The Only Exception

✦ Chapter Nine: Safe and Sound

Kael didn't text to ask if she was free.
He just showed up.

Again.

Same car. Same black-on-black. Same unspoken question lingering in the open window like a thread waiting to be pulled: Are you coming with me, again?

"You keep showing up," Zei said as she slid into the passenger seat.

"You keep getting in."

"You keep picking me up."

"You keep letting me."

That was their rhythm now. Soft and steady. No labels. No answers. Just this quiet thing between them, pulling at the space where fear used to live.

Tonight, Kael didn't drive toward the city or the places she expected. Instead, they wound up somewhere quieter. Higher. A hill she didn't know by name, overlooking the distant sprawl of lights like a thousand unsaid things blinking back at them.

"You planning to murder me out here?" Zei asked, dryly.

Kael's mouth curved. "Not tonight."

"Comforting."

He leaned back against the seat, one arm hooked casually over the wheel. His eyes were on the skyline, not on her. Like he could sit there for hours and not grow tired of the silence.

"You looked tired this week," he said. "Thought you could use somewhere quieter."

Zei pressed her forehead lightly to the window, letting the cool glass ground her. "You notice too much."

"Someone has to."

There it was again - the way Kael said things. Like they weren't questions. Like they weren't up for debate. Like he already knew her answers and was just waiting for her to catch up.

Silence settled between them like fog. Not heavy. Not suffocating. Just... familiar.

"You ever think about how strange this is?" she asked. "Us. This."

Kael didn't look at her. "Strange how?"

"I didn't plan for any of it."

"Good."

She blinked. "Good?"

"You overthink everything you plan. This feels... better."

Her throat tightened. "Scary, maybe."

"Alive," Kael said, like it was the simplest answer in the world.

That word landed somewhere beneath her ribs. Heavy. Unavoidable.

"I don't trust easily," Zei said, staring out at the city below like it might answer for her.

"I know."

"I don't trust fast either. There's a difference."

"Slow's fine."

She swallowed, tracing the outline of his words in her head. Slow's fine. No rush. No demands. Just space to breathe.

"You ever think... maybe people like me shouldn't do this?" she asked, the words unraveling quiet and careful. "Start things they're too afraid to finish."

Kael's knee nudged hers beneath the console. Softly. Deliberately.

"You're allowed to be afraid."

She hated how gentle his voice was. Hated how much she needed it.

"My last relationship... it made me forget what safe felt like."

"I figured."

"You never asked."

"I figured you'd tell me when you wanted to."

That was the thing about Kael. He never asked questions he didn't need answered. Never pushed at the cracks she wasn't ready to show him.

"You don't get attached easily," she said.

"You think that?"

"I don't know what to think."

Kael finally looked at her, really looked. "I wouldn't keep showing up if I didn't care."

Zei's chest tightened like something too big trying to fit inside something too small.

"I'm scared you'll get tired of waiting for me to catch up."

"I'm not waiting." Kael's hand found hers where it rested between them. Not holding. Just there. Just enough. "I'm here."

Still here.
Still staying.

No promises. No pressure. Just presence.

"You don't have to tell me everything," Kael said, his thumb brushing once against the edge of her knuckles. "Not tonight. Not ever, if you don't want to. I'm not here to fix you. I'm just here."

Zei closed her eyes for a moment. Let herself breathe in that truth. Let herself believe it.

"...What about you?" she asked softly, after a while. "You ever... have something you're still trying to unlearn?"

Kael's gaze drifted away again, toward the city bleeding light into darkness.
A long pause. A breath held.

"I used to think love was a punishment," he said, quiet, steady. "Like something you paid for. With pieces of yourself. With silence. With patience. With letting someone hurt you because you believed you deserved it."

Her heart twisted at that.

"I had someone, once. Back then. It was all... games. Apologies that didn't mean anything. Promises that didn't hold. And for a while, I thought that was normal. That if you wanted to keep someone, you had to bleed a little for it."

His hand didn't leave hers. His thumb kept moving, soft, slow. Like maybe he needed it too.

"But eventually," Kael went on, softer still, "I learned that people who love you don't keep score. They don't break you just to see if you'll stay."

Zei's breath caught. "How long ago?"

"Before university. Before all this. Before I learned how to leave when something stops feeling like home."

Silence again. But not empty this time. Full. Brimming with something fragile.

"I guess that's why I don't ask questions you're not ready to answer," Kael said. "Because I know what it feels like to keep quiet and still hope someone stays anyway."

Zei's throat burned. "That's... a little too specific."

Kael smiled faintly. "Maybe that's why I notice things about you."

She turned her hand under his. Let her fingers curl lightly into the space he offered. Not holding tight. Just enough to say: I'm still here.

"You're dangerous," she whispered.

Kael smiled again. "You're the one who keeps getting in my car."

"I keep getting in because you make it easy."

He didn't answer. Didn't need to. His hand stayed where it was. Steady. Unmoving.

Outside, the wind stirred the trees. The city below burned quietly on.

Inside the car, they didn't move. Didn't speak. Not yet.

For once, the silence wasn't something to fear.

Not tonight.