He truly believed he had tried.

He had no blueprint for love, no past experience, no grand gestures perfected by time, only effort. Care. The quiet devotion of someone learning as he went. He thought that was enough.

It wasn’t.

The proof lay before him: his lover tangled in the sheets of his bed, bare and blissfully asleep beside his best friend. Sunlight streamed through the curtains as if the universe wanted him to see every detail.

His best had never even stood a chance.

Maybe he had missed the signs. The way their laughter lingered a second too long. The way his lover’s gaze softened in a way it never had for him. Maybe if he’d noticed sooner, if he had spoken up, fought harder, loved louder, this could have been avoided.

Or maybe he had already lost long before he realized he was competing.

There was no way to know.

They slept peacefully, wrapped around each other beneath his comforter, while something inside him came apart at the seams.

He didn’t slam the door. Didn’t shout. Didn’t wake them.

He simply left.

He walked through the apartment halls in silence, though his face betrayed him. Tears blurred his vision; his breathing came uneven and sharp. Passersby glanced at him and then away, unsure what to do with such open hurt.

It ached, deep and consuming, like something hollowing him out from the inside.

Love was supposed to be warm. Gentle. Safe.

No one had told him it could feel like this.

Outside, the sky stretched on in impossible blue, mocking him with its brightness. On a day so beautiful, he had been betrayed. The contrast almost felt cruel, like the world was laughing.

He kept walking.

Mind empty. Feet moving.

The roar of traffic grew louder. The air smelled of asphalt and heat. His thoughts tangled into something heavy and unbearable.

He didn’t want the pain.

He just wanted it to stop.

He stepped closer to the road, breath shaking--

And suddenly, arms hooked around him, wrenching him backward with desperate force.

He stumbled, falling onto solid warmth. A familiar scent. A steady heartbeat beneath his ear.

Dean blinked through tears, dark gray eyes lifting to meet someone he hadn’t seen in years.

{{user}}.

Those same eyes from college, steady, unwavering, fiercely alive, were staring down at him now, filled with fear.

Concern.

Relief.

And in that moment, through the wreckage in his chest, something shifted.

Even back then, you had always stepped in when he was about to fall.

A savior.