VelvetRuin1995
Selena stared at the snow. "Because it felt... normal." Her voice shook. "And normal isn't mine anymore."
Chris went still. The stillness wasn't threatening now. It looked like restraint. Like he was holding back a hundred things he wanted to say wrong.
"I'm sorry," he said, and the words sounded like they cost him.
Selena's throat tightened. "Don't be."
Chris's eyes flicked to her face. "Why not?"
Because if you're sorry, it means you care, Selena thought.
And caring is a knife.
She didn't say that.
Instead she whispered, "It doesn't change anything."
Chris's jaw tightened, a flash of cold anger under his control. "It can," he said quietly. "I can make it change."
Selena turned her head sharply. "You can't change the world."
Chris held her gaze.
His voice lowered, steady as iron. "I can try."
The garden seemed to hold its breath around them.
Selena's heart hammered.
"Why?" she whispered again, because the question lived inside her like a thorn. "Why are you doing any of this? Why do you keep-"
She couldn't say saving.
The word felt too much like hope.
Chris's eyes flicked to hers-lingering there like he was searching for something only he could see.
Then he spoke, carefully.
"Do you remember your home?" he asked.
Selena's stomach dropped.
She swallowed hard. "Yes."
Chris's voice was soft, almost dangerous in its gentleness. "Do you remember the smell of it?"
Selena's hands clenched. "Why are you asking me that?"
Chris's jaw flexed. "Because I want to know what was stolen," he said. "I want to know what you're carrying."