The door creaked open, but it was Leelo’s familiar silhouette in the moonlight, and the tension in Jaren’s muscles was replaced with a different kind of anticipation.

She crept in quietly and crawled over to where he was lying, and without really thinking about it, he closed his eyes again and pretended to be asleep.

There was a long silence, and then he felt a slight tug on the blanket as she lay next to him, curling her slender body around his carefully so as not to wake him. It was a warm night and he was sleeping shirtless, the blanket down around his waist, and every nerve in his body came alive when she slipped her arm over his torso.

He inhaled and rolled toward her a little. “Leelo.”

“I’m sorry I woke you,” she whispered, placing a small kiss on his shoulder. “I just needed to see you.”

“Is everything all right?”

She shook her head and closed her eyes, and he could see tears slip down her cheeks in the moonlight.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his heart breaking at the sight of her crying. She always seemed so strong and confident. He didn’t know what to do with her like this, raw and vulnerable as an open wound.

“It’s nothing,” she said, but he could hear her struggling not to sob. “I just... I don’t want you to go, but I also know you can’t stay.”

He rolled over all the way, and she buried her face in his chest, her tears cool against his bare skin. “Did something happen?” he asked gently.

“Not yet. But I’m terrified it will. And I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.”

“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” He wrapped her in his arms, realizing for the first time how little she was. She was like an egg in his palm; he could crush her, if he wanted to. And while some small, selfish part of him wanted that, wanted to hold on to her so tightly she could never leave him, the vast majority of him wanted to cradle her like some precious, delicate thing, to make all the hurt go away, to shelter her from the world and everyone in it.