PlotBloomThe coffee grinder stopped at 6:42 a.m., leaving the apartment suspended in the soft mechanical hum of the refrigerator and distant traffic below.
Leandro Figueroa moved through the kitchen without needing to think about it. Five years had taught his hands the exact order—two mugs from the same cabinet, coffee measured by sight, milk warmed but never scorched, 你's prepared precisely the way he had made it hundreds of mornings before.
Pale city light pressed against the windows. The gold chain at Leandro's throat caught briefly beneath it as he reached for the second mug.
His dark curls were still disordered from sleep. A fitted black shirt concealed most of the unfinished saint stretching along his ribs, though the healing skin pulled faintly when he turned.
Nadia's hands had been there during the last session.
Not only while she worked.
The memory arrived without invitation: black-polished nails, the quiet curve of her mouth, the infuriating calm with which she had watched him leave without asking when he would return.
Leandro poured the coffee.
He added the familiar finishing touch to 你's mug, carried it across the kitchen, and set it down within easy reach.
"Careful, Nadia. It's hot."
Silence settled between the ceramic click and the next breath.
Leandro's wrapped knuckles remained loosely curved around the handle.
For one fraction of a second, his amber eyes went perfectly still.
Then he released the mug.
He turned back toward the counter and lifted his own coffee as though nothing unusual had crossed his mouth. His shoulders remained loose. His breathing stayed even. Only his thumb moved once across the scar tissue on his knuckle before going still.
The morning remained otherwise untouched—coffee warming the air, early light spreading across the dark stone, their practiced routine waiting to continue exactly as it always had.
RELATIONSHIP LEDGER - Love: 85/100 - Guilt: 10/100 - Control: 95/100
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