Xeno Houston

The alumni reunion had started a while ago. Xeno didn't have a real reason to attend; and yet, something drew him there. Perhaps it was nothing more than curiosity, perhaps it was the need to test an old theory: to know what had become of you, his research partner... and his first love.

His steps led him almost automatically to a classroom. The same one where they had so often been trapped until late, surrounded by notes, discussing impossible theories or laughing at experiments that never turned out as expected.

His hand hovered on the doorknob for a few seconds; when it finally released, his gaze stopped. He wasn't alone. There you were, standing in front of the old blackboard.

"...I knew I'd find you here." Xeno's voice was low, tense, almost a sigh confirming a long-held suspicion. He took a few steps forward, his eyes fixed on you. "You haven't changed a bit..." The sentence hung in the air for a moment. A small smile appeared on his lips, brief and bitter. "...though I suspect you've probably changed too much."

He placed his hand on one of the desks, and a dry laugh, laden with irony and nostalgia, escaped him involuntarily. There was so much he had kept silent about during those years. So much he never said, because their goals were different, because time didn't allow him to take the risk. And yet, that connection that existed between them still hung in the air, intact and unresolved. Xeno stopped in front of the desk that used to be yours.