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Caleb thought he could lock you in his house, give you sleeping pills instead of medicine, and then just leave for a new mission tomorrow. You had argued with him earlier, and tensions were still high. He approaches you with smile on his face as he takes your hand. “I’m about to leave, it’d be nice if we could have a meal together.”
Yanking your hand away, you snap, “So the Colonel decides when I eat now too?”
Hurt crosses his expression as you turn your back to him and head for the living room. He follows you, standing in front of you as you sit on the couch and scowl up at him.
“Your life has threats around every corner. The people who want to hurt you? They should all just disappear.”
He leans forward, gripping the top of the sofa beside the back of your head. “You’re only safe when you’re by my side.” A gentle, placating smile tugs at his lips as he looks down into your eyes, but it falls quickly with your response.
“I’d rather face danger head on than live ‘safely’ like this! I don’t need you—“
“You don’t need me? Is that what you think?” he says, cutting you off with a disbelieving laugh. Leaning forward, he grabs one of your wrists. “Alright. What do you need? You can tell me. We can return to Linkon if that’s what you want. If you want to return to the past, we’ll rebuild our old house and move in together.”
His voice turns pleading as he continues, “I’ll decorate it with everything you could ever want, it will have the most beautiful, stunning gardens you’ve ever seen. No threat will ever be able to find you again. I’ll protect you forever.”
The words are soft, his eyes warm and yet… wrong. The slight smile that curves his mouth is so familiar and yet the calculating glint in his eyes is so removed.
“I don’t need you Caleb! I don’t need you or your idea of protection,” you snap back at him. “I think if anything…" hesitantly, you finally say what you’ve began to speculate since this new Caleb first came back into your life, "...if anything, you need me.”
His hand tightens on your wrist, and he leans in to glare down at you. His body is nearly touching yours, crowding your space and pushing your back into the cushions of the couch. There’s a dark, possessive glint in his gaze, and his words come out in a low whisper that sends a shiver through you. "Oh, is that what you think, pipsqueak?" he asks, a hint of mockery in his tone.
His tone and tight grip seem to burn you from the inside out. You hold his stare with your own, just as intense as his.
“Whether you realize it or not, you do need me. You seem to need this control over me,”
You pause a moment for Caleb’s reaction, but his jaw just tightens. Desperate to figure out where this darker side of the boy you knew is coming from, you continue, “The old Caleb would jump into adventure with me. Protecting me if I needed it, but knowing I can protect myself. Where did that Caleb go?”
His breath hitches — just slightly — and for a heartbeat, the mask cracks. The violet in his eyes flickers, like storm clouds parting. You see him again, the boy who used to climb apple trees with you barefoot, who laughed at your terrible jokes.
Then it snaps shut.
He leans down until his forehead rests against yours, voice raw but controlled. "That Caleb died in that lab," he whispers. "They broke me into pieces and put me back together wrong…but the only piece that ever mattered? That was always you."
A beat of silence. Then he smirks. Too sharp, too forced. "So maybe you're right. Maybe you could protect yourself…but I'll burn the galaxy down before I lose you."
His words and the crushing realization of being so close but still lifetimes apart from your Caleb brings a burning to your eyes and barbed wire to your throat. Your back against the couch, Caleb’s forehead pressed against your own, feeling his short angry breathes against your face, it's all so overwhelming.
“Caleb…” His name sounds like heartbreak coming from your mouth. Bringing a hand to cup the side of his face, you notice even the warmth from his cheek, seemed too cold and distant.
Your touch, the way your hand fits on his cheek, it's so familiar that Caleb can't help but lean into it just a little. But he fights it, fighting the urge to close his eyes and savor the moment. He presses his body closer, his knee coming up to wedge between your legs in an almost possessive gesture. His hand moved from your wrist to the side of your neck. His eyes are still locked on your face, watching you intensely as he tries to figure out what he’s feeling versus what his brain is being told to think.
“Caleb please don’t leave,” you choke out as the first few tears begin to run in cool lines down your face. Your hand moves lower to wrap around the back of his neck and grip the bottom of his jet black hair. “Don’t leave me…just stay,” you rasp, “just be my Caleb again.”
The moment your fingers thread through his hair, a jolt of recognition passes through him. He sucks in a sharp breath, trying to keep his composure, to keep the cold control over his heart. But the feel of your body beneath him, the sound of you begging him to stay, it's tearing away at all of his defenses. His expression pinches into one of anguish, and he squeezes his eyes shut, dropping his head to your shoulder.
"I'm trying," he whispers, his voice rough from his own unshed tears. "You don't understand... I'm trying.”
His broken confession has you clinging onto Caleb in an attempt to soothe both him and yourself. You begin stroking the hair at the base of his neck, gripping onto his lower back in a half hug with your other hand. “You can let me in,” you try to comfort him, heart breaking for the person who means the most to you, “It’ll be okay, we can protect each other again. Just stay with me…and I promise to stay with you.”
A shudder runs through him, and for the first time in months, Caleb lets his guard fall. His forehead presses into the crook of your neck, his breath uneven against your skin. The hand on your neck trembles before curling into the hair at the base of your neck, threading his fingers through it like he’s afraid you’ll vanish.
“I can’t lose you,” he chokes out, voice raw. “Not again. Not ever. If they take you… I’ll level planets. I’ll erase stars.” His fingers flex, gravity warps faintly around the both of you, a low hum filling the air. “But… if you leave me on purpose…” He swallows hard. “…I don’t know what I’d do.”
And then…quietly, brokenly, “I’m scared too.”
For all his power, all his strength, right now he's just a boy who’s been broken and can't remember how to come home.
“I won’t leave you, I promise. You have to trust me.” You continue the soothing motions of petting his hair and begin rubbing slow gentle circles into his back. You can feel his breathe on your neck and the racing of his heart from his chest pressed to yours. He feels more human…more alive…and you wonder if you finally have your Caleb back. The gentle, understanding, and sweet boy you love.
Your heart wants to believe it…believe he’s back for real this time. “I’m here for you,” you whisper, planting a featherlight kiss into his hair.
A quiet, broken sound escapes him, almost like a sob, but too choked to fully break free. His body sags against yours, the tension in his muscles slowly unraveling under your touch. The gravity around you settles, the hum fading into stillness. For the first time since he came back from the void, there’s no distortion in space. No unnatural pull.
Just him.
"Caleb..." you whisper again, and this time hearing his name makes his chest rise with something softer than pain. He turns his face into your neck, lips barely grazing your skin as he breathes you in. "Smell like home," he murmurs, voice thick and rough with emotion. "Taste like apples... my apple."
He presses a slow kiss just below your jaw. Gentle. Reverent.
Then, "I’m sorry."
You hold him tighter at that, because that's all it takes to know it's really him again. Not the Colonel. Not Farspace's weapon.
Just Caleb.
And when he finally lifts his head to look at you, his violet eyes are wet with tears not yet fallen…still guarded, still dangerous…but warm. "Stay tonight," he whispers instead of promising anything about tomorrow. His thumb brushes away one of your lingering tears. "...Please."
And right now? You can't say no to this version of him. The one who fights darkness just by holding onto you instead of locking up the world. So you nod.
"...Always."