#(...surprise?)

If it had been anyone else, she would've been done for, but he was safe. He had always been safe.

"No," she breathes.

He hums and she sinks into his hold, trusting him to keep her upright. She didn't know what to start with, what he knew, if he even knew at all. Everything she wants to say builds in her chest, and then she finds that a part of her doesn't want to say anything at all, because this is the most peace she's felt all week. No secret glances or fleeting touches. Just them and the cave hiding them away from the rest of the world.

"I missed you," Victor tells her, like it's the simplest thing in the world. She wishes it was, wishes that there wasn't so much keeping them apart.

"We saw each other this morning," she says, squeezing her eyes shut when she feels his face tuck against her neck.

"You know that's not the same," he dismisses quietly, pressing a kiss against her skin. "I missed you, Nova," another kiss, this one lingering longer, a tighter tug around her waist before everything falls away. "Aren't you tired of hiding?"

She turns around and reaches for him before he fades back into the shadows of the cave, a creature shoved back where he belongs. Except, he's never belonged, not like the rest. Not when it comes to her, or the way any of them think now, eager to draw a line in the sand and never turn back.

"Of course I am," she says, pale fingers pulling at his wrist. She catches the shine of his eyes as they flicker to her bracelet, to the lightstone that rests within. "But I also know what would happen if we told - "

"You've seen the new outsiders, haven't you?" Victor interrupts carefully, and there's something hiding in his gaze that makes her heart beat faster. "They're different and they seem to work just fine. Why can't we?"

"And what do you think they had to go through to get there?" she asks him, voice coming out louder than she means it to be. He simply looks at her, silent. Nova sighs, shaking her head. "I want everything you want. I'm just scared," she admits, and she hates this, laying her heart bare for anyone to come along and pick at it as they please, but this is Victor. He's never hurt her, has always been kind touches and simple smiles, and she refuses to believe everything she's been told when someone like him exists and continues to prove them wrong.

He's more than some scary folktale.

She glances behind her, back out the entrance of the cave, takes in the way the waves lap at the sand of the beach. She remembers playing in that sand growing up, remembers her mother telling her never to run where the sun couldn't reach her. She wonders if he ever played in the same sand under the touch of moonlight.

"We'll get our chance," Victor whispers, bringing her attention back. "Someday."

Nova chuckles at that, fingers slipping between his. "Someone's been hanging out with the outsiders more than he lets on." He squeezes her hand in return, pulling her back to him. Her arms slip around his neck.

"Jealous?" he asks her, teasing.