Saying Blake was freaking out would’ve been generous.

’Jesus... is he angry at me or something?’

His fingers dragged along the back of his head, nails lightly scraping against his scalp as if that could ground him somehow. But it really didn’t.

The noise outside the gym barely registered at first, just a blur of voices overlapping each other, but then it grew louder and closer, until it snapped him back into place.

The door opened abruptly.

"Blake, are you okay?"

Mr. Dodder rushed in, breath slightly uneven, immediately closing the distance between them. His hands hovered near Blake’s face, carefully tilting his head from side to side, scanning for injuries with a focus that felt almost suffocating.

"I’m okay..."

Everything aside, he would feel bad giving this man up for a heart attack.

"For today, go home. We’ll handle this. Don’t worry about it."

Blake nodded, even if the reassurance didn’t quite stick. "Yes, thank you."

Getting up wasn’t as smooth as he would’ve liked, but before he could even fully steady himself, Asher was already there, acting quite attentive, watching him like he might fall apart again at any second.

Blake didn’t say anything about it.

Because he literally didn’t know what to say, really.

’The mission, Myles, then fucking Asher.’

Everything kept stacking up, one thought bleeding into the next until it became something he couldn’t properly sort through.

’There’s too much going on.’

He let out a quiet breath, shoulders lowering slightly.

Still, there was one thing he could deal with immediately.

Myles.

They had already talked about this not that long ago, just thirty minutes.

Blake had spent those minutes thinking it through, trying to make sense of something that didn’t come easily to him. And now? 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He wasn’t backing out.

He needed answers.

Needed to understand him.

’How long should I wait? Is he even angry at me?’

It felt strange even thinking about it. Myles didn’t seem like the type to stay angry over something small, not for long, at least. Whatever this was, it couldn’t last forever.

Right?

"Blake, should I walk you home? Are you sure you can manage alone?"

Blake blinked, snapping back to the present. "Yeah. I’m sure. I’ll go for a check-up tomorrow anyway."

That part wasn’t entirely a lie.

Well... the hit, and the fact that he had gone down what felt like an endless flight of stairs. Thinking about it now, it almost felt ridiculous. If the second part hadn’t happened, he probably wouldn’t have fainted at all.

Probably.

The bus ride felt longer than usual.

Blake leaned back into the seat, pulling his phone out. His thumb hovered for a second before unlocking it.

There were no messages or missed calls from Myles, that wasn’t unexpected.

’Maybe in an hour... yeah, that should be fine.’

He stretched slightly, his gaze drifting toward the window as the city blurred past. His hand lifted, loosely covering his mouth as he spoke under his breath.

"Love tracker."

The screen appeared instantly.

The small dot marking Myles’ location appeared far outside the city, exactly where Blake expected it to be. It was almost routine at this point, checking without thinking too much about it, like a habit he hadn’t really questioned.

Still, it always left him wondering.

How did Myles even manage it?

Being that far away and still somehow... present.

’Huh?’

Blake leaned forward slightly.

The dot moved so extremely fast that it simply looked like he was jumping.

One point to another.

Then again, faster than anything he had ever seen before.

His brows furrowed, eyes narrowing just a little as he focused on the screen. He checked Myles’ location often, more or less every day, but never long enough to actually watch it change like this.

This wasn’t normal movement, that wasn’t even movement, more specifically.

’Where is he even going?’

Then, the dot suddenly appeared inside the city, so Blake’s expression tightened.

’That’s not flying.’

It couldn’t be, since there was no transition, no path connecting one place to the next.

’He’s teleporting?’

The conclusion came quickly, maybe too much, since it was still a theory.

Still, there wasn’t much else to theorize about this.

By the time the bus came to a stop, Blake hadn’t looked away from the screen for more than a few seconds at a time.

When the doors opened, he stepped off without much thought, his feet hitting the pavement as his attention snapped back to the present.

His hand moved again, almost instinctively, pulling his phone back out to pretend looking at it.

The dot hadn’t just gotten closer.

It was already there, in the city.

Blake stared at it for a moment.

So that explained it.

How Myles could be gone for hours, sometimes entire days, and still show up like distance didn’t matter. Blake had always assumed he just flew. Fast, yes, but still bound by time, by space, by well, anything.

’...Right.’

He exhaled softly, slipping the phone back into his pocket.

Which led him to something else.

’Why did Myles come back from whatever he was doing?’

The thought surfaced before he could stop it, and almost immediately, he felt a faint sense of discomfort settle in his chest.

’Because of me.’

Blake grimaced slightly.

That sounded so off, a bit too self-centered.

There were plenty of reasons for Myles to return... important and logical ones, things that had nothing to do with Blake getting into a fight and fainting like an idiot.

Right, that had to be it.

And yet, Myles was already heading toward his place.

Blake didn’t need to check again to know that.

"Okay."

He cleared his throat, pulling the phone out just long enough to turn the tracker off. It felt strange leaving it like that, like he was deliberately ignoring something he had already seen.

Still, it was better this way.

If they ran into each other now, Blake would have to act like he didn’t know.

Because he shouldn’t, that much was obvious.

He adjusted his pace as his apartment complex came into view, trying to focus on something else, anything else, but it didn’t quite work.

Everything felt a little too normal and quiet.

He reached the door, hand lifting to push it open and stopped.

There was someone behind him, close enough that he hadn’t heard them approach.

His heart jumped violently, his entire body reacting before his mind could catch up as he turned sharply.

"Oh."

Myles, but of course it was, he could tell from his breathing.

Blake blinked, forcing himself to settle, to smooth out whatever expression had flashed across his face in that split second.

"Hey, hi."

Not awkward at all.

"How’ve you been?"

There was a brief pause before he added, like it hadn’t just taken him a second too long to recover...

"What are you doing here?"

Myles didn’t answer right away.

His gaze moved over Blake instead, taking in every detail with an intensity that made it feel less like a glance and more like an inspection.

"Get inside first."

Blake hesitated for a fraction of a second before nodding. "Right."

He pushed the door open, stepping inside the building.

Still...

That tone.

It was subtle, but it stood out.

Like this wasn’t just Blake’s place.

Like it belonged to him too.

Blake didn’t comment on it, though the thought lingered as he made his way toward the staircase.

He started climbing, each step steady made him feel more and more anxious.

Myles followed close behind him.

Close enough that Blake could feel it without needing to look.

And that alone made something tighten uncomfortably in his chest.

It was embarrassing.

There wasn’t a better word for it.

The silence stretched as they moved upward, broken only by the quiet echo of their footsteps.

Blake reached his floor, pulling his keys out and unlocking the door.

"Uh, come in."

Myles stepped inside without hesitation.

Blake barely had time to shut the door before he felt a hand settle on his shoulder and, before he could react, he was already being moved, directed toward the bed.

"Hey—"

Too late, since Myles pressed him down into a seated position, his grip shifting slightly as one hand moved upward, pulling Blake’s head down just enough to keep him still.

"What are you—"

"Why did you get involved in that fight?"

Blake blinked, caught off guard by the suddenness of it.

"Because I thought Asher was in trouble."

It was a simple, honest reason. There were some other things to it, but that didn’t matter.

For a moment, Blake inhaled, ready to ask something in return, why Myles sounded like that, why he was reacting this strongly, but he didn’t get the chance.

"You were careless."

Myles bent slightly, still holding onto his shoulders, keeping him in place.

"You don’t gain anything from that."

His grip tightened just enough to be noticeable.

"Stop playing hero, it’s never going to work in your favor."