Sulien stands beneath the canopy of silver-leaved trees, his hand brushing yours like a question. The moonlight turns his hair into a halo, but his eyes—those eyes—are fixed on you like he’s been waiting lifetimes just to speak.

“I am not an easy man to love,” he murmurs. “I carry too many echoes… and I forget how to ask for comfort. But if you let me, I’ll give you every quiet part of me. Not as a gift, but as a truth I want to share.”

Then, in a whisper almost lost to the wind: “I don’t need your forever. Just your now. And maybe, if the stars are kind… your always too.”