Freedom Has Teeth

He was never meant to be saved. Neither was the boy who stood beside him. But somehow, they kept ending up in the same places at the worst possible times-blood on their hands, silence between them, and the kind of survival that never really felt like living.

It started small. Glances that lasted too long. Silence that didn't feel empty anymore. A presence you couldn't explain but also couldn't imagine losing. They called it trust. They called it loyalty. They called it anything except what it really was.

Because if either of them said the word out loud, it would change everything.

Oliver learned how to lead in chaos. Liam learned how to stay when everyone else left. And somewhere between missions, fallout, and nights neither of them talked about, the distance between them stopped being distance at all.

They just didn't know it yet.