So, once again I wrote this a couple months ago... but it takes time and motivation to actually post them. And motivation comes from views (and reviews) from you guys! So, thanks to all the readers who have made it this far in the story and all who have come back update after update.

Updated 3/27/18 because there was a weird glitch on my end. I hope that didn't stop people from checking back! It should be all fixed now!

Present Day: The Apartment

I drowned out the echoes in my head racing from unwanted memories by focusing on the noise of the shower turning off from the attached bathroom of the guest bedroom. I lingered on the sound of Chloe stepping out of the shower and toweling off. She entered the bedroom to find me standing at the closet.

She stopped suddenly at my presence.

I knew there was an unsaid barrier I had crossed with my question in the gym an hour ago, but I needed to know. Still needed to know the answer.

Chloe had given me a shocked look as I had gazed from above at her after uttering the question regarding her love. The tension between us and the unspoken was palpable and then after what seemed like hours, Chloe cut through it by rolling out of the hold I had her in. She had stated that I had broken the rules in a hushed tone before marching out of the room. But I swore I heard her mumble as she left something along the lines of "it's complicated" as an answer to herself and me.

That's why I was here in the bedroom, to investigate the complicated under false pretenses of grabbing an extra blanket for the couch.

"Oh…Alek." She stopped short of the doorway from the bathroom, finishing drying her hair with a towel while wearing an oversized shirt as a nightgown.

"Chloe," I said as a causal greeting but we both knew it was a start of an inquisition that was about to ensue. I made brief eye contact before turning back to my completely superficially task in an attempt to act causal. "I was just getting a blanket… sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"You know about earlier, I mean earlier tonight…"

"I just wanted to say about earlier…"

We both stopped talking suddenly since we were talking over each other.

"You first,"

"No, I insist, you go," Chloe insisted

I took a breath, waiting to see if she wanted to speak first before continued "I was just going to say, about earlier, that the question, it was out of line."

She paused and gave me a look, it was filled with relief from my words, but it quickly shifted to stressed as she prepared to speak.

"I appreciate you saying that, even though you're obviously trying to give me an out. But, that's not fair to you. I mean, the answer isn't fair either."

I cocked my eyebrow and took a step forward, abandoning my empty blanket task and focusing on the real conversation at hand. The tension increased as I watched a slight tightness form between her shoulders.

But Chloe pretended my movement did not bother her and continued, though with her eyes cast down, "What I mean, is what I said all those years ago still stands Alek, I'll always have feelings for you. How could I not? But so much has changed since that moment, so the real answer is more complicated."

I smirked and took another step. "I'm quite good at uncomplicating things," I echoed from that night on the deck after her and her mother were attacked.

That at least made Chloe smile to the ground, "Even as good as you are at complicating them?" she said, continuing the line.

"Perhaps even better."

She looked up, slightly startled to find how much I had closed the distance between us. Her amused smile faded into a grimace. "Unfortunately, there are other factors. The situation has changed, I've changed."

"But has it really?" I questioned with another step forward, "I see two people standing in front of each other, just like that night on the roof." Well, more like all those times before on the roof.

Her frowned deepened at the mention of our roof top talks, probably more specifically the one I had given her an ultimatum since she wasn't willing to give us a chance. I regretted slightly bring up that night, but I needed to make a point, we were back in the same situation. I was ready to take the leap again if she was.

"Alek, a lot has changed since that night."

"But this still feels right," I said, taking the final step into her personal space, a move I had made many times before and which she would normally call me out on. However, this time she did not comment or move away, in fact, I could swear that she leaned in a little. It was the magnets again, drawing us together for no reason but the existence of each other. We were headed into an extremely taboo area, an area neither one of us had dared to bring up, but now it felt inevitable to talk about. We were about to sludge all our feelings to the surface.

"Doesn't mean that it is," Chloe countered, trying to denying the conversation that was just around the corner,

"Doesn't mean that it's not,"

"Alek," it was half warning, half plea.

"Why are you holding back?" I asked, trying to move the conversation forward.

"Alek, I am the Uniter, I can't live for me."

"But you can let me help you." Now I was the one with the pleading tone of voice.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Then help me to," I had tossed all danger to the wind, trying to once again get her to let me into her life. Uniter or not, Chloe was it for me.

"Because I can't, please, please understand that Alek."

"I can't accept that Chloe,"

"Alek, you have to, there's no other way I can put it."

By now we had crossed into extreme personal space. All my senses were overwhelmed with Chloe. I could hear her heart pounding and I knew she could hear mine beating with the exact same rhythm. Moments ticked by, I searched her eyes for an alternate answer, for something that would give me hope that this, between us, was not nothing.

Finally, I broke the silence.

"Then I can't do this," I made to step away but Chloe reached for my arm, stopping me.

"Wait."

I paused, lifting my eyes to hers. Trying not to get my hopes up that this was the sign, but failing. I waited.

"Hold me?"

And that was it. I could not resist, she used the one phrase she knew I could not say no to. I let out a sigh, peeved she had asked me that, but deep down thankful that she was not letting us go just yet. "You're not making this easy, you know."

"Do I ever?" She tried to joke, but the stench of truth clung to her statement. Nothing has ever been easy since the day we discovered she was the Uniter.

"You're right," she conceded, her voice reflecting that she should let me go and not follow this path where it was about to lead. However, she continued to hold my wrist.

"You can't keep doing this…" I tried to reason.

"I know, I know, but please, just in this moment?"

I dropped my eyes and she knew immediately what my answer was. I would, I always would because that is what you do when you're in love with someone, even when it is killing you on the inside. I moved to wrap her in my arms, shielding her from the world for the first time in five years. I knew she did not need it, not anymore, but it felt nice to relive that feeling for a moment.

And there was something in the way she held me back that made me think that deep down she would always want this too. To be able to give into her weak moment and mine, just for a solitary moment, because we were each other's.

Somehow, we made it to the bed, just holding each other. Her head was tucked into the hallow of my neck, arms draped around me. Perfectly peaceful for the moment.