I Was Hoping She Would Notice but again Now When She Did... Im Tired

“Is it normal… to feel sad because the person you once loved looks happy now?”

Lucian’s voice barely rose above the downpour, raw and bare, like a wound exposed to cold air.

“Even if you wished for that happiness?”

The System, ever so composed, didn’t respond immediately. There was a long, weighty silence an unnatural pause that lingered like fog in his chest.

Finally, the voice echoed inside his head, low and measured.

[Host… wanna hear a story?]

“…Go on.”

Lucian’s tone was flat. Tired. But he listened because something in him needed to.

[There was a man. One day, while gathering wood deep in the jungle, he found an egg… a snake’s egg. He took it home. Months passed. Eventually, it hatched. A beautiful black mamba was born.]

Lucian blinked, his damp lashes sticking together. Rain kept pouring, slicking his hair to his forehead, soaking into his fine tuxedo until it clung to him like a second skin. He didn’t move. Just sat there on the cold pavement, back pressed against the alley wall as if the building itself was the only thing holding him up.

[The man raised it. Fed it. Cared for it. Gave it warmth, a place to rest… love, in his own way. Years passed. One day, the mamba bit him. Then it slithered away into the wild.]

A flash of something passed through Lucian’s eyes, but his lips remained parted, unmoving.

[You know what the man did next, Host?]

“…Went to the hospital?” Lucian replied instinctively. “Tried to stop the poison?”

[Nope. The man… he ran after the mamba. Bleeding, staggering, dying. He chased it, shouting, ‘Why?’ Asking it, screaming, begging it to understand. To answer. To feel guilty. Not once thinking about saving himself. Not even realizing… the snake would bite him again if it could. But still… all he wanted was to make it understand the pain it had caused.]

The voice paused. The rain did not.

[That’s your story, Host. In short.]

Lucian’s breath caught. Something inside him twisted, sharp and cold.

He understood.

He truly did.

But there were no words to offer in return. No protests. No defenses. Only the numb silence of realization sinking in.

His fists tightened slightly on the drenched fabric of his pants. And then

Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.

Footsteps. Fast. Light, but frantic. Slapping against the rain-soaked ground. Water splashing.

He turned his head, slowly. The sound was distant at first… but getting closer. Rhythmic. Urgent.

Heels.

A woman. Running. Through the rain.

And then he saw her.

Golden eyes. Wet blonde hair clinging to her cheeks. Jeans darkened by rain. Black T-shirt soaked and hugging her frame. Breathless. Wild. Angry. Beautiful.

She came to a sudden stop in front of him, chest rising and falling rapidly, her breath catching as her eyes locked onto his.

Lucian froze.

Celestia.

For a second, neither of them spoke.

Just the rain between them.

Then she snapped.

“Where the hell were you for these last three days, you idiot?!”

Her voice cracked not just with anger, but something far more fragile.

It was the first time he’d heard her curse. The first time her voice had ever held that storm of emotion… directed at him.

And yet, there was no bite in it.

Only fear.

Only pain.

Only relief.

Lucian blinked. Slowly. Rainwater trailed down the side of his face, indistinguishable from the tears he never admitted were there.

Celestia stepped closer, her heels clicking on the wet stone beneath them, her fists trembling at her sides. She sucked in a sharp breath, taking in the sight before her.

Lucian. In a tuxedo. Sitting in the middle of a filthy alley like a broken doll. Back against the wall. Soaked to the bone. Staring blankly at her as if she weren’t real.

Her heart twisted violently.

She had stormed here the moment the AI facial recognition pinged a match him, spotted on a nearby alley cam. She’d sworn to scold him. Make him feel the consequences of making her worry. Make him regret vanishing without a word.

But now…

One look at him.

That face.

That hollow gaze.

All her anger burned away in a heartbeat, swallowed by the sheer weight of the sadness bleeding from him.

The rain blurred her vision.

She didn’t care.

“…Lucian,” she whispered, softer now. Her voice cracked again, but this time with something different. “What happened to you…?”

He didn’t answer.

Didn’t need to.

Because she saw it now.

He wasn’t just lost.

He was drowning.

She stepped forward.

“Hey,” she said, gentler now. “I’m here.”

She had just finished asking him when it happened.

Lucian, still seated on the cold ground in the rain, suddenly smiled.

But it wasn’t a happy smile.

It was the kind of broken expression someone wore when the last dam holding back their pain finally gave out. A smile twisted in sorrow so fragile it hurt to witness.

And then, without warning…

Tears.

They hit him all at once crashing down harder than the rain soaking him from head to toe. His shoulders trembled as silent sobs clawed their way out of the tight space he’d locked them in for days.

He stared at her Celestia, standing before him, breathing hard from the run, drenched and furious and desperate. Her golden hair plastered to her face, eyes blazing, fists clenched at her sides. And yet, all he could see was concern. Fear. Real, human worry… for him.

Someone cared.

He had vanished for three days and someone… had actually come looking for him not drinking coffee with someone without Even realising someone dissapeared.

Someone gave a damn whether he lived or died.

Lucian’s lips quivered as he stared at her. That look of stormy desperation on her face mixed with anger, confusion, hurt was like a dagger and a lifeline all at once.

“…What happened?” she asked again, her voice much softer now. “Are you alright?”

She tried to make her tone gentle, tried to hide the whirlwind inside her. But it leaked through the sharp edge in her words, the stiffness in her stance. She didn’t understand what he was going through, but it didn’t stop her from trying. She wanted to.

And yet… the more she looked at him, the more it burned.

The sorrow in his eyes. The lifeless curve of his smile. The soaking suit, the stillness, the hollow way he sat there…

Something inside her snapped.

Who?

Who had reduced him to this?

Who had made Lucian, the man she couldn’t stop thinking about, look so… defeated?

Her hands trembled slightly. A fire bloomed inside her chest not from anger at him, but at whoever had hurt him this deeply. Whoever had twisted that proud soul until it broke.

She wanted to storm up to him, grab his shoulders, shake him and ask what the hell had happened. Or maybe just maybe she wanted to reach for his hand. To hold it. To kneel down, look him in the eyes, and ask him softly to tell her everything. Just talk.

But she didn’t move.

She remembered how guarded he was. How he’d always pulled away when anyone got too close.

She feared feared that if she crossed that invisible line, he might look at her like she was another stranger reaching in where she didn’t belong.

So she stood frozen in place, emotions crashing inside her, trying to act calm, trying to hold herself together.

And just as she was convincing herself to back off

Thump.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Two arms suddenly wrapped around her tight. Desperate. Clinging like a child afraid of being left behind.

“What”

She gasped, looking down.

Lucian.

His head was buried on her right shoulder, face hidden from view, arms locked tightly around her waist. His grip wasn’t gentle it was aching. It was the kind of embrace that said, please, don’t leave me.

Her brain short-circuited.

Did he just… hug her?

Did Lucian distant, composed, untouchable Lucian just throw himself into her arms?

Her heart pounded like a war drum.

For a moment she stood still, frozen in disbelief. But then

She felt it.

His body.

Trembling.

His shoulders shuddered violently. His head on her shoulder shook faintly, and then

Small, broken whimpers reached her ear.

“…Lucian?” she whispered, eyes wide.

He was crying.

He was actually crying.

A gasp escaped her lips, eyes stinging. Her mind went blank as thousands of questions flooded her What happened? Who hurt him? Why is he like this?

But she didn’t ask.

She didn’t speak.

She just… moved.

Softly.

Gently.

She raised one hand and placed it on the back of his head, her fingers threading through his soaked hair as she began to stroke it like a mother comforting a grieving child. Her other arm wrapped around his back, hugging him as tightly as he held her.

“Don’t worry,” she said, gentler now. “I’m here.”

She leaned forward, resting her head on his other shoulder, and suddenly

Everything inside her broke, too.

The pain she’d been holding in the sudden death of Arthur, Lucian’s disappearance, the world unraveling at the seams, the weight of responsibility, her mother’s harsh words, her sleepless nights…

All of it surged to the surface at once.

Tears spilled from her eyes, unnoticed and unrestrained, trailing down her cheeks to vanish in the crook of Lucian’s neck.

Celestia the girl said to be made of stone, too cold to feel, too sharp to cry was now weeping.

Not alone.

But together.

The rain poured endlessly around them, hiding their tears, muffling the sound of pain and grief and everything they had bottled up. Time lost its meaning. They didn’t know how long they stayed like that, clinging to each other like they were the only things left in the world that hadn’t shattered.

Lucian’s sobs grew louder.

His voice finally broke free harsh, hoarse, raw from the silence he’d buried it in.

“Ahhhh…”

He whimpered first.

Then it turned into a cry.

“Aaaah!”

A scream cracked and wild, torn from the bottom of his soul.

“Why?”

He cried again, again, again, his voice echoing into the storm, a broken plea with no target, no answer.

And Celestia held him tighter.

Not asking him to stop.

Not asking him to be strong.

Just… holding him, as if her very body was the answer. As if she was saying You don’t have to be alone anymore.

And in that moment, under the weight of rain and sorrow, they didn’t look like two elite cadets or heirs to great powers.

Just like that, the rain stopped.

No one knew how long it had been both of them still hugging, their heads resting against each other’s shoulders.

Suddenly, a trembling voice came from behind.

“Lucian… w-what are you…” Avey, standing beside Victor, asked as she stared at the scene unfolding before her.

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