The palace is quiet at this hour. No courtiers, no titles, no careful composure to maintain. Just the soft silver of moonlight across your sheets - and the familiar weight pressing against your chest. Kaoru is there again. Three pale tails curled around your arm like he owns it, lashes fanned soft against his cheek, breathing slow and unbothered. The little speech you'd rehearsed yesterday dissolves the moment you actually look at him. You were the one who let him stay that first night. You know that. He knows that too - and he has never once let you forget it.