Special Chapter The Hours Between
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The door clicked shut behind Colin, and Miu felt the last of her energy drain out through her feet.
She stood in the middle of the living room, arms wrapped around herself, listening to the silence settle.
The apartment felt too big without the noise, too still after all the laughter, all the voices that had filled it just minutes ago.
She was tired in a way that didn’t lift with rest. The kind that lived in her bones.
The kind that had been there since Elena was born and hadn’t left.
Across the room, Lena was watching her.
Miu didn’t need to look to know. She could feel it—the quiet weight of Lena’s attention, warm and steady, resting somewhere between her shoulders and the back of her neck.
“Come here,” Lena said.
Miu turned.
Lena was on the couch, legs stretched out, arms open. Her hair was still damp, curling at the ends. No makeup. No sharp edges. Just Lena, softened by the afternoon light, like she had been waiting for this moment all day and didn’t know what to do with it now that it was here.
Miu crossed the room slowly, her body heavy, her steps careful without thinking about it. She didn’t sit beside Lena. She turned and lowered herself between her legs instead, her back settling against Lena’s chest like it had always belonged there.
Her spine found the hollow of Lena’s stomach.
Her head tilted back, fitting into the curve of Lena’s shoulder.
Lena’s arms came around her without hesitation.
Miu let her eyes close.
Something in her loosened. Not all at once. Not dramatically. Just a slow unraveling, thread by thread, starting at her shoulders and working its way down.
“Is this okay?” Miu murmured.
Lena’s lips brushed her hair. “More than okay.”
Her hands found Miu’s arms, thumbs pressing gently into the inside of her wrists. Slow circles. Light, but deliberate. Miu exhaled, the breath slipping out of her before she could hold it in.
“This feels nice,” she said, softer now.
Lena huffed a quiet laugh against her. “Your friends are interesting.”
“They’re terrified of you.”
“They shouldn’t be.”
“You own half of Canada.”
“I own a company.”
Miu smiled faintly, eyes still closed. “Same thing.”
Lena’s hands moved higher, following the lines of her arms, pausing at her shoulders. Her thumbs pressed into the tight knots there, firm this time. Miu’s back arched slightly, a quiet, involuntary response.
“Oh—”
“Too much?” Lena asked, already easing.
“Don’t stop.”
Lena didn’t.
Her thumbs worked deeper, slower, learning the tension as they went. Miu could feel her own body giving way under it, muscles softening, the constant tightness she’d been carrying dissolving piece by piece.
Her head tipped back further against Lena’s shoulder.
Her breath changed.
It wasn’t just relief anymore.
Lena must have felt it too.
Her hands didn’t leave, but they slowed. Lingering now. Less about fixing, more about tracing. Her fingers brushed the curve where Miu’s neck met her shoulder, then again, lighter this time, like she was testing something.
Miu’s fingers curled slightly against Lena’s thigh.
A pause.
Then Lena’s lips touched just below her ear.
Barely there.
Miu’s breath hitched.
Her hand moved without thinking, covering Lena’s where it rested against her chest now, holding it there. She could feel her own heartbeat under both their palms, faster than it had been a moment ago.
Neither of them spoke.
Lena’s mouth hovered near her ear, her breath warm, uneven in a way Miu wasn’t used to.
Another kiss. Slightly firmer.
Miu swallowed.
“You know…” Lena’s voice was quieter now, rougher at the edges, her lips brushing skin between words, “we haven’t really been… like this.”
Miu’s eyes opened, just a fraction.
She didn’t pull away.
Lena’s fingers slid along her jaw, turning her face just enough that their cheeks brushed. “I didn’t want to rush you,” she murmured, softer now, her thumb tracing slow lines under Miu’s ear. “You were tired. You were carrying so much. I didn’t want you to think—”
Her lips pressed briefly to Miu’s neck.
“That it was about this.”
Another kiss. Lower.
“That it was about your body.”
Her hand flattened gently against Miu’s stomach, warm, steady.
“It’s you.”
Miu’s grip tightened on her hand.
Lena’s thumb moved, small circles, grounding. “Always you.”
The words didn’t stop the moment this time. They deepened it. Slid into it. Became part of the way Lena touched her, the way her lips moved, slow and certain now.
Miu’s breathing shifted again, softer, but heavier.
Lena’s hand followed the line of her collarbone, fingers tracing, then dipping just beneath the fabric of her shirt, not rushing, just… there.
Present.
“But today,” Lena continued, voice lower now, closer to her skin than her ear, “seeing you like that…”
Her lips brushed the same spot again.
“Something changed.”
Miu turned her head.
Just enough.
Their mouths met.
The kiss was slow. Careful at first, like they were feeling their way back into something they both knew but hadn’t touched in a while. Miu could taste tea, warmth, the faint hesitation Lena didn’t usually show.
Then it deepened.
Not sudden. Not sharp.
Just… inevitable.
Miu’s hand slid up into Lena’s hair, still damp, fingers threading through it. Lena’s hand moved with her, higher now, beneath her shirt, palm warm against her skin.
Miu gasped softly into her mouth, her body arching back into the touch.
Lena stilled for half a second.
Checking.
Miu didn’t pull away.
That was enough.
Lena’s hand shifted, fingers curling gently, finding the soft underside of her breast. Miu’s breath broke, the sound low, caught between surprise and something deeper.
“Lena—”
“I’ve got you,” Lena murmured against her mouth.
That did it.
Whatever hesitation had been left slipped.
Miu turned more fully, her body twisting in Lena’s lap, her knee pressing into the couch, her hand gripping Lena’s shirt.
“Bedroom,” she breathed.
But even as she said it, she was already pulling Lena up.
They barely made it past the couch.
Lena caught her in the hallway, one hand at her waist, the other bracing against the wall as Miu’s back hit it with a soft thud. Miu laughed under her breath, breathless, her arms already around Lena’s neck.
“You didn’t even try—”
Lena kissed her again.
That ended that.
The kiss was deeper now, less careful, months of restraint unraveling all at once but still threaded with something softer underneath. Lena’s hand slid into her hair, tilting her head back, her lips finding her neck, her pulse, the places she’d only just learned again.
Miu’s hands moved under Lena’s shirt, warm skin, familiar and new at the same time.
Everything felt sharper. Louder. Closer.
Lena’s fingers found the waistband of her shorts.
Miu’s breath caught—
—and then—
Elena cried.
They both froze.
Not completely.
Just enough.
Their foreheads stayed pressed together, breaths still uneven, bodies still close enough that Miu could feel Lena’s heartbeat racing against her own.
The cry came again. Louder this time.
Miu closed her eyes, a soft laugh escaping her. Not quite frustration. Not quite amusement. Something in between.
“Of course,” she murmured.
Lena exhaled against her mouth, something like a laugh slipping through. “She has excellent timing.”
Neither of them moved for a second longer.
Just… stayed there.
Then Lena pressed one last kiss to her lips. Quick. Warm. Promising.
“Later,” she said.
Miu nodded, her hand still curled in Lena’s shirt. “Later.”
—
The nursery was dim, soft light spilling from the small lamp on the dresser. Elena was already red-faced, furious, her tiny body rigid with it.
Lena reached her first, lifting her with practiced ease.
Miu leaned in the doorway for a moment, watching.
Lena, hair still a mess from her hands. Lips still flushed. One hand steady as she settled the bottle.
The intimacy hadn’t disappeared.
It had just… shifted.
Miu stepped closer, handing over the bottle, her fingers brushing Lena’s. That same spark, quieter now, but still there. Lingering.
“She’s hungry,” Miu said.
“She’s always hungry.”
Miu smiled, settling on the floor beside the chair, her hand coming to rest on Lena’s knee. Absentminded. Familiar.
Lena’s fingers found her hair a moment later.
Same rhythm as before.
Softer.
But connected.
“Once she sleeps through the night,” Miu said, eyes half-closed, leaning into the touch, “we’re finishing what we started.”
Lena’s hand paused, then resumed, slower now, her thumb brushing lightly along Miu’s temple.
“Later,” she said again.
Miu smiled.
Not because it was delayed.
Because it wasn’t gone.
—
And this time, it didn’t feel like something interrupted.
It felt like something waiting.