//LEON MONOLOGUE//
Love.
Affection.
Belonging.
I didn’t know which word fit what I felt back in Bram’s house. Maybe none of them. Maybe all of them at once.
The air slled like fresh bread from the bakery nearby. I could here people shouting greetings from stall to stall. Horses clopped down the dirt road. It all felt normal, just another morning in Evergreen. But inside , everything was strange. Too quiet. Too loud. Too warm.
I kept rembering the mont she hugged . The way her arms wrapped around my waist from behind. The way her cheek rested against my back. I could still feel the heat of her tears on my shirt. Strange how the body rembers warmth faster than pain.
I didn’t move when she hugged . I didn’t push her away. I just stood there, frozen like the world had stopped for a second. Or maybe it was who stopped.
Most of my life—both my old one and this new one—I never let hugs linger. I never let anyone close enough to stay in my mind like this. But Lyra’s touch broke sothing open. Not in a dramatic way. Not in a heavy way. Just... gentle.
Like soone knocking softly at a locked door.
I didn’t answer right away. But the door wasn’t locked anymore.
The more I walked, the more I asked myself one question.
Did I feel sothing for her?
Affection is a dangerous thing. It changes how you see the world. How you move. How you speak. So people drown in it. So people heal because of it. I don’t know which category I belong to.
But when Lyra hugged , I didn’t feel danger.
I felt human.
It has been a long ti since I felt that.
Maybe that was why I stayed still. Why I didn’t tell her no. Why I told her she could live with . A ho is not just a roof or repaired walls. A ho is who stands in it with you. A ho is what you let your heart rest against.
I’m not sure I’m ready for that, but I’m not running away from it either.
And that is new. Very new.
I glanced at Lyra as we walked. She kept her head down, trying not to look too excited. Her eyes still had a bit of redness around them from crying earlier, but her smile looked soft and shy. She walked like she wanted to keep close to but didn’t want to notice. I noticed.
She had no idea how loud her presence had beco in my thoughts.
When Bram first gave a place to sleep, I never imagined I would leave his house with sothing more than a week of small mories and the sll of spilled ale in my clothes. Yet here I was, walking toward my new house with a girl beside who wanted to stay by my side.
It should have felt strange. But it didn’t.
It felt... right.
And that scared a little.
Affection makes you vulnerable. Loving soone ties your heart to theirs, and when they hurt, you bleed. When they leave, you fall. I’ve had enough falling for two lifetis. Enough bleeding too.
So why did her touch make want to take that risk again?
I don’t know.
But maybe that’s the point. Maybe love isn’t sothing you understand first. Maybe it’s sothing that grows quietly until one day you look at soone and realize your life has wrapped around theirs without you noticing.
I kept thinking back to the way she said she wanted to follow . How her voice shook. How her fingers grabbed my shirt like I was sothing she didn’t want to lose.
Nobody had looked at like that in this world. Not with fear. Not with duty. Not with expectation.
Just affection.
Pure.
Simple.
The kind that pulls you in without trying.
I don’t know if I’ve found love.
Not yet.
But sothing started. Sothing real.
I felt it in the way my chest tightened when she cried. I felt it in the way her voice softened when she said she wanted to stay. I felt it in the way my hands rested on her back—not to push her away, but to hold her steady.
She made feel like I belonged here. Like this world wasn’t just so place I had to survive but sowhere I could live. Sowhere I could want things again.
Is that love?
Maybe it’s the beginning of it.
I thought about my old world. How cold everything felt toward the end. How the people around beca strangers even before I left that life behind. I didn’t have ti for affection. I didn’t have space for it either. My heart wasn’t protected—it was empty.
But now, in this new world, surrounded by danger, magic, beasts, and kingdoms I barely understood... a girl from a small settlent managed to crack open the quiet place in my chest.
I didn’t plan for that.
I didn’t want it at first.
But I didn’t reject it either.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized sothing simple.
I want love.
Not the dramatic kind books scream about. Not the painful kind that destroys people. I want the kind that builds. The kind that calms. The kind that makes the world make sense even for a mont.
Lyra didn’t give that. Not yet. But she gave a glimpse of it.
I looked at her again. She noticed this ti. Her cheeks turned pink and she looked away fast. I tried not to smile, but the corner of my mouth pulled slightly on its own.
What is this feeling?
Not obsession.
Not need.
Not lust.
Just warmth.
Warmth that spreads slowly. Warmth that doesn’t burn. Warmth that makes the world look a little softer than before.
My footsteps slowed as the thought settled in my chest like a quiet truth.
Maybe I am starting to like her.
Not because she’s the only girl who talked to . Not because she hugged . Not because she cried or asked to co with . But because sowhere in , sothing responded to her—sothing that had been asleep for a long ti.
I didn’t know what the future would bring. I didn’t know if we would stay together for long or if life would pull us apart. But for now, she wanted to walk beside . And for now, I wanted that too.
Maybe this is how love begins.
Not with lightning.
Not with a dramatic confession.
Just a quiet pull.
A soft mont.
A hug that lasts a bit too long.
Maybe that’s enough.
I looked ahead as we approached the path leading to my broken house. I still had to fix it. I still had to plan my journey. I still had to awaken properly and face things far bigger than Evergreen.
But for the first ti since stepping into this world, I wasn’t thinking about pain or danger or revenge.
I was thinking about her.
And that was enough to change everything.
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