The sky was bruised with streaks of lilac and fading gold when Miles's phone buzzed in his hand.
miles: u busy?
leia: not really. why?
miles: meet me? the beach.
He didn't wait for the typing dots to disappear. He was already halfway down the cracked road that led to the beach, hoodie up, shoes dragging in the sand before she even replied with a small okay.
The air was cold-colder than he remembered-but he didn't mind. The wind slapped his cheeks, salty and sharp, and each step toward the water made the noise in his head grow quieter. He'd been trying to say this for weeks now, ever since she'd come back. Every time he looked at her across the hallway or caught her laughing with Ashley, the words clawed at his throat like smoke he couldn't cough out.
He sat on the same rock they used to climb as kids. His sneakers brushed against the tide, the sound of the waves filling in every silence he didn't know how to break.
Then he saw her.
Leia was walking slowly, hugging her jacket to her chest. Her hair-still threaded with faint blonde highlights-was messy from the wind, and the moment her eyes met his, time seemed to bend just the way it had that night in his daydream months ago.
"Hey," she said softly when she reached him.
"Hey," he echoed, voice hoarse. "You came."
"I always do."
They sat beside each other, leaving a space between them wide enough for the sea to whisper through. For a moment, neither spoke. They just listened-to the waves, to their own uneven breathing, to the sound of everything they hadn't said yet.
"You've been quiet lately," Leia finally murmured, tracing patterns in the sand with her finger. "Even more than usual."
Miles huffed out a laugh, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Guess I just don't have much to say."
"That's a lie." Her tone was light, but there was an ache underneath it. "You always have something to say. Especially when you're trying not to say something real."
He turned his head toward her, studying her face. The moonlight made her eyes glimmer like the water-steady, unreadable, familiar. "You think you know me that well, huh?"
"I do," she said, voice small but certain.
The wind picked up, carrying the smell of salt and wet seaweed. A strand of her hair brushed against his hand, and for a second he wanted to reach out, tuck it behind her ear, pretend things were simple. But nothing about them ever was.
"I missed this," she whispered.
"This?"
"Us. Not pretending."
Miles swallowed hard. He looked away toward the black stretch of ocean and said, "Then why does it still feel like we're pretending?"
Leia blinked at him. "What do you mean?"
"You came back and everything's... the same but not really. You talk to me, you smile, but it feels like you're somewhere else."
"I'm here right now."
"Yeah, but for how long?" His voice cracked. "You're always leaving, Leia. Not just when you go somewhere. Even when you're right next to me, it's like you're already gone."
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
He sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Forget it. That sounded stupid."
"It's not stupid," she said quietly. "It's fair."
They both went silent again. The waves curled and broke, the moon slipped higher, and the chill settled into their bones.
When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above the wind. "Do you ever wish we could just go back to the start? Before everything got complicated?"
"Every day."
Leia smiled faintly. "Me too."
But then she added, "We can't, though. We're not kids anymore."
Miles turned toward her, his heart pounding. "Then what are we, Leia?"
She looked at him for a long time, the reflection of the moon flickering in her eyes. "I don't know," she whispered. "That's what scares me."
The air between them thickened until even the wind felt heavy. Miles shifted in the sand, digging his fingers into it just to have something to hold.
"I hate that answer," he said after a while, his voice low.
"What answer?"
"That you don't know." He let out a breath that sounded more like a laugh. "You always know everything, Leia. You knew what to say when my dad went to rehab, you knew how to make me stop hating myself, you even knew when I needed space. And now you don't know?"
Leia stared down at her shoes. "Because this isn't something I can fix, Miles. You think I don't feel it? Every time we're in the same room, it's like there's a wire between us, and I'm scared that if I move too fast, it'll snap."
He looked at her sharply. "So you'd rather pretend it's not there at all?"
"I'm not pretending!" she snapped, eyes flashing. "You think it's easy for me? I went halfway across the world and I couldn't stop thinking about you. I'd see something - the ocean, a stupid song on the radio - and it was like you were there with me. But then I'd remember you aren't mine to think about that way."
Miles's chest tightened. "Who said I wasn't?"
She froze.
The question hung in the air like thunder that hadn't hit yet.
"Miles..."
"No, seriously," he said, his voice cracking halfway through. "Who said I wasn't yours? Because I didn't."
Leia shook her head. "You don't mean that."
"I do." He stood up suddenly, pacing a few steps away, running his hands through his hair. "I mean every damn word, Leia. You think I didn't feel it too? When you left, it felt like someone pulled the floor out from under me. I'd wake up and check my phone like an idiot, hoping you'd text me, and when you didn't, I'd tell myself I was fine. But I wasn't."
Her eyes glistened under the moonlight. "Miles..."
"I've tried to like other people," he admitted, turning back to her. "God knows I've tried. But no one gets me like you do. No one even comes close."
The waves roared louder, the wind picking up as if the whole beach had leaned in to listen.
Leia stood now too, the sand soft beneath her sneakers. "Do you have any idea what you're saying?"
"Yeah," he said, stepping closer. "I'm saying I love you."
The words hit her like a wave - sudden, impossible, beautiful. For a heartbeat, she didn't move. Then her eyes fluttered shut, and she whispered, "You can't just say that."
"Why not?"
"Because once you do, everything changes."
"Good."
His answer was so immediate that it startled her. He took another step forward until their shadows almost touched. "I want things to change. I'm tired of pretending you're just my best friend when you're the only person who actually makes me feel like I matter."
Leia's throat worked as she swallowed hard. "You think love fixes things, Miles? It doesn't. It makes everything harder. What if we ruin it?"
He laughed softly - not cruelly, just tiredly. "We already ruined it the day we started pretending we didn't feel this."
The tears she'd been holding back finally slipped free, warm against her cold cheeks. "You're not being fair."
"Maybe not," he said, voice shaking, "but I'm being honest."
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The waves crashed and retreated, and their silence filled the space in between. Then Leia took one small step toward him - and then another.
"Miles," she said softly. "Say it again."
He looked down at her, eyes wide, breath unsteady. "I love you."
And before she could talk herself out of it, she grabbed the front of his hoodie and kissed him.
It wasn't perfect - their noses bumped, the salt from her tears touched his lips - but it was real, raw, and everything they'd been trying to say for years.
He kissed her back like he was memorizing her, like he'd been waiting for this moment his whole life.
When they finally pulled away, both were breathing hard, foreheads resting together, hearts pounding in sync.
Leia let out a shaky laugh. "So... this is happening?"
Miles smiled faintly, brushing his thumb against her cheek. "It's always been happening."
She exhaled, and the tension that had been sitting in her chest for months finally slipped away with the tide.
For once, there was no pretending - just two people standing on the same beach where it had all begun, choosing each other under a quiet sky.