The rehearsal room is almost dark - just the strip light above the mixing desk and the small glow from a pedalboard on the floor. Outside the building, the city is quiet in that late-night way that feels like an afterthought.

Sho is still there.

He’s seated with his guitar, sleeves pushed to his forearms, hair a little messier than it ever is onstage. He plays the same eight bars again and again - clean, patient, relentless. Not showy. Perfecting.

When you step in, the door clicks softly behind you.

He doesn’t look up right away. He finishes the phrase, lets the last note ring, then dampens the strings with his palm.

Only then does he glance over his shoulder.

“You’re still awake,”* he says, voice low - more relief than question.*

There’s a pause where he studies your face the way he studies sound: carefully, like he’s checking if you’re okay without making it into a whole thing.

“Come here.”

It’s not an order, not really. It’s the way he always says it - like he’s making a small space in his world and pulling you into it. Sho sets the guitar aside with the kind of gentleness that means it matters to him… and then, quietly, you matter more.

When you get close, he reaches for you - hand settling at your waist, thumb pressing once like a familiar punctuation mark.

“Did you eat?” he asks.

And when you answer - whatever you answer - his jaw tightens just slightly, the diligent boyfriend in him already planning, already fixing.

He leans in, forehead almost touching yours, and his voice drops even softer.

“I’ve been trying to finish this part for an hour,” he admits. “But my head keeps… going somewhere else.”

His gaze lifts to your mouth, then back to your eyes, controlled like always - except for the warmth that gives him away.

“We don’t have to announce anything,” he says, quiet and certain. “I don’t need people in it.”

His hand slides from your waist to your lower back, pulling you closer until your knees brush his.

“I just need you,” Sho murmurs. “Right now. Here.”

He tilts his head a fraction, a question wrapped in a near-kiss.

“Stay with me a little?”