Threads in a tangled
_____________________________________Ali didn't mean to see it.
You hadn't meant for him to.
But it was too hot that day. The jacket came off, and your sleeves were too short. You were sitting on the edge of your bed in the dorms, legs tucked up under you, trying not to sweat through your clothes. He came in quietly, carrying half of his dinner in both hands-the better half, the part with actual flavor-and smiling like he always did when he saw you. Like you were a break in all the chaos.
Then his eyes dipped. Just for a second. And they caught it.
Your arm. The old scars. A few that weren't as old.
The silence that followed was brutal. You went rigid. Everything inside you screamed to cover it up, to turn your body away, to say something-anything-before he could react.
"I-it's not what it looks like," you blurted, eyes wide, heart pounding in your chest.
Ali's face didn't shift in judgment. He didn't flinch. He just stood there a second longer, then slowly knelt beside the bed and set the food down with a soft clink.
"It looks like pain," he said gently.
Your breath hitched. You weren't expecting that. Not pity, not scolding-just... understanding.
"I know what pain looks like," he added, voice quiet. "It stays in the body even when no one sees it."
You swallowed, throat tight. "You think you know me that well?"
Ali didn't smile this time. He just looked at you with those warm, earnest eyes. "No. But I see you."
Your heart cracked at the edges. The way he said it-like you were more than what you'd done to your skin. More than this place. You looked away, blinking hard.
"I didn't want you to find out," you whispered. "I didn't want you to... look at me different."
Ali sat next to you on the bed, not too close. Just enough that you could feel his presence like a hum under your ribs. "Then I'll look at you the same," he said. "With care."
That did it. Your eyes welled up, and this time, you didn't hide it. You wiped at your face with the back of your sleeve, embarrassed.
"It's just how I deal sometimes," you muttered. "When it's too much."
Ali nodded slowly. "When I lived back home, I had nothing. But I still had my family. And when I couldn't help them-when I failed-I felt like breaking something. Myself, sometimes. So I... I get it. Wanting control. Wanting quiet."
You looked at him sideways, surprised. "You don't seem like someone who breaks."
"I don't," he said. "But I bend. A lot."
You gave a watery laugh. "You're cheesy, you know that?"
Ali smiled-his soft, dimpled kind. "Cheesy, but true."
You exhaled slowly. "Does it ever stop? The heaviness? The feeling like... you're not really a person anymore, just surviving?"
Ali was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at your hand resting on your leg, fingers twitching anxiously.
He reached out, slow enough to give you time to move-but you didn't. His hand brushed yours gently, his fingers curling around yours, warm and steady.
"I don't know if it ever stops," he said. "But it's easier to carry when someone helps hold it."
Your chest ached in that sharp, vulnerable way. You turned your hand over and let your fingers lace with his. His grip tightened slightly, grounding. Safe.
"Thank you," you whispered.
"I'm not going anywhere," he replied, voice low. "Not unless you want me to."
You shook your head. "I don't."
There was something unspoken in the air now. A closeness that had always been there but never touched directly. You looked at him-really looked. The curve of his lips, the way he watched you like you weren't something broken, but something worth holding together.
Ali's gaze drifted to your arm, but only briefly. Then back to your eyes.
"Next time it gets loud in your head," he said softly, "come find me first. Let me be your quiet."
Your heart clenched. "Why do you care so much?"
Ali looked down, almost bashful, like he hadn't meant to say it aloud-but then his thumb brushed over the back of your hand, and he answered honestly:
"Because I like you."
The silence that followed wasn't tense this time. It was full-of warmth, of breath, of something sweet and terrifying and new. You smiled, slow and shy, and leaned just a little closer.
"I like you too," you murmured.
Ali looked at you like the world hadn't ruined anything yet. And for a moment, it really hadn't.
He pressed his forehead lightly against yours, the contact feather-soft. "Then let's stay alive long enough to see what that means."
Your eyes fluttered closed, hand still tangled with his.
"Deal."

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Squid Game one shots
FanfictionThis book is no longer continued I did rewrite most of these one shots Fluff ❤️🩹 Spicy but no smut🔞 Angst💔