And suddenly, the only thing I can think about is the flowers he gave me, clutched in my hand. I lift the flowers, arching a brow. “Bold choice. Never thought I’d see you voluntarily holding a sunflower again.”
A tiny smirk tugs at his mouth. “I don’t know. I’m starting to think it’s a strong combination.”
“Even the sunflowers?”
“Especially those. I’ve grown to love them.” Hayden’s eyes soften; his head tilts. “They’re bright, sure. But more than that, they’re stubborn. Persistent. Loyal to the light even when the day is cloudy.” His throat moves on a swallow. “I didn’t think I deserved anything like that…until you.”
My breath stutters.
“I’ve grown to love the man who burst into my life, adamant that my flower selection was offensively gloomy, by the way,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck as he takes a step closer. “Turns out, I neededyourbrand of brightness more than I ever realized.”
Love.
He’s not even hiding it.
“Me?” I point to myself, laughing shakily. “I’m just the florist. I didn’t know I was supposed to rewrite your entire worldview.”
Hayden nods, now smiling. “You did, though,” he says, taking a measured step forward. “Levi, you’ve shown me what it means to live again. Truly live. Out of the shadows, out of the rules Ichained myself to.” His voice dips. “You once asked me what my full-bloom moment was…” he murmurs, drawing me in. “I don’t think I even could have begun to fathom such an answer until I lost you. God, Levi, it’s always been you. I kept waiting for some big, obvious moment to show me how to really live. But it happened quietly. Every laugh. Every ridiculous sunflower,” he says, placing a tender hand on the side of my face, tracing the lines of my bottom lip just so. “Youwere my full bloom long before I realized I’d been growing toward you.”
His mouth finds mine and our kiss is slow and gentle, like we’re both remembering just how good this feels. The taste of him, the way his presence fills me. Sunflowers and lilies and shadows…it all blurs.
He pulls away just enough to cradle my face, and looks me in the eye. “I’m sorry,” he whispers roughly, forehead resting against mine. “For being afraid. For letting you slip away. I thought I was protecting myself, but I wasn’t. I was losing the only thing that ever made this mortal life feel like more than exile. I was losing us…”
“Hayden,” I interrupt softly, brushing a thumb along his lips. “I…I get it. But we’re both here now. Let’s not waste any more time apologizing.”
But he shakes his head a little, not pulling away. “No, Levi. I need to say this.” His voice breaks open, truer than I’ve ever heard it. “I spent millennia believing my only worth was in what I could do for others. Death. Duty. Order. I thought if I was useful, I’d be needed. And if I was needed, I would be…less alone.”
He braces himself, just barely. Shoulders tightening and jaw trembling like he’s preparing for impact. For rejection. Like he fully expects me to walk out if he speaks one word more.
I touch his cheek gently. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He exhales, barely. “But even after you came into my life…even when I started loving you…I couldn’t stop searching forthat loophole.” His voice shakes. “And it wasn’t because I wanted to leave you, love.”
My chest pulls tight. “Then why?”
“Because I didn’t think I was allowed to stop.” His eyes flick to mine, desperate and raw. “I didn’t think I was allowed to choose something for myself. Not after an eternity of being the one who stayed behind to keep everything in balance.”
My fingers dip to his waist, grounding him here with me.
“Loving you didn’t erase the fear,” he whispers. “If anything, it magnified it. Because wanting you”—he lifts a hand to cradle my face—“wantingthisfelt like the most selfish thing I’d ever done.”
I swallow hard. “Hayden—”
“No, it’s okay,” he interrupts. “I didn’t know how to be a man who was allowed to choose something because he wanted it. Not because it served a purpose. When the Act happened, everyone moved on. My brothers, the world, time itself. And I…” His voice folds in on itself. “I thought if I clung to the last rules I had, the last traces of purpose, I wouldn’t disappear.”
I wrap my arms tighter around his waist, feeling him shudder beneath my touch.
“But then you showed up and you made me feel…alive. Not needed. Not necessary. Just wanted. And that terrified me, Levi. Because if I let myself want you back, that meant letting go of the last thing I thought gave me worth.”
“Baby,” I whisper, pulling him tighter, “you don’t owe the world your purpose to earn a place in it. Not anymore. And definitely not with me.”
My thumb brushes his cheek, tracing the tremor there.
“You kept searching because duty is the only life you’ve ever known. But loving someone? Letting yourself be loved? That’s being human.”
He exhales, eyes brimming with tears I don’t think I could bear to see spill.
“I’m not asking you to be useful, or worthy, or necessary. I just want you. As you are. As you choose to be. Not Hades, or the god the world needed.”
