The quarantine door shut with a dull thud, and the sound ricocheted through the sterile room like a cruel echo.
Naiara stood frozen for a few seconds, as if even the air had suddenly become too heavy to breathe.
The neon light hummed overhead. A camera blinked in the corner. The metal bed resembled an operating table.
"Leo…" she whispered, fragile.
She didn't know he was less than fifteen steps away.
Damian paced back and forth in the corridor like a caged predator.
His fists were clenched so tightly he was hurting himself.
When the captain and two soldiers received a radio call and walked away, it was as if fate had left the door slightly ajar.
All or nothing, Damian. Ten minutes.
Maybe seven.
Without hesitating, he pulled out his bypass tool and applied it to the electronic panel.
One beep. Two.
The red light turned green.
Damian slipped inside, closed the door behind him, and with a swift movement tilted the camera just enough to keep it from capturing the center of the room.
When he turned toward her… he lost a heartbeat.
Naiara took a step back, startled.
"Leo?"
Her voice was strained with relief.
Her eyes: shiny, beautiful, full of everything he should never have, pulled him in like gravity.
Damian moved toward her in silence, as if every fiber of him had recognized its counterpart.
"I needed to see you," he said quietly.
It wasn't what he meant to say.
It was what he could no longer keep inside.
Naiara stepped forward, then again, drawn by something she didn't know how to fight.
"Why are they keeping me here? What is this place? Why can't I stay with you?"
Her voice trembled with fear, yes, but also with the urgency of having him close.
Damian swallowed. It was too much.
She… was too much.
"It's just protocol," he lied, though his voice cracked.
"Stay calm. I have to play by their rules."
She shook her head. She came close enough that her fingers brushed the skin of his forearm.
A shock ran through him.
"I don't care about their rules," she whispered.
"I care about you. You look far away… like you're carrying something you don't want to share."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, there was a new ferocity there: hungry, restrained, dangerous.
"I'm keeping you alive," he said, voice almost breaking.
"And you have no idea how hard it is… staying away from you."
She held her breath.
"Then don't."
Damian's heart slammed hard in his chest.
He stepped closer, slowly, like a man who knew one wrong move would ruin him.
"You have ten minutes," he whispered. "Tell me everything that's in your heart. All of it."
Naiara grabbed the front of his jacket, pulling him closer with a desperate instinct.
"I was afraid I'd never see you again. That they took you away. That…" her voice cracked, "that you'd leave me."
"I couldn't even if I wanted to."
Damian took her wrists gently but firmly.
"As long as I breathe, no one touches you."
She whispered:
"It's strange… when you're close, I'm not afraid anymore. Not even here."
His eyes burned.
"You're killing me, Tigna."
She flinched.
"Why would you say that?"
He dipped his head, his lips brushing the barest breath from hers.
He felt her warmth, her scent, her heartbeat "Because every time you look at me like that… I forget who I am."
Naiara traced his jaw with her fingertips.
So soft. So full of trust. So full of love.
Damian's eyes fluttered shut as if the gesture physically hurt him.
"You can't touch me like that," he said, voice raw.
"You don't know what it does to me."
"Tell me."
"Desires I can't have." He paused. "And an identity I can't be."
Her brows knit in confusion.
Damian cupped her face then, his hands trembling. He saw her breath catch, not from fear but from feeling.
"I'll come for you," he whispered, a promise he never meant to make.
"Wherever they take you. Wherever."
Tears filled Naiara's eyes instantly.
"Leo…"
He pressed his forehead to hers, shutting the world out for one stolen heartbeat.
"Don't say anything. Not yet."
A sharp click sounded. The camera adjusted. Someone could be coming back.
Damian jerked away as if burned.
"Stay strong. For me."
Naiara took a step toward him, instinctively wanting to hold him there.
"Don't go."
He gripped the handle.
"If I stay… I lose you."
He slipped out, closing the door with a precise, desperate motion.
Naiara stood alone in the center of the room, breathless and shaking.
The way he had looked at her… touched her… breathed her… It was love. Desire. Protection. Pain.
But that phrase: Desires I can't have. An identity I can't be.
She touched her lips, still warm from his breath.
"Leo… what are you hiding from me?"