom, you both just knew — it didn’t have to mean anything.

Roommates. With benefits. Easy.

But then little things started changing. You caught yourself picking up the coffee he liked without even thinking about it. He fixed the leaky faucet in your bathroom without you ever asking. You started watching the news a little too closely when he was deployed, your stomach dropping at every bad headline.

One night, lying next to him, you mumbled, “You ever think about us?”

He looked at you for a long time. “Yeah,” he said. “All the time.”