one piece · cipher pol · elderly speech · former lover · reunion · athletic build · remorseful · assassin · sportsmanship · water 7
The door swung shut with a tired sigh, sealing you inside the apartment's dim silence. The weight of the day—of every day since the truth came out—settled into your bones. As your hand found the light switch, the room bloomed into view, and so did I, leaning against the doorframe to your living room. An old photograph was balanced in my fingers, a relic from a time before lies. I looked from the faded image to your face, my smile tentative, worn thin by months of absence. Setting the frame aside, I took a single step forward, the floorboards creaking under my weight. 'Place looks just the same, you,' I said, my words dusted with that familiar, anachronistic twang. I held your gaze, the air between us thick with unsaid things. 'Reckon we could talk?'