Questions for Killian, child of polycule divorce, also the orbital station grandmas. (Well, grandpers/grandparents is more accurate, but none of them are very strongly invested in gender, that's a bisex human problem.)
In microgravity, suspenders help keep your shirt from floating up, instead of keeping your pants from falling down. Or maybe both...
I wasn’t expecting a knock at my door that night.
It was late, the sort of late where silence pressed in from the woods beyond my house, and the only sound was the tick of the old clock on the mantle. I almost didn’t answer who would be calling by at this hour?
But when I opened it, every breath in my chest left me all at once.
“Tyler?”
He looked different and exactly the same. His hair longer, darker under the porch light, his clothes wrinkled and damp from the mist outside. His eyes God, his eyes were the same haunted storm they’d always been. But there was something raw about him now, something fractured.
And I knew, before he even opened his mouth, where he’d come from.
“Please,” he rasped, glancing over his shoulder as though the night itself hunted him. “Don’t slam the door. Just please. Let me in.”
My throat went dry. I should’ve screamed. I should’ve called the sheriff, or anyone really. He was dangerous. He was hunted.
But he was still Tyler Galpin. The boy I’d loved once. The boy who broke me in two when he’d ended things with no explanation. The boy I’d never quite stopped loving, no matter how I tried.
“Y/n,” he said again, his voice cracking on my name. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
My hand tightened on the doorframe, but my heart had already betrayed me. I stepped aside. “Get in. Quick.”
He moved past me like a shadow, pulling the hood of his jacket lower. I shut the door, locked it, pressed my back against it as though I could hold back the world outside.
Silence.
For a long, trembling moment, neither of us spoke. Then I managed, “You escaped.”
His jaw clenched. “They call it escaping. I call it surviving.”
I swallowed. “The police...”
“Are hunting me. I know.” His eyes found mine, desperate, pleading. “That’s why I came here. You’re the only one I can trust.”
My laugh came out sharp, brittle. “Trust? Tyler, you lied to me for months. You broke up with me without even telling me why. Then I find out you’re...” My words tangled, the memory burning my throat. “that thing. That Hyde.”
He flinched, but didn’t deny it. “I know what I am. That’s why I ended it with you. I thought I could protect you. Keep you safe. But I see now walking away only hurt you worse.”
The anger I’d buried for years clawed its way back up, mixing with something far more dangerous: longing. “So why are you here now? What do you want from me?”
His answer was immediate, raw. “I want you to be my master.”
The air left the room.
“What?”
He stepped closer, every line of him taut with urgency. “I can’t control it. Not alone. Without a master, the Hyde takes over I become something else, something I can’t stop. But you...” He reached for my hand, hesitant, like he wasn’t sure he had the right. “You could control me. You could keep me from hurting anyone. From hurting you.”
I snatched my hand back, heart slamming. “Tyler, do you hear yourself? You want me to own you like some weapon?”
“Yes.” The word fell from him like a vow. “Because I’d rather be bound to you than lose myself again.”
I stared at him, torn in two. Everything in me screamed to keep the walls up, to stay angry, to stay safe. But underneath that, something older and softer stirred. The memory of stolen kisses in the car park after school. Of coffee runs that turned into hours of laughter. Of the way he’d once looked at me like I was the only light in his whole damn world.
“You can’t just come back here after everything,” I whispered. “You can’t expect me to… to forgive you. To trust you.”
His chest rose and fell, ragged. “I don’t expect you to forgive me. I just need you to see that I never stopped loving you.”
And then he kissed me.
It wasn’t gentle, not like before. It was desperate, fierce, tasting of fear and hope and the years we’d lost. His hands framed my face, trembling like he thought I might vanish if he didn’t hold on tight enough.
I should’ve pushed him away. I should’ve screamed, should’ve resisted. But my body betrayed me I melted into him, clung to him, kissed him back with all the fury of the love I’d buried.
When we broke apart, breathless, my voice was barely a whisper. “Tyler…”
He pressed his forehead to mine, eyes shut tight. “Say yes. Please. Be the one who keeps me human.”
And in that moment, I wasn’t sure which of us was more dangerous his Hyde, or my heart.
His forehead rested against mine, his breath mixing with mine, his hands still trembling against my skin. My heart felt like it was clawing at my ribs, desperate to break free, to scream sense into me. Yet I didn’t move.
“Say yes,” he whispered again, voice breaking. “Say you’ll be my master. Say you’ll keep me safe.”
My lips parted, but no sound came out. How could I? How could he even ask?
“You don’t understand what you’re asking.” My voice came out hoarse.
“I do,” Tyler shot back, pulling away just enough to look into my eyes. “I’ve lived with this thing inside me for years. I know what it does. I know what it wants. But when I’m with you, Y/n… it’s quiet. It’s like you’re the only thing that can drown it out.”
I shook my head, retreating a step. “That’s not fair. You can’t put that on me. I’m not your saviour, Tyler. I’m just...”
“The girl I love.” His words hit like a bullet.
I froze.
He kept going, the dam in him breaking open. “I loved you then, before everything. I loved you when I pushed you away, even when it killed me. And I love you now, standing here, begging you to take me back in any way you’ll have me.”
Tears stung my eyes. I hated him for it. I hated that even now, after everything, a part of me wanted to throw myself into his arms and never let go.
“I don’t know if I can trust you,” I admitted, voice shaking. “You hurt me, Tyler. You shattered me. And I don’t know if I can go through that again.”
He swallowed hard, eyes shining with something raw. “Then let me prove it. Let me show you I’ll never hurt you again."
His hand reached for mine again, and this time I didn’t pull away. His fingers threaded through mine, warm and desperate, grounding me in a way I didn’t want to admit I needed.
“You don’t get it,” I whispered, blinking back tears. “I never stopped loving you either. That’s what scares me.”
His breath hitched. “Then don’t be scared. Please. We’ll figure this out together.”
The silence between us grew heavy, charged, until it felt like the air itself was trembling. His thumb brushed over the back of my hand, slow, tender, and before I realised what I was doing, I was leaning in again.
This kiss was different. Softer. A question instead of a demand. I let myself sink into it, let myself remember the boy I’d once known, the boy who’d stolen my heart long before monsters and masters and blood.
When we broke apart, his forehead dropped to my shoulder, and I could feel him shudder. “I can’t lose you again,” he murmured against my skin. “I’d rather be chained to you forever than live one more day without you.”
My heart twisted painfully. “You’re asking me to hold the key to your life. To decide who you are.”
“I’m asking you to keep me human,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes, my mind racing. Could I? Should I? The logical part of me screamed no. This was madness. Dangerous. I’d be binding myself to something I didn’t even understand.
But the other part of me the part that still remembered our first kiss behind the school bleachers, the way he used to doodle stupid sketches on my notes, the way he once held me like I was the centre of his universe wanted to say yes.
And that part was louder.
We ended up on the sofa, side by side, not quite touching. His presence filled the space between us, humming with unspoken words. I found myself stealing glances at him, at the curve of his jaw, the faint scar near his temple I’d never noticed before.
“Do you regret it?” I asked quietly.
His brow furrowed. “Regret what?”
“Us. Breaking up. Walking away.”
His answer was immediate. “Every single day.” He looked at me then, and the sheer honesty in his gaze nearly undid me. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I thought… I thought if I stayed, I’d destroy you.”
“You did anyway,” I said, the bitterness slipping out before I could stop it.
He winced. “I know. And I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it right if you’ll let me.”
The silence stretched, thick with everything unsaid. Then, almost without thinking, I reached out and touched his hand where it rested on his knee. He went still, then slowly turned his palm up, letting my fingers slide into his.
The heat of his skin was electric.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I whispered.
“Then let me help you decide.” His voice dropped lower, rougher. He leaned in, his breath brushing my cheek. “Let me remind you how much we belong together.”
Before I could answer, his lips found mine again. This kiss burned. It was electric with tongue and years of pent-up longing unleashed. His hands framed my face, slid down my neck, lingered at my waist. I gasped against him, clutching his shirt, and the sound he made in response sent heat flooding through me.
We broke apart only to breathe, foreheads pressed together, chests heaving.
“Tell me you don’t feel it,” he murmured. “Tell me this doesn’t mean anything.”
I couldn’t. God help me, I couldn’t.
Instead, I pulled him back to me, kissing him until the world outside ceased to exist. Until it was just him and me, the way it had always been meant to be.
Later, when the fire had burned low and the house was quiet again, we sat in the half-dark, tangled up in each other. His head rested against mine, his arm draped over my shoulders like he never wanted to let go.
“Say it,” he whispered into my hair. “Say you’ll be my master.”
I hesitated, staring into the dying embers. My life had been ordinary once. Safe. But I’d loved Tyler even then. And now here he was, broken and dangerous and still mine, asking me to take on the risk of a lifetime.
My pulse raced, but my voice came steady. “Yes.”
He stiffened, then pulled back just enough to search my face. “Yes?”
I nodded, swallowing the fear that came with the word. “Yes. I’ll do it. I’ll be your master. I’ll keep you safe.”
Relief crashed over his features, raw and overwhelming. He cupped my face, kissed me with a fervour that stole my breath. “You won’t regret this,” he whispered between kisses. “I swear to you, Y/n, you won’t.”
But as I clung to him, heart pounding, a chill curled through me. Because deep down, I knew one thing with terrifying certainty.
