The wedding reception glowed golden soft lights, polished wood floors, the quiet hum of conversations that swelled and faded like waves. Elias stood there frozen for half a breath, the child at his side tugging absently at his sleeve, as Adrian approached with the kind of presence that pulled the air along with him.
Elias had to tilt his head up just a little, Adrian really had grown.
Broad shoulders, sharp suit, the buzz cut more striking up close, the tattoos brushing against the edges of his collar. His scent was clean, something dark and expensive.
But his eyes…
Those were the same.
Deep, intense, focused like he saw everything that wasn't being said.
"It's really you," Adrian murmured, a low rumble that sank into Elias's chest.
His gaze flicked over Elias once, slow but subtle, taking in the curls, the soft lines of his face, the tan skin, the calmer presence.
Elias let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
"You look different," he said softly.
It wasn't the playful line it could have been. It was something more honest.
"So do you." Adrian's gaze warmed. "A good different."
Elias felt heat crawl up his neck, annoyingly easy to fluster, even now.
He cleared his throat and shifted slightly, the child leaning into his side.
The boy peeked up at Adrian with wide eyes.
Adrian softened instantly, so subtly Elias almost missed it.
"Hey, buddy." Adrian crouched slightly so he wasn't towering. "You like weddings?"
The boy blinked, then nodded, clutching Elias's fingers.
Elias couldn't help the small, quiet smile that pulled at his mouth. Seeing big, intimidating Adrian melting into something gentle for a moment… it stirred something deep, old, and warm inside him.
"This is Jun," Elias said, voice softening naturally.
"Jun, this is… an old friend of mine. Adrian."
Adrian's eyes flicked to Elias briefly, a hint of something unreadable passing through him at the word friend.
But he said nothing.
"Nice to meet you, Jun."
He offered his hand slow, patient and Jun hesitated before shaking it, shy but curious making Adrian let out a soft chuckle.
Elias watched, something tightening in his chest at the sight.
They stood there for a long moment, long enough that Elias felt something unspoken building between them.
The years suddenly didn't feel so far.
"So, what do you do now?"
Elias asked it gently, like he wasn't sure he had the right.
Adrian straightened, fitting back into his tall, solid frame.
"I'm an officer," he said simply, but there was a subtle pride in his tone.
"Criminal division. Worked my way up. Hard work finally paid off."
Elias's eyes widened a soft, warm surprise blooming across his face.
"You actually did it."
His voice held admiration, quiet but unmistakable.
"You always talked about it. You were obsessed with those textbooks."
Adrian huffed a small laugh, the kind that barely slipped out, like he wasn't used to letting it.
"Still am. Some things never change."
Elias shook his head lightly.
"Plenty has changed," he murmured and Adrian's gaze dropped, briefly but intensely, to the lines of Elias's throat, the way his curls brushed his cheek, the way he stood protectively close to the boy.
"What about you?" Adrian asked.
"What do you do now?"
Elias hesitated, just long enough to reveal there were pieces he guarded.
"Consulting work. Some business stuff on the side. Mostly freelance."
Adrian narrowed his eyes slightly.
Not judging but observing, Cataloguing, Seeing the gaps.
"Must be flexible," he murmured, glancing at Jun. "Good for him."
Elias's chest tightened.
"Yeah… he's my priority."
Adrian nodded once, slowly.
A deep, understanding kind of nod, the kind that said he respected that more than Elias realized.
There was a silence between them.. not awkward, but charged.
The kind where breathing felt too loud.
Adrian stepped just a little closer.
Not enough to crowd.
But enough that Elias felt the heat of him.
"You look calmer now," Adrian said quietly.
"More… grounded."
Elias let out a soft breath.
"Life does that."
Adrian's gaze flicked over him again, slower this time.
"You glow."
A simple statement. Heavy with meaning.
Elias felt warmth rise again but forced a soft scoff.
"And you… look like you could lift a car now."
Adrian smirked.
"Not a car. Maybe a motorcycle."
Elias's laugh slipped out before he could stop it, soft, warm, automatically familiar.
Adrian's expression changed at that sound, just slightly, but enough.
"I missed that," he said before he could catch himself.
Elias froze.
Adrian did too, realizing what he'd admitted.
The child tugged at Elias's sleeve again, pulling them out of the moment.
"Can I go get juice?"
Elias blinked, breath shaking just a little.
"Yeah, sweetheart. Just stay where I can see you."
Jun nodded and trotted off toward the drink table.
Adrian watched him for a moment, then spoke quietly.
"He's a good kid."
Elias's voice softened.
"Yeah… he really is."
Adrian hesitated, then asked with a gentleness Elias didn't expect:
"Is he… your son?"
Elias swallowed a small movement, but revealing.
"Technically? No. But he's mine."
Adrian nodded again, slower this time, thoughtful, almost reverent.
"You're a good man," he said softly.
Not as a compliment… As a truth and Elias looked away, cheeks warming slightly.
When their eyes met again, something shifted.
The years apart.
The changes in their bodies.
The pain, the growth, the paths neither expected.
It all sat between them.. heavy but warm.
And Adrian's gaze…
It lingered a little too long on Elias's lips.
Elias's breath stilled, chest rising just a little more sharply.
The old spark hadn't died.
It had just been waiting.
The reception swelled into an easy, golden hum soft instrumental music, the distant pop of champagne, the blur of guests drifting past in formal clothes and fading perfume. But for Elias, the room had narrowed to a single shape tall, sharp, controlled standing just inches from him.
Adrian.
The man he once knew only as the quiet, nerd who sat in the back row of lectures… now a presence so large it seemed to warp the space around him. Elias felt it before he processed it, the pull. The warmth. The deep, low gravity in Adrian's gaze. Adrian didn't touch him. He didn't need to.
His eyes alone skimmed over Elias with the slow, steady precision of a man who observed to understand, a man who saw too much and said too little.
Elias wet his lips without meaning to, Adrian's jaw tensed at the motion.. Just barely. But enough.
Their breath mingled between them warm, subtle, charged, A small hand tugged at Elias's pants.
"Daddy… I can't reach the cups."
Adrian's attention snapped downward instantly, the hard lines of his expression softening like a crack of light.
Elias blinked, the word "Daddy" always hit him somewhere deep, but hearing it in front of Adrian felt strangely revealing.
He cleared his throat.
"Okay—hold on, baby."
Adrian moved first, Not rushed, Not dramatic. Just a solid, instinctive step forward.
"I've got him."
His voice dipped gently, quietly, with a warmth Elias wasn't prepared for. He crouched down, forearms flexing against the tailored sleeves of his suit jacket, and lifted Jun with a firm, careful ease, as though he'd done it a hundred times.
Jun blinked, startled at first, then settled naturally into Adrian's hold, small hands gripping the officer's shoulders.
It was ridiculous how good Adrian looked holding him.
Elias felt a twist in his chest something like awe, something like longing, something like confusion. He swallowed it down, watching Adrian guide the boy to the drink table, lowering him enough to reach the cups but keeping a steady arm around his waist.
"There you go," Adrian murmured, his voice lowering into a soft rumble meant for children, warm and patient in a way Elias had never seen.
"Don't spill it. It'll make your suit sticky."
Jun nodded in that overly serious way kids did.
"Okay."
Elias felt his throat tighten.
Adrian set the boy down slowly, making sure he was steady before letting go. Then he straightened back to his full height and that's when he looked at Elias again.
Something had changed.
As if seeing Elias with a child had shifted something fundamental inside him.
"You really do take good care of him."
Adrian's voice was softer now, quieter but it vibrated with something deeper beneath the surface.
Elias tucked a curl behind his ear, habitually smoothing nothing.
"I try."
Adrian's gaze lowered briefly studying Elias's hands, his posture, the way he shifted weight toward the child without thinking.
Then his eyes lifted again, slow, dragging.
"He trusts you a lot."
Elias exhaled, barely.
"He's… my whole world."
Adrian nodded a long, thoughtful movement.
His voice dropped,
"It shows."
Elias's breath caught.
The compliment was too honest. Too raw.
He looked away instinctively, heat rising across his chest, neck, ears.
Adrian noticed, of course he noticed.
His mouth curved. Barely a smile. More like a recognition.
Jun wandered toward the seating area, distracted by other kids. Elias's eyes followed him, tracking every step, an instinct sharpened by years of needing to protect someone small and fragile.
Adrian watched Elias watching the boy.
"You don't rest, do you?" he asked quietly.
Elias blinked, caught.
"What do you mean?"
Adrian's voice softened, deeper, almost intimate.
"You're always alert. Shoulders tense. Eyes on him even when you're talking to me."
He paused.
"Feels like you've been doing that for a long time."
Elias inhaled slowly, the kind of breath that comes from hearing something too accurate.
"I have."
Adrian took a small step closer, not enough to touch, but enough that Elias felt his body heat, the shadow of him.
"Who looks after you, then?"
Elias's lips parted.
Unexpected question.
Too direct.
Too piercing.
He whispered softly,
"…No one."
Something flickered across Adrian's face.
A slow-blooming, protective intensity. Something territorial. Something dangerous if given room to grow.
Elias forced himself to break the tension by bringing up the job again as a distraction,
"So… criminal division, huh?"
He tried to smile. "I always knew you were serious, but this…" His hand gestured to the controlled, powerful man in front of him. "…this is new."
Adrian chuckled quietly.
"Is it?"
"Very."
Elias took in the tattoos, the muscles, the sharpness.
"You're not the guy I sat next to in econ."
Adrian held his gaze.
"Neither are you."
Elias felt that hit him low, deep.
Adrian took his time looking at him at the tan skin, the curls, the lines of maturity on his face, the elegance in his posture, the quiet strength in the way he stood.
"You…" Adrian's voice dipped, almost a whisper.
"…glowed up."
Elias coughed, heat rushing up his neck.
"So did you."
Adrian smirked, a real one this time, laced with memory and recognition.
"You were… loud, back then."
Elias laughed softly.
"I was. Too many friends. Too many parties. Too much energy."
Adrian stepped an inch closer.
"I noticed."
Elias stopped breathing for a second.
"You did?"
Adrian's voice deepened.
"Always."
The admission hit the space between them like a spark to dry wood.
Jun tugged Elias's hand again grounding him, pulling him out of the heat.
"Daddy, look! They brought out cake!"
Elias smiled, melting instantly.
"Yeah? Want some?"
Jun nodded eagerly.
Adrian watched the transformation, the shift from tension to softness and something in his expression warmed all over again.
"Want me to help you carry it?" Adrian asked Jun gently.
Jun nodded again.
No hesitation this time.
Elias watched the way the boy naturally gravitated toward Adrian…
and the way Adrian adjusted his stance to match the child's height and pace.
Protective. Warm.
Natural.
Something twisted deep in Elias's chest.
Something he couldn't name.
As they walked toward the dessert table, Adrian slowed enough for his voice to reach Elias alone.
Low.
Rough.
Almost quiet enough to be imagined.
"Don't disappear after this."
Elias's breath stilled.
"Why not?"
Adrian looked over his shoulder.. eyes dark, soft at the edges, filled with something old and newly awakened.
"Because I don't want to lose you twice."
Elias's heart dropped then kicked hard.
And Adrian held his gaze for one long, devastating moment…
before turning to help Jun get cake.
⸻ ⸻ ⸻
The reception lights dimmed gradually as the wedding playlist shifted into slower, warmer music. Couples began to drift onto the dance floor, silhouettes moving in soft sways at the edge of the room. Elias stayed where he was, rooted for a moment, breath unsteady.
Because Adrian's words were still in him.
Because I don't want to lose you twice.
He hadn't expected it.. that much honesty, that much weight, spoken in that dark, velvet tone. A tone Elias remembered without realizing he remembered it.
He inhaled shakily and followed them, trying to steady his heartbeat into something normal.
Adrian lifted a small plate, effortlessly balancing Jun's cake with the sort of care that came naturally to him. Elias caught the tail end of a low rumble disguised as gentle teasing.
"If you drop it, I'll make you do thirty push-ups."
Jun's eyes widened in terror.
"You can't make me do that."
Adrian raised an eyebrow in a way that was both deadpan and playful.
"Try me."
Jun clutched the plate like a soldier guarding classified documents.
Elias almost laughed, almost because the sight did something to him he wasn't used to anymore. Something light. Something warm in a way he didn't trust.
Adrian set the boy down and turned to Elias again.
He didn't speak.
He didn't smile.
He simply watched him, like Elias was something he had to relearn, something he hadn't realized he missed, something he wasn't willing to look away from this time.
Elias felt heat collect low in his stomach, curling upward.
"Let him run around," Adrian murmured, his voice dropping so only Elias heard. "Kids don't break as easily as you think."
Elias exhaled through a soft, tired laugh.
"You say that because you don't know Jun. He attracts danger like—"
"Like someone else I used to know," Adrian said, gaze sliding over him with pointed implication.
Elias swallowed.
"Used to?"
Adrian's voice lowered another half-octave, rougher.
"Still do."
The air tightened between them again tense, fragile, charged like a wire pulled too tight.
Jun darted off toward another pack of kids, cake in hand, already forgetting the warning. Elias's instinct moved him half a step forward to intervene—
A hand closed gently around his wrist.
Not forceful.
Not even entirely intentional.
Just instinct, Adrian's instinct.
"Relax," Adrian murmured, breath brushing Elias's cheek. "He's okay."
Elias froze.
Adrian's fingers were warm calloused, solid, grounding.
A steadying pressure that worked faster than his own breath ever could.
Elias forced his shoulders to drop, one slow inch at a time.
"Sorry," he whispered, embarrassed. "I'm… used to being the only one watching him."
Adrian's gaze softened.
"You don't have to do everything alone."
The words weren't a flirt, but they felt like one because of the way Adrian said them, gently but with a quiet intensity that settled low in Elias's spine.
Elias needed distraction.
"So…" he murmured, clearing his throat. "... How long have you been an officer exactly?"
Adrian's lips twitched, the closest thing to a real grin.
"Long enough to regret the choice."
"Seriously?"
Elias nudged his shoulder lightly, not meaning to touch him but doing so anyway. "You worked so hard for it."
Adrian looked down at the point where their shoulders brushed, as though memorizing the accidental contact before lifting his gaze again.
"That was before I knew what it'd turn me into."
Elias frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Adrian's eyes slid to the side, as if observing an old scar only he could see.
"It changes you," he said quietly. "Makes you sharper. Colder. You start thinking in threats and exits. You stop… resting."
Elias watched him intently, the tightness in his jaw, the heaviness in his voice, the way he carried tension like armor.
"That's not who you were," Elias whispered.
Adrian huffed a faint laugh.
"No. I was.. too quiet. Too nerdy. Always making smart mouth remarks. It got me in trouble."
"I liked that version of you."
Adrian stilled.
The faintest crack of vulnerability flashed across his eyes before he masked it.
"Yeah well…" His voice deepened. "You changed too."
Elias shifted in place.
"How so?"
Adrian took a long moment before answering.
"You're quieter. More elegant. More grounded." His eyes dropped to Elias's hands, then to his mouth, lingering. "But you're harder to read now."
Elias's breath caught, his pulse jumping.
"I'm not that different."
"That's the problem," Adrian murmured. "You think you're hard to notice."
Elias looked down, heat rising to his cheeks. His curls fell slightly over his forehead, and he pushed them back, another nervous habit.
Adrian watched the movement with slow, simmering interest.
"You used to hide behind those buns," Adrian said softly.
Elias blinked.
"You remember my hair?"
Adrian stepped closer, close enough that Elias smelled him again, that familiar mix of cedar, leather, and something darker that Elias couldn't name but had no trouble craving.
"I remember everything," Adrian said simply.
Elias's chest pulled tight, breath thin, heart thudding hard enough to feel in his throat.
He didn't know what to say.
Didn't know what he wanted to say.
But he knew what his body did, leaning in just slightly, unconsciously, pulled in by something he'd buried for decades.
A soft thump interrupted the moment.
Jun tripped over his own shoes and fell into Adrian's leg.
Adrian reacted before Elias even blinked, steadying the boy with one big hand on his back.
"Easy, soldier."
Jun clung to Adrian's pant leg, embarrassed.
Elias rushed forward, voice cracking.
"You okay? Baby, are you hurt—"
Adrian straightened, scooping Jun up effortlessly with one arm and handing him to Elias with the precision of someone trained for emergencies.
"He's fine," Adrian said gently.
Jun nodded, cheeks pink.
"I just slipped."
Elias kissed the top of the boy's head, murmuring a soft reassurance.
Adrian watched the tenderness with a look Elias couldn't decipher, part admiration, part something deeper, heavier.
When Elias lifted his gaze again, Adrian wasn't looking at Jun anymore.
He was looking at him.
"You're good with him," Elias said quietly.
Adrian shrugged, smoothing the expression off his face.
"I like kids."
Elias tilted his head.
"You never said that in uni."
"You never asked."
Elias laughed under his breath, a soft sound that made Adrian look almost proud.
Jun reached toward Adrian again, small hand grabbing his sleeve.
"You're tall," he announced with the authority of a child stating a universal truth.
Adrian chuckled.
"So are you, little man."
Elias felt the warmth in his chest spread in a way he didn't understand.
The way Adrian held Jun.
The way Jun trusted him instantly.
The way Adrian looked at him when the boy wasn't watching.
It was too much.
Too much nostalgia.
Too much tension.
Too much everything he'd sworn he no longer had room for.
But Adrian stepped closer anyway, voice low enough to vibrate in Elias's bones.
"When the ceremony ends," he murmured, "don't leave yet."
Elias swallowed hard.
"Why?"
Adrian leaned in by a fraction, just enough to make Elias's breath hitch.
"Because I'd really like to talk to you… without an audience."
Elias's heartbeat tripped.
"And what would we talk about?" he whispered.
Adrian's lips curved slow, deliberate, warm with something dangerously close to affection.
"Everything we missed."
Elias felt the floor tilt beneath him, Felt Jun press his cheek into his shoulder.
Felt the room disappear again until there was only Adrian, still the same gravity he'd forgotten how to resist.
Adrian took one small backward step, Not breaking eye contact… Not dismissing him, Just waiting.
"Don't run from me this time," he said softly.
Elias couldn't breathe.
"…Okay."
Adrian's expression warmed subtle, devastating.