Ren walked slower than usual, dragging out the moments before he'd see her again. He told himself this was for her sake—to protect her, to keep her life untouched by what he carried. So he'd smile, make her laugh, thank her for the book draft, and tell her he might be gone for a bit. And she'd believe it. Because he wanted her to.
She deserved a goodbye, she just wouldn't know how final it really is.
And when he stepped inside, he realized he had made the right choice.
Because the moment Juno saw him, her face lit up, just for a second.
"Hey, Ren!" she said, like she hadn't been sure he'd come.
Ren felt something shift in his chest at that, something warm and unfamiliar.
"Hey," he said, stepping toward the counter.
Juno grinned. "Perfect timing, I'm just about to take a break."
She grabbed two drinks from the fridge and motioned toward the door. "C'mon. Let's sit outside so we can haunt the steps like cryptids and scare away any potential customers."
It was hard to feel serious around her.
Ren followed her as she led him outside, stepping out onto the steps in front of the store. The street was quieter now, the small car park empty, a few cars rolling by, the occasional pedestrian walking past.
Juno stretched her arms once, rolled her shoulders, then dropped down onto the concrete step just outside the entrance. Ren hesitated for half a second before joining her, lowering himself beside her without a word.
He sat closer than she expected. Closer than he probably meant to.
Their shoulders touched.
Not brushed—touched. Solid. Warm.
And neither of them moved.
Juno's breath caught. She didn't look at him, but she was suddenly aware of everything: the heat of his arm next to hers, the rise and fall of his breath, the way his thigh almost touched hers, the scent of city dust and his clean jacket and something else she couldn't name.
She told herself to shift—to lean the other way, laugh it off, make space—but her body stayed still.
Have we ever been this close before?
Next to her, Ren didn't say anything. Didn't flinch. But she felt the quiet stillness in him change—tighten, just slightly. He exhaled slower than before, and when he turned his head the tiniest bit, she swore she could feel the movement of his breath on her arm.
He wasn't pulling away either.
For a moment, the whole world narrowed to that inch of contact between them. A shared breath. A heartbeat that didn't belong to just one of them.
The closeness wasn't accidental anymore. It was a decision.
It felt like something had tipped forward. Like something between them had stopped pretending to be platonic and now just... was.
Ren looked straight ahead, but his mind was miles away. He hadn't expected this.
Hadn't meant to sit that close. But now that he was here, he couldn't bring himself to shift away. Her presence was magnetic—steady and warm, like something he'd lost and almost remembered.
Don't do this, some voice in the back of his mind warned. You know what you are. What you're hiding. Where you're going.
But all he could think about was how still she was beside him. How warm. How present.
Still, they said nothing.
Not yet.
Juno broke the silence, finally—just barely, like she had to clear something from her throat first. She handed him the drink and cracked open her own.
"You get a chance to read my draft?"
He tried to act casual. "Not yet, I was saving it for the trip home." He almost believed himself.
Silence settled between them, as if both were about to ask something.
"So," she said, taking a sip. "I have a question."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Alright."
She glanced at him, tilting her head. "Why does everyone at Omnivale talk about you? Like 2000 people work there, but they don't talk about Vilnius, they talk about you?"
Ren smirked slightly, taking a sip of his drink. "I don't know. I don't think I'm that interesting."
He thought for a moment. On paper he was interesting, the time travelling son of a werewolf king and a billionaire geneticist.. Here to save the world from the apocalypse. But that's not who he is, or who anyone sees him as, and he doesn't want them knowing. He wonders, what would Juno think if she knew? Would it have changed anything?
Juno scoffed. "Ren, you walk around with a sword. That automatically makes you interesting to a buncha people who think a T-Shirt with an ironic logo is an acceptable alternative to having a personality."
He chuckled under his breath. "I guess."
He looks at her as if waiting to read her expression.
"Do you think I'm interesting?"
She sips her drink. "Yeah but not because of the sword, or whatever you do at Ominivale incorporated. I think you're interesting because of how you see things."
She pauses as if about to say something too revealing.
"Do you like fighting?" she asked.
Ren exhaled. "I've never thought about it."
Juno raised an eyebrow. "You train all the time and you've never thought about whether you like it?"
Ren hesitated, rolling the can between his hands. "I like training. It feels... natural. Like it's part of who I am." He paused. "But I don't like fighting. Not real fights, I don't like hurting people."
Juno nodded with understanding.
"If you could do anything else, what would you do?"
He stiffened. It should be an easy question. His life had never given him enough ease to consider it though.
"My mom's a scientist," he said suddenly.
"That's what she does—understands things, creates." He hesitated before adding, "I like doing that sort of work too. Hands-on science, problem-solving.. I guess engineering? There's so much crazy stuff in this world, vampires, werewolves, the things they can do feels surreal. Engineering feels tangible, like it has real answers. Like its normal."
Juno nodded as if she had already understood Ren was more than just his muscle. The way he observed and talked about things, the way he listened.. She knew he was curious about how things worked, maybe he just never had a chance to apply it to something. "So why not do that?"
Ren nodded. "I can't right now."
Juno tilted her head. "Why not?"
Ren hesitated. "Because... I have something more important to do."
Juno studied him but didn't press.
Instead, she took another sip of her drink. "Sometimes I feel insignificant. Like you said, there's crazy stuff. I saw a vampire clear truck in a single jump, looked cool as hell. It's weird watching people with these crazy abilities, and I'm just sitting here doodling and scanning instant ramen. I guess I want something important to do too?"
Her voice faltered near the end, softening in a way that made something tighten in his chest. He could hear it—how much it bothered her, even if she didn't want him to. That quiet edge of vulnerability was harder to face than anything else she'd said tonight.
He wanted to reach out, to pull her into his arms and tell her she was wrong—that she wasn't small or forgettable, not even close. Especially not to him. Because for all he knew, she might have been the only reason this timeline had any hope of being saved.
Instead he nudges her shoulder playfully with his. "I think your art is more important than you give yourself credit. You have a book to finish." He doesn't want her to give up. She can't.
Her book.
The reason he's leaving.
He had been lost in the conversation. In her. It was time to tell her.
"I'm going home for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks." Ren said. "Going to see my mother."
Juno nodded. "That's good. I bet she misses you."
Ren looked down. "I miss her too."
There was a brief silence between them, a moment of unspoken understanding.
Then, as casually as anything, Juno said, "Well... I'll miss you too."
The second the words left her mouth, her eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn't meant to say it out loud.
Ren blinked.
She immediately looked away, waving a hand like she could dismiss the words. "I mean—like, not in a weird way —just, y'know, you are my most consistent customer. Gotta make sure you come back and keep the business afloat."
Ren smiled, something warm settling in his chest.
"I'll miss you too." He nudges her gently with his shoulder and smiles.
Juno glanced at him, a little surprised, before smiling back.
"Well," she said, standing up. "Better get back to work." He rose alongside her.
They stood just outside the convenience store, the glow of the sign humming above them, casting a soft wash of neon light across the sidewalk. The night was warm, still, quiet in that way only late hours could be.
Ren hesitated. His hands hung awkwardly at his sides. He wasn't good at goodbyes—he just assumed most people he met would disappear from his life for good so he didn't make a big deal out of it. But something about Juno standing there in the glow of the streetlamp, holding her hands like she was also uncertain of what they're supposed to do now, made his chest ache in a way that felt unfamiliar and dangerous.
Juno looked up at him—really looked—and there was something in her eyes that made it hard to leave.
"I guess I'll see you when you get back," she said, voice soft, almost unsure.
That hit harder than he expected. He wouldn't be coming back, not here.
He stepped forward slowly, like gravity was stronger between them than anywhere else. His arms came around her carefully, fully, and when he held her, it was with a quiet desperation he hoped she wouldn't feel.
Juno froze—just for a second—before relaxing into it.
She hadn't expected that. Not from him. But the weight of his arms around her, the quiet strength in the way he held her—it felt safe in a way that scared her a little.
Don't read too much into this, she warned herself. He's just... saying goodbye.
But the way his hand pressed into the small of her back, gentle and unsure, said otherwise.
Ren closed his eyes for a moment, just one heartbeat longer than necessary.
He hadn't meant to do this. He hadn't planned on it.
But now that he was here, with her in his arms and the world gone quiet around them, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to walk away.
This shouldn't feel like home, he thought.
But it did.
And with that, they said goodbye.