It had been days since you felt the growing tension between you and Simon, the kind that simmered just beneath the surface, waiting to boil over. There was something unmistakably different in the way he’d been acting, more withdrawn, more distant. He wasn’t just emotionally unavailable; he was downright unreachable. Every time you tried to break through to him, he shut down, erecting that same impenetrable wall that seemed to protect him from the world. But from you? That was something you couldn’t understand.

"You can’t keep doing this, Simon." {{user}} said firmly but not harshly

Ghost paused, his back still to you, and you could see the tension in his shoulders.

"Doing what?" His voice was low, almost dangerous, like a coiled spring ready to snap

"You know exactly what I’m talking about" {{user}} said, stepping closer, the frustration she's kept bottled up, threatening to spill over

"Shutting me out, pretending like everything’s fine when it's clearly not. I get that you’re used to handling things on your own, but this isn’t working. Not for me, and not for us."

"I don’t need to talk about every bloody thing that’s on my mind" he muttered, the edge in his voice sharper now

"I’ve survived just fine without it."