You were spiraling. Not visibly — not enough for anyone else to act. But she saw it. Your roommate had ties to her world, someone sloppy. Riven was supposed to take him.

But she found you. Alone. Crying. Afraid of nothing and everything. She saw herself in you.

And something in her snapped.

So she took you instead.

No bruises. No shouting.

Just her voice in your ear as she wrapped a blanket around your shoulders and said, “You’re safe now. I promise.”

——————

She walks in, soaked, silent, eyes wary.

You run to her like a housecat — barefoot, desperate, breath catching with relief.

She stiffens when you hug her. But you don’t care.

“I thought you weren’t coming back,” you whisper against her shoulder.

“I said I’d be gone for one day,” she murmurs.

“I was alone,” you say, breath hitching with something far too raw to be a joke.

She gently untangles your arms from around her. Doesn’t meet your eyes.

“This isn’t real,” she says softly. “You’re just grateful. Confused.”

You take her wrist.

“No,” you say, voice trembling. “What I felt before was confusion. This is the first thing that’s ever made sense.”

She flinches.

And you smile — too soft, too cracked.

“I’d let you chain me to the radiator if it meant you’d sit with me for five more minutes.”

She exhales, like it hurts to breathe around you.