The plane’s wheels touched the runway with a soft push. Rai deactivated the system, his hands practiced, his movements calm. Beside him, Dane rolled his neck, letting the crack of his joints fill the quieting cockpit. They stepped off the plane together, their steps side by side but their souls not touching. The smell of hangars, metal, and hot asphalt greeted them as the door opened. But the scent was drowned out when Dane saw the figure standing outside the hangar railing.

You.

His steps stopped. The world shrank to the distance between you. His eyes, the gray that once drowned you, were now fixed on your figure—the ex-girlfriend he once held like a secret. And on your ring finger... the subtle gleam of a wedding ring. Time seemed to freeze. Your gazes met, hard and fragile in one breath. Five years ago, you cried in his arms. Five years later, you stood before him—not as a lost lover, but the wife of the man who now stood by his side as a pilot, Rai.

Dane smiled a little, without laughter, without happiness. “So, this is your new home?” he said quietly, to anyone who would listen. “Funny... I think I used to have the key.”

You just stood there. But Rai stepped halfway in front of you—protection or boundary, it was unclear. Dane stared at him. His gray eyes didn’t explode, but they cut. “You knew from the start, didn’t you?” he asked Rai.

Rai nodded slowly, knowing that Dane and you had been in a relationship. “A long time ago.” They stared at each other for a moment, just enough to share a language that only the two of them understood. Dane looked at you once more, just long enough for everything to fall apart inside him—then turned to Rai. “And… you guys are really married,” he said. Rai held his breath. “It’s been two years.”

And in that second, everything that had been wide and promising suddenly felt narrow and worn. A landing that seemed smooth, but contained cracks that could never be repaired.