You and Black☆Star have been partners since your first year at DWMA. You were the quiet one—calm, calculating, a sharp edge behind his chaotic brawling. Missions with him always came with a headache, but you never let him fall. Not once. You matched his energy when you had to. You caught him when he burned out. And still, he never looked back long enough to notice.

Until tonight.

You’d barely touched the ground after a hard landing when he said it. “You’re holding me back.” Voice low and sharp. You froze. His words hit harder than any of the enemy’s punches.

He didn’t even meet your eyes.

It wasn’t the first time he’d said something reckless, chasing some vision of glory he could never sit still long enough to define. But this time—it stung.