The Cheat Code

Zara blinked up at Roy, surprise flickering across her face. Not hurt. Not rejected. Just recalibrating.

"Oh," she said softly, the word more thoughtful than disappointed. "Okay."

For half a second, she stayed where she was, kneeling between his knees, processing. Then, with a small, decisive nod, as if she'd simply reached the next step in a flowchart, she shifted.

Up.

Forward.

Settling herself in his lap like it was the most natural place in the world to be.

"There," she said, adjusting slightly, one knee pressing into the couch cushion on either side of him, arms coming up to rest loosely around his shoulders. "This feels like a better configuration for talking."

A small grin tugged at her lips. "More efficient. Better eye contact. Also..." she lowered her voice just a touch, playful again, "...very on-brand for what I'm trying to accomplish tonight."

The joke came easily, but her eyes stayed on his. Watching. Curious.

The room did feel smaller now. Closer. Warmer. Roy hadn’t moved her away. Hadn’t pulled back.

That was data.

Good data.

"So," she said, softer this time. "What do you want to talk about?"

His hands hovered for a moment, uncertain, before settling lightly at her waist. Not pulling her closer, not pushing her away. Just there. Grounding.

"I just..." Roy started, then stopped. His brow furrowed slightly, like he was trying to find the right angle into something complicated. "I want to make sure you're... okay. With all of this."

Zara's smile returned, immediate and bright.

"I am," she said.

"I know you said that," he replied gently. "I just... I want to understand. This is... new for you."

A laugh bubbled up out of her, soft and a little breathy. "That is a very polite way of putting it."

Her fingers traced absentminded patterns along the back of his neck, more affectionate than calculated now.

"Yeah," she continued, "it's new. Like, really new. Like someone dropped me into a completely different genre of game and I skipped the tutorial and now I'm just hitting buttons and hoping something cool happens."

Her grin widened. "Which, to be fair, it is. Very cool things are happening."

Roy didn't smile back the same way. The tension was still there, quiet but persistent. Zara noticed. Of course she noticed. While she might have missed it in someone else, she would never miss it in Roy, the man she loved, the man she cared about more than anyone she'd ever met before.

Head tilting slightly, she studied him. "You're worried," she said, not accusing. Just observing.

A pause.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"About me?"

Another pause. Then, quieter, "Yeah."

Something warm spread through her chest at that. Not discomfort. Not fear. Appreciation.

"That's... really sweet," she said, the words softening without losing their brightness. "You know that, right? Like, top-tier boyfriend behaviour."

One hand came up to cup his cheek briefly, thumb brushing lightly along his skin. The gesture was instinctive, not something she'd rehearsed.

"You care about how I feel," she went on. "You want to make sure I'm not just going along with something or doing something I don't actually want."

A small, almost shy smile touched her lips.

"That's kind of incredible."

Roy's neck muscles tightened slightly, like the praise didn't land the way she expected it to. His eyes, too, seemed wrong. Distant. Like he was focused on something far from the present.

"So tell me," he said, voice careful. "Before all this, before tonight, before me, did you ever feel like something was missing?"

Zara blinked. That was a heavier question than she'd expected.

"Huh," she said, thoughtful.

Her gaze drifted slightly, not away from him entirely, but unfocused as she searched through herself.

"I don't think I would've said that," she admitted. "Not in those words."

Her shoulders lifted in a small shrug.

"I knew I was, you know, different, I guess. My friends would talk about guys, about crushes, about that whole pull. And I'd listen, and I understood it, like, intellectually? But it never clicked."

Her eyes came back to his.

"There wasn't, like, a hole where that feeling should be. It just wasn't there. And I was fine with that. Or I thought I was."

Roy watched her closely. "And now?"

A slow breath left her.

"Now it's like..." she hesitated, searching, then laughed softly. "Okay, this is going to sound dramatic, but it's the best analogy I've got."

"Try me," he said, a grin forming on his face.

"It's like I've been living in a house my whole life," Zara said, voice picking up a quiet intensity. "A really nice house. Comfortable. Familiar. And then someone opens a door I didn't even know existed."

Her fingers tightened slightly against his shoulders.

"And behind it is this entire other space. Light and colour and heat and..." she exhaled, a little shaky now. "And I walk into it and suddenly I'm like, oh. Oh, this is what everyone's been talking about. That one room, finding it, makes it feel like a whole new house."

Her gaze locked onto his.

"This is what I've been missing."

Silence settled between them. Not empty. Not uneasy. Peaceful.

"And you like it?" Roy asked quietly.

Zara laughed again, softer this time, almost disbelieving.

"I love it," she said.

No hesitation. No doubt. Her hands slid up, looping more securely around his neck as she leaned in just a fraction closer, close enough that her voice dropped without meaning to.

"I love how it feels," she continued. "I love wanting you. I love that my brain keeps short-circuiting when you look at me a certain way. I love that I can't stop thinking about you, about being close to you, about... you know..."

She cut herself off, cheeks flushing, then smiled anyway.

"Yeah," she finished simply. "I like it. You're my cheat code. You leveled me up."

Roy's grip on her waist shifted, tightening just slightly.

"And if it went away?" he asked.

That made her frown. Just enough to show the question didn't quite make sense.

"Why would it go away?" she asked.

"Just, I don't know, hypothetically."

Zara studied him again. He was still worried. Still careful. Still trying to protect her from something she couldn't quite see.

God, he's sweet.

The thought hit her with a rush of affection so strong it almost made her chest ache.

"You really are trying to take care of me," she murmured.

Then, without overthinking it, without turning it into another experiment or performance, she leaned in and kissed him.

Not as a test. Not as practice. Just because she wanted to. Her arms wrapped fully around his neck, pulling him closer as her lips met his. Warm. Intent. Real. The kind of kiss that didn't ask for permission because it didn't need to.

For a second, he tensed. Then he melted into it.

Zara smiled into the kiss, a soft, pleased sound escaping her as she felt the way he responded, the way his body gave in just a little. Pressed closer. Grounded.

When she pulled back, it was only far enough to look at him. Eyes bright. Breathing just a little uneven.

"Does that answer your questions?" she asked, a small, playful smile tugging at her mouth. "I never want to go back," she said, the words steady despite the emotion behind them. "I want you in my life, Roy. I want you so badly. I want you more than anything."

A tiny, sheepish grin flickered through. "More than candy. More than travelling. More than expansion packs."

Her forehead rested lightly against his.

"I hope I never go back to how I was," she says, pouring her truth into her words. "I didn't see it before, but now that I know what it's like to have you, I can't imagine being able to live like that."

For a moment, Roy didn't move.

Didn't speak.

Something shifted behind his eyes, as if the gears of some great machine were clicking into place.

Then, slowly, he leaned forward.

And kissed her.