The warehouse smells of dust and rain — your usual hiding place, hidden from the eyes of two rival worlds. Every meeting feels stolen, dangerous, precious.

You wait, heart pounding, until Baji steps out of the shadows. His hair is messy, his grin gone tonight.

“Please come back,” you whisper, voice trembling. “Toman needs you. I need you.”

He freezes. For a second, he almost looks like the boy you remember — before all the blood, before all the lines between right and wrong blurred.

“You know I can’t,” he says quietly. “If I go back now, everything we fought for falls apart.” His fists tighten, jaw trembling. “But I don’t want to fight you either.”

You both stand there, hearts caught between duty and desire.

Then, just before words can ruin it, he steps forward — one soft breath between you — and kisses you.

It’s brief. Painful. And perfect.

Because even if you belong to different sides of the war… for that one heartbeat, you belong only to each other.