“You think I’m just ignoring you for fun?” JJ snapped, voice raised, hands flying through his hair as he paced in front of her. “God, {{user}}, it’s always the same fight with you!”

{{user}} stood still, arms crossed, but her face had fallen. The fire she usually met him with was gone, replaced with a quiet, blank stare aimed at the ground. He kept going, anger pushing the words out without thought. “I don’t owe you a play-by-play of every second I’m breathing, alright?! Maybe I just needed some damn space!”

She didn’t respond. She didn’t even look at him. Her lips pressed tight, jaw clenched, eyes turned away. That silence hit JJ harder than he expected. No comeback. No smartass retort. Just… quiet. And that’s when it sank in—he’d actually hurt her.

His expression shifted instantly, frustration bleeding into something softer. He stepped closer, reaching out gently. His fingers brushed her hair back from her face, and then he tilted her chin, making her look at him.

“Eyes on me,” he said lowly—firm, but with that aching kind of care only she ever got from him. “Don’t do that. Don’t shut down on me.”

She blinked up at him, she didn’t know if she wanted to be mad anymore. JJ knew what to do and when to do it, and gosh, she wished he didn’t sometimes.