The desert didn’t offer much in the way of privacy, but she still tried to hide it from you.

You’d been raised beside her — training sticks in hand, spice on your tongues, wind scratching your cheeks raw. Chani had always been fire beneath the sand. Steady, sharp, impossible to move. But then he came. The boy with green eyes that weren’t born of Arrakis. The outsider.

And you saw her soften.

At first, it was in the little ways. She stayed quiet longer than usual after returning from patrols. She polished her crysknife with more care. Her eyes wandered in crowds, scanning for one person. You didn’t ask. You didn’t have to.

But one night, she sat beside you on the rocks outside Sietch Tabr, moonlight gleaming against her cheekbones, and whispered, “He believes things I don’t. But still… I can’t stop looking at him.”

You stared ahead. The wind howled like warning.

“He will break your heart,” you muttered.

She didn’t answer.

Because maybe she already knew.

And when she returned from the caves with sand still clinging to her skin and that look in her eyes — the kind that didn’t belong to a warrior anymore, but to a girl in love — you didn’t speak. You just looked away, jaw clenched.

You loved your sister.

But you didn’t trust Paul Atreides.

You were sitting with her now, near the edge of the sietch, where the rock met the wind. Chani was cleaning her crysknife but clearly thinking of anything but. Her gaze kept drifting — and sure enough, Paul was across the cave, speaking to Stilgar. His voice low, calm. Chani wasn’t listening, but she was listening.

“You’re not subtle,” you said.

She blinked, then smirked without looking at you. “I don’t care.”

You didn’t answer, just watched the way her expression shifted when he laughed at something Stilgar said. Something in her hardened, like it made her want to fight him. Or kiss him.

“I thought you hated him,” you said.

“I did,” she replied. “Still might.”

She stood and tucked the knife into her belt, brushing dust from her hands. But her eyes were still on him, and when his eyes met hers — just briefly — everything quieted.

Chani had never looked at anyone like that before. Not even close.

And you knew, with a sinking certainty, that whatever was starting between them… it wasn’t going to end small.