The tea had gone lukewarm by the time Willow finished the last sip, not because she had taken too long to drink it, but because neither of them wanted to move enough to refresh it. The blanket around her shoulders still held the warmth Zane had tucked there, and his arm lay loosely around her upper body, steadying her in a way she didn't want to think too hard about. The night hummed with the quiet of a city settling into itself. A dog barked distantly. Someone on the fourth floor closed their door with too much force. The late-evening traffic softened until it was nothing more than a steady hum. All the small noises blended into a muted backdrop, the kind that made it feel as if the two of them existed in a bubble the rest of the world couldn't quite reach.
