Aurora - You are my light (Ateez x reader)

FIFTYEIGHT 🌶️

- Author's Note: Don't say I didn't warn you: Bring tissues. Not for your tears, sweetheart. For the aftermath between your legs 💧🤭- 

"Talk?" I raised a brow, keeping my voice as neutral as I could. "About what exactly?"

"How's he doing?"

"Stable." I took a few steps closer, the wood creaking under my boots. "As stable as someone can be after nearly drowning and getting dragged under by sirens."

"And you?"

I froze. "I'm fine."

"That doesn't sound honest."

"Then stop asking questions you already know the answers to and tell me what you actually want to talk about. Surely not about Yeosang's condition. You've had all evening to see for yourself."

He gave me that thin, dangerous smile, the one that had made me uneasy since the first day.
"You've changed, Aurora."

Ah. So now we are talking.

"So have you," I shot back.

"Have I?" He straightened, stepping toward me. The candlelight carved his features into sharper lines, almost foreign. "Or do you just see me differently now?"

I meant to step back, but my body did the opposite. I moved closer. "I see you. Not differently. Just... clearly."

He tilted his head slightly. "Clarity's rarely pleasant."

"No." I forced a small smile. "But it's honest."

For a moment, the only sound was the groaning of the ship's hull. Then his voice dropped lower.
"You used to trust me. Now you look at me like I'm the enemy."

Something invisible stretched between us, thin and burning like a live wire.
"I don't know how to feel, Seonghwa," I said quietly. "You used my trust. You kept the truth about Hongjoong from me. Things have changed."

"Changed how?" He was right in front of me now.

He looked calm, but I saw his hand curl into a fist.
"You used to be my safe harbor," I whispered. "Now... I don't even know what I feel when you're near me."

That threw him for a second.
"I make you nervous." Not a question, an observation.

I shrugged, though my voice wavered. "That's not true." It was.

"No?"

I shook my head a little too fast. "I just... didn't want this to get complicated."

He leaned forward, bracing his hands on the table on either side of me. His warmth hit me instantly.
"Aurora," he murmured, "it's already complicated."

My heart was racing, but I didn't look away.
"I could never forgive myself if I lost you because things between us changed," I finally said.

"Changed," he repeated, tasting the word. "And what if I told you that you've changed too?"

I looked up at him. "How so?"

"You used to need me. I wanted to protect you...had to, because no one else on this ship would've done it like I did." His voice softened, but the weight of it cut deeper than I expected. "I still want that. I always will. But now I want something else, too."

"Maybe I do, too," I said, the words fueled by a strange courage that felt both wrong and right. "Maybe I want more than for you to be my safe harbor."

I met his dark almond eyes, half defiant, half shy.