Summary:

Ilya allows himself to bask in this new, peaceful reality they are building for themselves, where they can exist in between breaths, where their hearbeats synchronize and do the talking instead of fast hands and impatient bodies, desperate for connection and release. This could be Ilya’s safe haven, if he let it. The one place where the storm finally quiets down. The thought terrifies him as much as it ends something deep and raw inside of him.