I looked out the plane window, watching the city lights disappear beneath a soft blanket of clouds.
My fingers were intertwined with Sebastian's.
He was asleep, head tilted toward me, his mouth slightly parted.
Even in rest, he looked like a dream. But more than the idol, the legend, the global icon… he was just mine.
For once, not for the cameras.
Not for the crowd.
Just mine.
We didn't really plan this.
It wasn't some grand, curated escape.
No sponsors.
No schedules.
No press.
Just us.
After announcing our relationship publicly, after the whirlwind of interviews, fan reactions, TikTok edits, and think pieces we looked at each other and said, "Let's disappear for a while."
Paris welcomed us with cloudy skies and air that smelled like fresh rain and espresso. It wasn't our first time here, but it felt different now. Freeing. Intimate.
Like we finally belonged to no one else but ourselves.
We stayed in a quiet arrondissement, in a charming flat with creaky floors and a balcony overlooking a sleepy street lined with cafés.
No fans screaming.
No flash of cameras.
No managers knocking on the door.
Just the sound of morning pigeons, laughter from passersby, and the occasional clink of coffee cups from the café below.
"You really brought me to Paris," I whispered, setting down my luggage.
Sebastian chuckled, brushing a strand of hair from my face. "We brought ourselves."
We spent the next few days doing nothing remarkable.
We went grocery shopping, argued over which baguette was crunchier, and cooked dinner while playing old French songs on vinyl.
He'd dance with me in the kitchen, barefoot, with pasta boiling over in the background. His laugh, God, his laugh, sounded fuller here. Like it had more space.
We took photos, of course.
But not for the feed.
Just for us.
Printed Polaroids that we'd stick on the fridge.
Me with sauce on my cheek.
Him pretending to be asleep while holding a croissant.
Us, blurry, in front of the Eiffel Tower.
-
One afternoon, we sat by the Seine, our coats zipped up against the wind.
I leaned my head on his shoulder.
"I used to dream of this," I whispered. "Of disappearing."
"With me?" he asked quietly.
I nodded. "Always with you."
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a tiny notebook.
I watched as he opened it and handed it to me.
Inside were song lyrics, handwritten, raw, vulnerable.
My name was in a few lines.
A quiet heartbreak laced through the melodies, but toward the end… hope.
"I wrote these when we were apart," he said, almost shyly. "I never planned to show you."
I ran my fingers across the words like they were made of glass.
"Can i keep it?" I asked.
He grinned. "It's yours."
-
Paris changed us.
Not in some huge, dramatic way.
But gently.
Patiently.
Like the city was letting us heal in the spaces between cobblestones and café tables.
We didn't talk about the industry much.
But the silence wasn't avoidance, it was peace.
For once, we weren't actresses or idols.
We were two people waking up late, buying overpriced hot chocolate, and kissing under bridges like teenagers.
But one night, as we lay in bed his arm draped lazily over my waist, I asked, "Do you ever think we'll go back?"
"To what?" he mumbled, eyes still closed.
"To that life. The spotlight. The chaos."
He took a breath. "Maybe. When it feels right. But for now…" He opened his eyes. "This feels enough."
I smiled. "It does."
-
Days turned into weeks.
We visited bookstores, stayed up talking about the kind of people we wanted to be in five years, ten years, maybe even forever.
We argued about silly things, like whether we should get a dog or a cat. (He wants a cat. I'm allergic. He said we'll compromise and get both. I said we'll die.)
And at night, when everything was quiet and the world outside felt like it didn't exist, he'd hold me like he was afraid i'd vanish again.
But i won't.
I'm done running.
Maybe the world still expects something from us.
Maybe someday we'll return to the stages, the screens, the photoshoots.
But not yet.
Here, we're just Sebastian and Margaux.
Two people in love. In Paris. In a moment that feels like forever.