"What are you guys doing?" he asked, voice thin.
Aiden turned, guilt flashing across his features. "Cassian… we got this package."
He held out the photograph.
Cassian took it.
One look, and his world shattered.
The photo was old, edges yellowed, colors faded like a memory left too long in the sun.
Two young men stood side by side outside what appeared to be a college dorm. One had his arm slung casually around the other's shoulders, grinning with that same sharp, knowing smirk Cassian had seen his face a hundred times. Now that he looked closer, the eyes were the same. The tilt of the jaw. But this boy was younger, softer yet already carrying that same quiet menace.
And the other?
Cassian's breath stopped.
It was him but not him.
The boy in the photo had sharper cheekbones, longer hair swept to the side, a leather jacket slung over his shoulder. He wasn't smiling. Just staring at the camera with tired eyes that held too much.
But those eyes…
They were his.
