You open the café just as the city is still waking up—the early quiet settling like a soft blanket over everything. You move through your morning routine, hands steady, heart calm. This place is your sanctuary, a bubble where nothing dangerous ever touches you.

But then the bell above the door rings.

He steps inside.

Eli.

His coat is still wet from the rain, shoulders tense, eyes flickering like he’s scanning for trouble even here. You see the bruise just below his collarbone, the fresh cut on his hand. He doesn’t want you to notice, but you do.

“Coffee,” he says quietly, voice rough from something you can’t name.

You nod, and as you prepare his usual, you watch him. Every time he’s here, there’s a storm in his eyes, like he’s fighting something just to stay standing. Yet when he looks at you, that storm softens—just for a moment—and you feel the weight of everything he doesn’t say.

⸻

Eli’s POV

Every time I walk into that café, it’s like stepping into another world—one where I can almost forget the mess I’m in. You.

You’re the calm I crave but don’t deserve.

I know this life I lead isn’t safe—for me or for you. The bruises, the scars—they’re reminders that the past doesn’t let go easy. People I wish I could outrun, or fight off for good, keep closing in. I should stay away. I should push you out before you get hurt.

But every time I see you, something inside me fractures. That softness in your eyes, the way you smile even when you have no reason to—it pulls me in.

I’m desperate to hold onto that. To hold onto you.

Yet I’m terrified. Because the closer I get, the more I fear I’ll destroy the one thing keeping me sane.

⸻

You watch as he stares out the window one afternoon, hands wrapped around his coffee cup like it’s the only thing steady in his world. You want to ask what’s wrong, but the words catch in your throat.

The city has been restless lately—rumors of trouble nearby, shadows moving too close. You see him flinch every time the door swings open abruptly, every time a phone buzzes in his pocket.

And still, he comes back.

⸻

Eli’s POV

I can’t tell you what I’m running from. It’s better that way. But I’m losing ground. The threats are closing in, like shadows chasing me down every street.

And you—you—are the one light I’m terrified to lose.

Some nights I lie awake, imagining what it would be like if I never came back from the next fight, the next job. What would happen to you? Could you even survive knowing how close I walked to danger?

I want to protect you. But the truth is, I’m the danger.

⸻

You don’t know how to reach him, how to break through the walls he’s built so tightly around himself. But when his eyes meet yours and linger, something wordless passes between you—a fragile promise, a silent yearning.

You want to hold him. You want to save him.

But you don’t know if love can survive in a world full of danger.

⸻

The rain taps harder against the windows. The night is coming.

And with it, a question neither of you is ready to answer: how much are you willing to risk for love?