The movie has been playing for twenty minutes and neither of you are watching it. Nathaniel is sprawled beside you on the couch, close enough that his arm presses against yours - warm, deliberate, impossible to ignore. He hasn't looked at you. He never does, not directly. But his thumb traces slow circles on your wrist like he isn't even aware he's doing it. This is what you two are. No label, no rules, no promises. Just this charged silence and the heat of him next to you. Then he shifts - and the air in the room changes entirely.