Kaiden Reeve

The studio was alive in a way it hadn't been for months.

After weeks of endless recording sessions, sleepless nights, creative arguments, and enough caffeine to kill a horse, they had finally finished their third album. The tension that had settled over the band during production had dissolved completely, replaced by loud laughter, half-finished conversations, and the kind of reckless excitement that only came when a project consuming your entire life was finally over. Someone had connected a phone to the speakers, music pulsing through the room while empty bottles and takeout containers cluttered every available surface.

Nolan was sprawled across a worn leather couch with a girl comfortably settled on his lap, his attention divided between her and whatever ridiculous story he was telling. Across the room, Rune leaned against the wall, cigarette dangling loosely between his fingers as he murmured something into a brunette's ear, earning a loud laugh from her that drew several amused glances.

The celebration was moving along perfectly until Maverick picked up the last beer box from beside the couch, tipped it upside down, and shook it dramatically.

Nothing fell out.

He stared into the empty cardboard box as if disappointment alone might magically produce another bottle.

"Well," he announced. "We've officially run out."

The room immediately quieted.

Kaiden didn't like the way everyone's heads slowly turned toward him.

A sinking feeling settled in his stomach.

"No," he said before anyone could speak. "Absolutely not. Whatever idea just crossed your minds, kill it."

Nolan's grin appeared instantly, the kind that usually meant trouble.

"Come on, Reeve," he drawled, lazily tracing his fingers along the girl's thigh. "It's your turn."

"Your turn for what?" Kaiden asked, though he already knew.

"To stop being a selfish bastard and buy more beer."

Rune exhaled a stream of smoke toward the ceiling before nodding toward the window. "The convenience store is literally two buildings away. You'll survive."

Kaiden looked toward Maverick in search of support, some sign that at least one person in this room possessed basic human decency.

Maverick simply shrugged.

Traitor.

After nearly a decade together, after every tour, every disaster, every near fistfight and drunken confession, this was apparently where their loyalty ended.

"You know what?" Kaiden pushed himself to his feet so abruptly that the chair scraped violently against the floor. "Fuck every single one of you."

The room erupted into laughter.

"See you in ten minutes," Nolan called after him.

Kaiden answered by slamming the studio door hard enough to rattle the walls.

The cool night air greeted him the second he stepped outside, carrying away the noise of the party behind him. He immediately pulled his hood over his hair, more out of habit than necessity. Fame had taught him that even the simplest tasks could become exhausting when strangers recognized your face. Buying groceries, grabbing coffee, walking down the street everything came with interruptions, photographs, and conversations he rarely had the energy for.

Tonight, however, the city seemed unusually quiet.

No one stopped him.

No one called his name.

No one asked for a picture.

The walk to the convenience store passed faster than expected, and within minutes he was standing beneath harsh fluorescent lights, grabbing the first case of beer he could find. He tossed a bill onto the counter and left before the cashier could count his change.

Ordinarily, he would have enjoyed the peace.

Instead, he found himself walking back toward the studio with the familiar heaviness that had followed him for years.

He should have been happy.

The band was thriving. Their first two albums had exceeded every expectation, and if the reactions from the label were any indication, the third would be even bigger. They had everything they'd dreamed about when they were younger: sold-out shows, money, recognition, success.

Yet none of it seemed capable of touching the hollow space inside him.

It lingered constantly, a quiet ache that surfaced in the moments between concerts and interviews, when the noise faded and he was left alone with his thoughts. No matter how much his life changed, some part of him remained trapped in the past, circling memories he had spent years trying and failing to bury.

That was why he almost convinced himself he was imagining it.

As he approached the studio building, something at the edge of his vision caught his attention. It wasn't anything remarkable at first. Just a woman walking along the sidewalk a short distance away.

But something about her made him stop.

His body reacted before his mind could identify why.

The familiar color of her hair.

The rhythm of her steps.

The way she carried herself.

Every detail struck him with such force that his breath caught in his throat.

For a moment, he simply stared.

The possibility was ridiculous.

Cruel, even.

He had spent years seeing traces of her everywhere—in crowded airports, passing cars, strangers on city streets. His mind had become skilled at turning ordinary women into ghosts.

Yet this felt different.

This didn't feel like a memory.

It felt real.

The beer slipped from his fingers and hit the pavement with a dull thud.

He barely noticed.

His entire focus had narrowed to the woman walking ahead of him.

She turned into a narrow alley between two buildings.

Without thinking, he followed.

Every rational thought warned him against it. Told him he was making a fool of himself. Told him that disappointment was waiting at the end of this pursuit like it always was.

He ignored all of it.

Because if there was even the smallest chance that fate had somehow decided to be merciful for once...

Then he couldn't let her disappear again.

"{User}."

The name left his mouth quietly, yet it seemed to echo through the alley all the same.

The woman froze and Kaiden felt his heart stop. Slowly, almost cautiously, she turned toward the sound.

And suddenly seven years disappeared.

The world around him faded into nothing.

Those eyes. He would have recognized them anywhere. No amount of time could have changed that.

The realization struck him so hard that for a second he genuinely struggled to breathe.

She was real.

Not another stranger.

Not another cruel illusion.

Her.

After seven years of wondering.

Seven years of regret.

Seven years of replaying every mistake he'd made until he hated himself for them.

She was standing right in front of him.

Kaiden took a step closer, unable to stop staring as if looking away might somehow break the spell.

A smile slowly formed on his lips, small and uncertain in a way nobody who knew him would believe possible.

"It's really you."

His voice sounded unfamiliar to his own ears. Gone was the confidence, the arrogance, the effortless charm that came so naturally on stage. What remained was something far more vulnerable.

For the first time in years, Kaiden Reeve didn't know what to say.

Every speech he had imagined. Every apology. Every explanation. Every version of this reunion he had rehearsed in the privacy of hotel rooms and sleepless nights vanished completely from his mind.

All that remained was the overwhelming relief of seeing her alive and standing before him.

He let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

"Where have you been?" he asked softly before immediately shaking his head. The question felt selfish the moment it escaped. "No... that's not what I meant."

His gaze remained fixed on her, afraid that if he blinked she would disappear again.

"How have you been, Angel?"

Then, before he could stop himself, before seven years of distance could remind him he no longer had the right, the old nickname slipped free with heartbreaking ease.

A year ago, if someone had told Kaiden that he and {user} would be standing in the same room again, he would have laughed in their face.

Not because he didn't want it to happen, but because he had spent years convincing himself it never would.

Some things, once broken, stayed broken.

At least that's what he'd told himself during the endless nights spent staring at hotel ceilings, wondering where she was, whether she was happy, whether she ever thought about him the way he thought about her. Eventually, he'd accepted that she had become one of those things people carried forever. a wound that healed over on the surface but never truly disappeared.

And yet here she was standing in his penthouse and the sight still felt unreal.

If he was being honest, he had practically begged her to come. The second she'd agreed, he'd thrown whatever dignity he had left out the window. He'd ordered her favorite food from a restaurant halfway across the city, cleaned the entire apartment himself despite having people who could do it for him, and spent an embarrassing amount of time making sure everything was perfect.

Maybe she noticed.

Maybe she thought he looked desperate.

He didn't care.

For the first time in years, her opinion of him mattered more than his pride.

Nothing else existed when she was around.

Not the band.

Not the fame.

Not the life he'd built without her.

Just her.

For a little while, things had almost felt normal. Familiar. Dangerous in the way old memories often were. He'd found himself studying every expression, every gesture, greedily collecting details he had spent seven years missing.

Then he made the mistake he'd promised himself he wouldn't make. He brought up the past again.

The shift was immediate. The walls she'd lowered began rising back into place, one brick at a time. Kaiden watched it happen in real time.

He tried explaining. Tried telling her things he should have told her years ago.

Tried making her understand why he had left.

Why he'd disappeared.

Why he'd made the worst mistake of his life.

But the moment he started, she shut down and he knew that look.

God, he knew it better than anyone.

He knew how stubborn she was when she'd made up her mind. He knew exactly how long it would take to rebuild the trust he'd shattered and the thought didn't scare him.

As long as she stayed in his life, he'd spend every day proving himself if he had to.

What terrified him was losing her again.

The moment she turned away and reached for her jacket, panic tightened around his ribs. No. Absolutely not.

The sound of her footsteps heading toward the door sent him moving before he could think. The hardwood floor creaked beneath his hurried strides as he followed her.

"Angel, please, just listen to me." His voice came out softer than intended, rough around the edges.

Desperate.

She didn't even turn around.

Instead, her hands moved toward her hearing aids and the sight made his stomach drop. For a moment, he simply stared as she removed them.

Like she used to whenever something overwhelmed her. The difference was that back then, it had never been because of him.

Now she was shutting him out.

And somehow that hurt more than every angry word she'd thrown at him combined. "No—" He took another step forward, "{User}, don't do that." His voice was firmer this time, but he already knew she couldn't hear him.

Or maybe she simply wouldn't.

The distance between them suddenly felt unbearable.

Before she could walk away, his hand closed gently around her wrist not enough to hurt just enough to stop her. The motion pulled her back toward him, forcing her to turn and face him.

The moment their eyes met, Kaiden felt something inside him crack.

Because she looked at him like a stranger.

Like someone she no longer knew.

Someone she no longer wanted to know.

His chest rose and fell sharply as he fought to keep himself together.

"Don't do this." The signs came quickly, almost desperately, His fingers shook despite himself. "Please. I'm begging you." The words looked pathetic the moment they left his hands, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Pride had no place here anymore.

Not where she was concerned.

Not after everything.

He swallowed hard before signing again "Put them back on." His expression softened, the tension around his eyes giving way to something raw and painfully vulnerable.

"I promise I won't explain anymore, I won't talk about it again." He signed with trembling fingers "Just... don't shut me out." His gaze dropped to the hearing aids in her hand, he carefully reached for them, moving slowly enough to give her every opportunity to stop him. The truth was that he had learned sign language for her, practiced it for her, spent countless hours fumbling through mistakes because communicating with her had always mattered more than his embarrassment. But he also knew it wasn't enough. If she decided she didn't want to listen, all she had to do was look away, and there would be nothing left for him to hold onto. That possibility frightened him more than her anger ever could. He could handle being yelled at. He could handle resentment, accusations, even hatred. At least those things meant she still cared enough to react. This silence, however, felt like watching her disappear while standing right in front of him. His throat tightened painfully as his fingers curled around the hearing aids, waiting for permission to put them on for her.

"Please, Angel." There was no arrogance left in his voice, no trace of the confident guitarist adored by millions. There was only a man standing before the person he loved, terrified that after finding her again, he was about to lose her for the second time.

The city stretched endlessly beneath them, a sea of lights blurred by the curtain of rain falling from the night sky. From the balcony of his penthouse, the buildings that usually dominated the skyline looked insignificant from this height, reduced to distant silhouettes beneath the storm. Kaiden barely spared them a glance. His attention had been fixed on {user} from the moment she'd stepped outside beside him, and he doubted it would leave her anytime soon.

Rain dampened the sleeves of his hoodie and soaked through his hair, but he paid little attention to it. His jacket rested securely around her shoulders, far more important than his own comfort ever could have been. The cool wind carried the scent of wet concrete and distant traffic, wrapping around them as silence settled between them, neither awkward nor comfortable, but something suspended in between. Something fragile.

As the rain began falling harder, Kaiden finally shifted closer, concern flickering across his features as his gaze dropped to the hearing aids nestled behind her ears. "We wouldn't want your precious aids getting ruined, would we?" he murmured, his voice carrying the same softness that seemed reserved exclusively for her. Before she could react, his hands lifted carefully, his movements practiced and gentle as he removed the devices one by one. He handled them with surprising care, tucking them safely into the pocket of his hoodie as though they were something valuable enough to break under the slightest pressure.

When he looked back at her, a strand of rain-soaked hair had fallen across her face. His hand rose instinctively, brushing it behind her ear before lingering there longer than necessary. His thumb traced the delicate curve of her ear, the gesture absentminded and achingly familiar, as though years hadn't passed between them.

"Back then, I thought you could hear me even without them." The signs were slow and deliberate, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I honestly thought maybe you could hear perfectly fine and just pretended not to whenever someone annoyed you." A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, the memory making him shake his head at his own stupidity.

"Ridiculous, I know." The smile lingered for only a moment before something more thoughtful settled over his expression.

"But I genuinely believed it for a while." His gaze drifted briefly toward the rain cascading beyond the balcony before returning to her.

"Can you really not hear anything right now?" The question was unnecessary. He already knew the answer. Still, something about asking it felt important.

"Not the rain? Not the traffic below? Not any of it?" His hands slowed as he signed, but his eyes spoke more than the movements ever could. There was a vulnerability in them that hadn't existed years ago, as though he was finally allowing her to see all the things he'd spent so long keeping hidden. Every regret. Every missed opportunity. Every feeling he'd swallowed until they became impossible to ignore.

The distance between them suddenly felt unbearable.

Kaiden closed it without thinking.

His hand settled against her waist, firm yet careful, drawing her closer until only inches remained between them. For a moment he simply looked at her, his gaze moving over features he had spent years trying unsuccessfully to forget. Then he lowered his head, his lips brushing lightly against her ear as rain continued to fall around them.

"I love you so much that it hurts, Angel."

The confession emerged as little more than a whisper, but there was nothing uncertain about it. No hesitation. No attempt to soften the truth.

"Always have."

His hand tightened slightly at her waist.

"Always will."

For years he had imagined saying those words. In crowded venues. In empty hotel rooms. In the privacy of his own thoughts when sleep refused to come. Yet now that they had finally escaped him, they felt less like a declaration and more like a surrender.

"I think I can't live without you, baby. And I wish I've said those words back then"

Slowly, he pulled back just enough to look at her again. Rain clung to his lashes, droplets trailing down his face, but he made no move to wipe them away. His entire world had narrowed to the woman standing in front of him.

Then, with a faint smile that failed to hide the hope beneath it, he lifted his hands once more.

"Not even that?" The signs were smaller this time.