After a harrowing escape from the heavens, Fateus seeks out Lace, the standing keeper of the Gate’s Keep. Their meeting is laced with tension, a shared understanding of the danger that binds them, layered with an unspoken history between them.

As they talk, Lace listens, though suspicion lingers in her gaze. Fateus recounts his suggestion to Detective Marric to approach X PERSON, understanding the risk but unable to anticipate the consequences. He explains how the Raven, with their ability to “see through the Moon” (the memories of the dead), intercepted this information, assassinated X PERSON, and framed him. Fateus, knowing the stakes, had been careful with what he shared, yet the worst had come to pass. There’s something he kept even from Marric, a truth he dared not let slip to the heavens.

A brief cutaway reveals a flashback: we see Fateus in the facility, a chaotic confrontation spiraling out of control, an accidental death that would soon put him directly in the Raven’s sights.

Returning to the present, Fateus’s voice softens. “At first, I thought it was just a matter of time before they got to me. But after that Raven at the bar missed a clean shot, I started rethinking everything. I shouldn’t have survived that. And since then, it’s like luck is trailing me—I should’ve been caught, should’ve been killed… but here I am.” He hesitates before revealing the strange properties of his watch, something he’s only beginning to understand. With X PERSON gone, he needs Lace’s loyalty within the Gate’s Keep, someone he can trust amid an ever-thinning network of allies.

As the conversation winds down, a heavy silence falls between them, the weight of Fateus’s admission hanging in the air. Lace watches him, her expression softened but still guarded.

“You always did walk close to the edge, didn’t you?” she murmurs, fingers tracing an idle path along the collar of his shirt. There’s a subtle shift in her gaze, something lingering there that neither of them is willing to voice.

Fateus holds her gaze, a quiet smile touching his lips. “Seems I’m still here, though. Luck, maybe. Or maybe just stubbornness.”

“Or both.” She steps closer, her hand moving from his collar to the center of his chest, resting there for a heartbeat. There’s a pause as they search each other’s faces, the air charged with an unspoken invitation. Lace’s fingers trail downward, coming to rest on his tie, a playful tug that says more than her words.

A slow, knowing smile crosses Fateus’s face as he lets his hands fall to his sides, allowing her to take the lead. “You want it, don’t you?”

Her response is a subtle but firm pull on the tie, her fingers slipping around it like she’s taking his authority, his very badge, in her hands. “You’ve had it long enough,” she says, her voice low, both a command and a request. Her eyes stay on his as she tugs again, more gently this time, and he reaches up, loosening the knot with quiet surrender. The fabric slides free, and she drapes it over her fingers, a symbol of trust and something deeper between them. She tucks it into her bedside drawer, a gesture of both possession and vulnerability.

The silence stretches, but now it’s filled with a different energy. Lace’s fingers linger on the open collar of his shirt, and she leans in, her hand slipping behind his neck as her lips meet his, slow and tentative at first, a careful exploration. Fateus lets his hands find her waist, steadying her as their kisses deepen, their touches growing bolder, each movement cautious but unmistakable. With the tie and formality set aside, they lose themselves in the moment, letting go of everything beyond these walls.

Later, as the early light spills in, Fateus stirs beside her, a lingering sense of duty tugging him back to reality. He reaches for the drawer, retrieving the tie from where she’d tucked it away, and slips it back on, fastening the knot once more. He knows he’ll need it, this piece of himself he can’t abandon just yet. The tie is both a reminder and a weight he’s not ready to let go, something that will inevitably draw him back into the battles waiting outside.