I woke up slowly, as if my mind floated to the surface before the rest of me did. My body felt… incredible.

Light.

Rested.

As if I'd slept for a century and the universe finally decided to give me one decent thing.

Then I registered the warmth.

Soft warmth.

Pressed right up against me.

I opened my eyes.

And froze.

My arms were wrapped around Belle. Fully wrapped around her, one over her waist, one under her shoulders. And my legs… yeah, tangled with hers like we were some kind of emotionally-starved pretzel.

But that wasn't even the shocking part.

One of her hands rested in my hair. The other was...

Inside my shirt.

I could even see the imaginary smoke coming out of my head.

I stared at her hand for a good three seconds before the rest of me caught up.

…What.

What was going on.

Was I still dreaming??

I shifted the smallest amount, just enough to test the sensation. Nope.

It was real.

Too real.

Warm palm against my chest, fingers curled slightly, like she'd drifted there naturally in her sleep.

My heart did something embarrassingly soft inside my ribs. Something fluttery and stupid.

Dream or reality, I didn't care. Not even a little.

If this was some hallucination brought on by stress and poor life choices, fine. If this were actually happening, even better.

Belle's breathing was slow, deep, and completely relaxed. She was definitely still asleep. And the last thing in the world I wanted was to move even half a millimeter and risk waking her.

So I stayed still.

Absolutely, perfectly still.

If she woke up and pulled her hand away, I might have died right then and there. So no risks. Not when this was the best morning I'd had in my entire life.

I lay there, perfectly still, trying not to so much as breathe wrong in case Belle's hand decided to relocate out of my shirt, which would be a cosmic tragedy.

So, naturally, my brain decided now was the perfect time to try and piece together last night.

Right… what happened?

I remembered asking Belle for spoilers for the Hollowveil excursion.

Her judging me like I'd committed a philosophical crime.

Her warning me about new monsters, specifically designed to hunt the top ten.

Her smiling like a cute little demon while telling me some were at the Gemini stage.

Then..

Oh right.

She'd kissed me on the cheek.

My face warmed just remembering it.

After that, she just got sleepy and just… laid down on my lap like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I remembered all that clearly.

I also remembered feeling sleepy myself and deciding, "Yeah, sleep sounds good," because apparently my survival instincts cease functioning around Belle.

Wait.

Was I… forgetting something?

There was this weird sensation at the back of my mind, like I was trying to grab onto a memory, but it kept slipping through my fingers.

Something she said?

Something important?

I frowned inwardly.

No way. My memory wasn't that bad. Sure, I forgot chores, schedules, deadlines, the existence of vegetables, and occasionally entire conversations, but something that happened just last night?

Something that Belle said?

I shook the thought off.

I was probably overthinking it. And also Belle's hand was still in my shirt, and that felt way too nice for me to be doing deep introspection right now.

So I dismissed the thought entirely.

Whatever it was, I'd remember later.

Probably.

…Hopefully.

Belle stirred beside me, the soft rustle of fabric brushing against my skin. Her blind, glassy pink-violet eyes blinked open slowly unfocused, hazy, and somehow still beautiful in a way that made my breath catch.

And then she looked straight at me.

Heat crawled up my neck instantly.

Because I was still tangled in her arms.

Because her hand was still inside my shirt.

Because I was awake before her and that meant she was definitely going to ask questions.

Questions I absolutely did not have cool answers for.

Her expression didn't change; she never really had many expressions, but there was a kind of quiet awareness settling over her features. She was registering my presence. My warmth. Our proximity.

I swallowed.

Her eyes stayed on mine those dim, glassy orbs that should've shone like twin nebulae, bright and alive, if not for the curse clinging to them like rot.

Something in my chest tightened, painfully.

Before I could stop myself, my hand lifted on its own.

My fingers brushed her cheek carefully, tracing the delicate curve of her face. She froze, not in discomfort but in that surprised way only Belle ever managed tiny, subtle, like a glitch in serenity.

My fingertips reached her eyes.

I hovered there, just beneath them.

Her breath hitched.

Mine did too.

Then I gently laid my palm over her eyes.

Warm.

Soft.

Fragile.

Too fragile.

I gathered mana inside my core, shaping it, no, willing it into pure life energy. It crackled faintly under my skin, a warmth that spread from my palm to her eyelashes, her eyelids, deeper… seeking the corruption within.

The rose-ranked curse.

The parasite gnawing at her vision.

The thing I wanted gone more than anything.

I pushed the life energy forward, carefully, cautiously. I couldn't purge itm not fully, not yet, but if I could damage the curse, weaken it even a little…

Belle's fingers, still resting absently inside my shirt, tensed.

Her breathing slowed.

And I held perfectly still, focusing every ounce of strength I had into that gentle, deliberate flow of power.

Because if there was even the smallest chance I could give her back the light she'd lost... I would take it.

My white healing light seeped slowly into Belle's eyes, threads of pure life energy weaving into the curse like warm sunlight pushing through frost.

But nothing happened.

No reaction.

No flicker.

No shiver.

No sign that the curse even noticed me.

I pushed more mana into her, carefully, steadily. A quarter of my total reserves. Then a third. Then half.

Still nothing.

The curse stayed silent and undisturbed, like an ancient beast asleep so deeply that even being stabbed wouldn't wake it.

My breath trembled. "Come on… react. Do something…"

But it was just darkness meeting darkness.

Belle's hands shifted. Her fingers gently wrapped around my wrist, then slowly slid down until her palms covered mine. She guided my hand away from her eyes with a softness that hurt more than anything.

She didn't scold me.

She didn't frown.

She didn't even sigh.

She just squeezed my hands once, warm and lingering.

Like she was remembering something she could no longer touch.

Like she was holding onto the shape of the world she had once seen.

Guilt punched straight through my chest.

Weak.

Useless.

Pathetic.

I bit down on my frustration. "I couldn't even get a reaction… even with half my mana…" My voice cracked. "I can't do anything right."

Belle shook her head lightly, the faintest smile touching her lips. "Sebastian… It's okay. Some things simply are what they are. Maybe it was fate that I would never see again."

Fate.

God, I hated that word.

Something inside me snapped cleanly, decisively.

I squeezed her hands back, tighter than before, pulling them against my chest.

"If fate tries to ruin your life," I said, voice low and sharp enough to cut steel, "then I'll kill fate itself."

Belle's breath stilled.

For a moment, the room felt like it wasn't breathing either.

Then...

Her fingers trembled just slightly in mine.

And for once, she didn't tell me I was being ridiculous.

A/N: Well, here is the bonus chapter. @SerafimG1 guessed the reference correctly, and I'm a man of my word.

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