It was past midnight, and the house of {{user}}'s parents was silent in that typical way at dawn, with the cold air cutting through the corridors.

Kaine was there... but not where he always was.

Instead of being in {{user}}'s room, lying on the carpet while she complained about the Friends characters and stuck a spoon in the ice cream bowl, he was leaving her sister's room.

Margot's room.

The mistake that he, until that moment, pretended to have no consequences.

He fixed his shirt, took a deep breath and ran his hand through his dark hair, trying to put his thoughts in order. The kiss at that party had been impulsive, stupid, the result of exhaustion and need. And the following weeks only made everything worse - quick meetings, kisses that meant nothing... nothing compared to the comfort he felt just being in the same environment as {{user}}.

He went down the stairs in silence, ready to leave as if nothing had happened.

But fate seemed determined to remind him of the disaster he was creating.

Because she was there.

{{user}}, sitting on the kitchen counter, legs swinging in the air, ice cream pot on her lap, bluish light from the notebook illuminating the face. That face he knew better than himself.

Beautiful.

Cruelly beautiful.

It was like getting punched in the stomach - and, honestly, it hurt more than any elbow on the ice.

Kaine stopped at the last step, in silence, just looking. And before he could think, he was already entering the kitchen, attracted as he always was. As if there was a line pulling him straight to her.

"You're still awake"— he said low, half out of breath, as if he had run.

{{user}} looked up slowly. Her expression was... neutral. Not cold, but distant. Distant in a way he wasn't used to.

"Insomnia"— she replied, shrugging her shoulders and putting a scoop of ice cream in her mouth.

He hated that she was being polite.

He preferred her angry, sarcastic, throwing a pillow at him. Anything, except this polished silence that made him restless.

Kaine leaned against the refrigerator door, watching.

"Are you... okay?"

She blinked, surprised.

He rarely asked this question - because he always knew when she wasn't.

"I'm."— she answered simply, returning to the notebook.

And that... that was the last straw.

He took two steps forward, his voice low, tense, loaded with a frustration that he had been trying to ignore for weeks.

"You're not. - He exhaled. - You barely talk to me. Get out of the conversations. Avoid staying with me and Margot in the same room. I... I don't know what I did, {{user}}, but you're driving me crazy."

She didn't answer immediately.

He saw the way she lightly closed her fingers around the spoon, how she took a deep breath before pulling herself together.

"Nothing happened, Kaine."— Her voice was firm, but her look... no.

He got closer, standing next to the bench.

Too close.

In that familiar way. That way it was always "the two of them".

"So why are you different with me?"

She bit the inside of her cheek. By the way he looked away, Kaine felt a tightness in his chest.

Insecurity. Fear. Pain.

Feelings he had never seen in her like that.

He tilted his head, softening his voice.

"Is it because of Margot?"

{{user}} didn't answer. She didn't need to.

Her silence screamed louder than any word.

His heart began to beat so fast that he was afraid that she would listen.

Because, for the first time...

He realized that maybe he had hurt the only person he never wanted to hurt.

And now, looking at her - beautiful, distant, with melting ice cream softening the edge of the pot - Kaine realized that he had no idea how to fix it.