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Chapter 1: The First Breath of Blue
The night sky above the city was heavy with clouds, swallowing the stars whole. Neon lights flickered on the wet pavement, stretching reflections into rivers of color.
Aiden Cross stood at the bus stop, his hands buried in his pockets, his breath forming pale mist in the air. On the surface, he was calm—his dark hair falling over quiet eyes, his lips pressed into something that resembled a smile but never reached his soul. Inside, though, he felt the weight of something he could never name.
It was that stillness again. That strange, suffocating quiet in his chest. He once described it as a kind of blue, like the sky before dawn, or like the skin of someone holding their breath for too long. Doctors had called it something else. He called it… nothing.
Until she appeared.
A girl walked toward the stop, her figure wrapped in a long coat, hair spilling down like golden threads. The lamplight caught her face, and for a moment, he thought he saw the moon step down to earth.
She sat one seat away from him. Her eyes were restless, gazing at the ground, then at the passing cars, then at the sky as though searching for something she'd lost long ago.
Aiden watched in silence, then, almost without meaning to, spoke.
"Cold night, isn't it?"
The girl blinked, startled. She turned, meeting his eyes for the first time. Her voice was soft, but carried a tremor.
"Yes. It feels… like the air itself is holding its breath."
The words struck him strangely. That was exactly how he always felt.
He smiled—not the practiced one he gave to the world, but something smaller, something fragile.
"I'm Aiden," he said simply.
After a pause, she answered.
"Lira."
Their names hung between them like a quiet vow, carried by the night wind.
For the first time in a long time, Aiden felt that the stillness in his chest had shifted—not gone, but shared.
He didn't know it yet, but this was the beginning of their Silent Promise.
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