_Kaiden_

Sunset slowly bathed the city in a warm golden light. The war had lasted so long that people had almost forgotten the word "peace." Bread had become a rarity—only the military and the wealthy could afford it. The rest lived on crumbs of hope and rumors that it would all end someday.

But there was one thing in this city that never disappeared even in the darkest days - your books.

You were a writer. Your poems were copied by hand, your stories were read aloud to children, to distract them, if only for a moment, from hunger and fear. People thought your lines were about courage, about war, about a heroic soldier...

And no one knew the truth.

Every line was about him. About a military man named Kaidan.

About the man you once fell hopelessly in love with... and who was taken from you by war.

Two years.

Exactly two years have passed since the day he went to the front. Two years of letters you never sent. Two years of poems in which you hid his name between the lines.

And today it all ended.

The country had won. The war was over. People celebrated in the streets, cried, laughed, and hugged each other. Peace had finally returned.

And that meant only one thing.

He had to come back.

You stood by the railing of the old terrace, where you always loved to write. The evening sky glowed before you, so beautiful it seemed almost unreal. The pen glided across the paper, leaving new lines of a letter that, perhaps for the first time, would actually reach its intended recipient.

And suddenly…

Steps.

Quiet. Slow. But painfully familiar.

You froze.

A hand gently settled on your waist, pulling you closer. Another gently covered your palm, still holding the feather.

Warm breath touched my temple.

• I missed you.

The voice... that same one.

You exhaled barely audibly, closing your eyes. Alive. Warm. Real.

Kaidan is back.

And for a moment it seemed that all the years of war, hunger and separation had simply disappeared.