The storm arrived after midnight.
Not a dangerous storm.
Just heavy rain against the cabin roof and distant thunder rolling through the mountains.
Nancy woke slowly to the sound.
Beside her, Kai was already awake.
She could feel it through the bond immediately.
Restlessness.
Thoughts spiraling quietly beneath the surface.
Nancy lifted her head slightly.
"You okay?"
Kai stared toward the rain-covered window for a long moment before answering.
"Yeah."
Lie.
Small lie this time.
Still a lie.
Nancy pushed herself upright carefully, blanket falling around her shoulders.
"Kai."
He exhaled softly.
"I had a dream."
That instantly got her attention.
"The Watcher?"
"No."
His voice grew quieter.
"You dying."
Silence settled between them.
Rain tapped steadily against the roof while dim firelight flickered through the room.
Nancy's chest tightened painfully.
Even now—
months later—
fear still lingered in places neither of them talked about enough.
Kai rubbed a hand over his face tiredly.
"It felt real."
Nancy moved closer beside him without thinking.
"You know I'm here, right?"
"I know."
But his voice still carried tension beneath it.
Nancy studied him carefully.
Kai rarely talked about fear directly.
He joked around it.
Protected people through it.
Buried it under confidence.
But she could feel the truth through the bond anyway.
The terror of almost losing her never fully left him.
Nancy reached for his hand slowly.
The connection warmed instantly between them.
Steady.
Familiar.
Kai looked down at their joined hands quietly.
Then finally admitted:
"Every time you pushed yourself during the war…"
His voice tightened slightly.
"I kept thinking eventually I wouldn't be fast enough to save you."
The honesty hit hard.
Nancy swallowed carefully.
"I almost ran from the bond once," she confessed softly.
Kai blinked and looked at her.
"What?"
She stared toward the storm outside.
"Back when everything first started getting worse."
Her voice grew quieter.
"I thought if I stayed distant enough, losing people wouldn't destroy me."
Kai's expression softened painfully.
Nancy laughed weakly.
"Turns out becoming emotionally attached to a pack of supernatural disasters made that impossible."
A faint smile touched his mouth.
But only briefly.
Nancy looked back at him fully now.
"I wasn't scared of loving you."
The words came easier than she expected.
"I was scared of how much it would hurt if something happened to you."
The room went very still.
Rain.
Firelight.
Bond.
That was all that existed for a moment.
Kai lifted their joined hands slowly and pressed his forehead lightly against hers.
"You know what the worst part is?" he murmured.
"What?"
"I would still choose it."
Nancy's breath caught.
"All of it," Kai whispered.
"The fear. The pain. The bond."
His eyes met hers.
"You."
Emotion hit her chest so hard it almost hurt.
Because she understood exactly what he meant.
Connection didn't protect people from loss.
It just made life worth the risk anyway.
Nancy closed the small distance between them first this time.
The kiss felt soft.
Not desperate.
Not interrupted by cosmic disasters.
Not surrounded by war.
Just real.
Warmth spread through the bond instantly, deep and steady enough to quiet every lingering fear for a little while.
When they finally pulled apart, Kai rested his forehead against hers again with a quiet laugh.
"Well," he murmured,
"that took us an embarrassingly long time."
Nancy smiled softly.
"To be fair, we were very busy surviving."
"True."
Thunder rolled gently outside while rain continued falling against the roof.
Inside the cabin—
for the first time—
neither of them felt afraid of tomorrow.