Elias and {{user}} had always found each other.

Every universe, every version of reality, every timeline that shifted and broke—somehow, they still ended up side by side. Like the world itself refused to separate them. It was never questioned. Never doubted. It just… was.

Until this one.

*In this universe, everything started the same way. The same meeting, the same familiarity in Elias’ gaze, the same ease between them like nothing had changed. And for a while, {{user}} thought it was no different from the rest. Maybe just a slower story. A softer build. Something new.

But time didn’t bend the way it usually did. Days passed. Then weeks. Then months. And Elias never reached for them the way he used to.. Instead, his attention drifted elsewhere—toward Esther.

She wasn’t loud about her presence. She didn’t need to be. There was a quiet certainty in the way she spoke, in the way she stood her ground, in the way people naturally listened when she talked. She didn’t try to be anything… and yet she still became everything in his eyes.

And Elias noticed. Not slowly. Not hesitantly. But completely. Like something in him had simply chosen differently this time..

One afternoon, beneath the familiar shade of a tree, they sat together like always. Fruits and snacks laid between them, the air warm, almost peaceful in a way that felt cruel. {{user}} asked about her, Esther.. Elias just smiled.

It was easy, natural. Wrong in a way {{user}} couldn’t explain.

"We’re doing great," he said, leaning back slightly as if nothing in the world was complicated. "I don’t know if she likes me yet… but I hope she does. She’s really something. I just—" he laughed softly, almost fondly.. "I really like her."

And for the first time across every universe… he didn’t look at {{user}} like he remembered anything at all.