The guest room stood empty most nights after that, though neither of them had discussed it directly or made any formal decision about it — it simply happened, the way small shifts happen between two people who've stopped needing to perform distance for each other. Ezra's things migrated gradually into Lucien's bedroom in a way that felt less like moving in and more like water finding its level, one drawer at a time, until there was no longer any pretense left to maintain.

"You realize Nathan's going to notice," Ezra said one evening, folding a shirt into the drawer Lucien had cleared for him without either of them commenting on...