Eli had learned how to live carefully.
Carefully choosing his words.
Carefully hiding his feelings.
Carefully loving from a distance, where nothing could hurt him too badly.
Then Noah came back.
Noah didn't knock when he entered Eli's life again. He never did. He arrived like a storm—quiet at first, then impossible to ignore. His presence unsettled everything Eli had worked so hard to keep calm.
They met by accident, or maybe fate was just tired of waiting.
"You look different," Noah said, his eyes lingering longer than necessary.
"So do you," Eli replied, though his voice betrayed him.
Noah smiled, slow and knowing. "You're still running."
Eli wanted to deny it. Instead, he turned away.
That night, the air between them felt heavy, charged with all the words they had never spoken. They stood too close in the dim light, shadows stretching across the walls like silent witnesses.
When Noah reached out, Eli felt it before he felt it—his breath stalling, his chest tightening.
The touch was simple. Just fingers against Eli's hand.
But it felt like everything.
Eli's heart pounded, loud enough that he was sure Noah could hear it. He didn't pull away. He didn't move at all.
"You always freeze when you want something," Noah said softly.
Eli swallowed. "You don't know what I want."
Noah stepped closer, their bodies almost touching now. "I think I do."
His hand slid gently to Eli's wrist, thumb pressing against the rapid pulse there. The contact was careful, deliberate—like Noah was holding something precious, something breakable.
"Look at me," Noah whispered.
Eli did.
And in that moment, every wall he had built cracked.
There was no rush. No force. Just closeness. Just warmth. Just the unbearable feeling of being seen completely. When Noah leaned in, their foreheads touched, breath mixing, Eli closed his eyes.
It felt like giving in.
Noah's arms came around him slowly, as if giving Eli time to change his mind. Eli didn't. He rested his head against Noah's shoulder, feeling safe in a way that terrified him.
The world outside faded into nothing.
Whatever followed didn't need details. It lived in the quiet, in the way Noah held him like he belonged there. The door closed. The night wrapped around them, keeping their secret.
Some touches don't end when the moment does.
They stay.
They change you.
They remind you that once, you let yourself feel everything.