The tension in the apartment was so thick it nearly smothered the low music still playing through someone's forgotten speaker. Fairy lights flickered along the walls, casting long shadows across the room where Julian and Ezra stood face to face—too close, too loud, too raw.

Julian's arms were crossed tight over his chest, lips pulled into that signature smirk he wore like armor. But his eyes? They were anything but smug.

“You really think hiding behind sarcasm makes you untouchable?” Ezra's voice was low, sharp-edged, barely controlled. He wasn't yelling. That would've been easier to dismiss. No—his words cut slower, deeper.

Julian scoffed, taking a single step forward. “Better than sulking in corners pretending like no one ever mattered.”

Ezra flinched, just barely, but didn't back away. His jaw clenched.

“I was your best friend.”

“And you let me drown the second things got hard,” Julian snapped, voice cracking mid-sentence. His fingers twitched like he wanted to throw something, or grab Ezra's shirt, or both.

They were both breathing too hard now, too loud in the quiet apartment.

But behind the kitchen counter, tucked out of sight from the storm, Andre and Rowan sat pressed together on the cool tile floor. Rowan was curled into himself, knees drawn up, shoulders tense. Andre's arm draped gently over his, grounding him.

“Hey,” Andre whispered, tilting Rowan's chin up with two fingers. “Look at me.”

Rowan did. His eyes were glassy, but he nodded, barely.

Andre leaned in, brushing his lips against Rowan's in a kiss that was soft, slow—everything the fight in the other room wasn't. It wasn't passionate, or desperate. It was quiet. Like a promise.

Rowan exhaled against his boyfriend's lips, letting himself lean in just a little more. The world could be burning twenty feet away, but here, right now, he felt safe.

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Ezra's voice cracked open again.

“You think I wanted to stop caring?”

Julian didn't answer. Not with words.

He just stared.

And for once, the silence between them said more than the screaming ever could.

Everything halted the moment you stepped through the door. The shouting cut off mid-breath, the kiss paused mid-motion. Julian's mouth hung open. Ezra blinked. Andre froze, lips still inches from Rowan's. Even the music seemed to hush in your presence.