Bond -ch.1 Part 5- -cloudlet-: True

“You felt that,” she whispered. It wasn’t a question.

“Like you touched me last night.”

She uncrossed her arms slowly, holding out her hand palm-up. The silver light gathered there again, not threatening—almost shy. A small, drifting cloudlet of pure feeling, waiting to be touched. True Bond -Ch.1 Part 5- -Cloudlet-

The rain had stopped sometime before dawn, leaving the world in a hush so complete that Kael could hear the soft drip-drip-drip of water falling from the eaves of the safehouse. He hadn't slept. Not truly. He’d only floated in that gray space between waking and dreaming, haunted by the echo of a single word spoken in the dark: Cloudlet . “You felt that,” she whispered

He saw a small girl in a white room, hands pressed against a glass wall. He saw a woman with kind eyes— mother? handler? —singing a lullaby as the girl’s small body convulsed with pain. He saw years of running, hiding, forgetting. And beneath all of it, a single, unbreakable truth: I don’t want to be alone anymore. He hadn't slept

A ghost of a smile touched her lips, then faded. She sat up slowly, wrapping her arms around her knees. The silver shimmer on her skin dimmed, retreating like tidewater. “It gets worse when I’m tired. Or scared.” She glanced at him sidelong. “Or when I touch someone… open.”