Chapter 61 - CH 60 - The Rhythm of the Real

The confession, if it could even be called that, settled between them not as a dramatic shift, but as a natural, inevitable alignment, like the final piece of a complex puzzle clicking perfectly into place. The "I don't ever want to build anything without you again" was not a question that required an answer; it was a truth they had both already known in the quiet marrow of their bones, now given voice and substance in the warm, wine-scented air of the city night. In the days that followed, a new and profound ease descended upon their partnership, a deep, resonant calm that felt like the exhale after a long-held breath. The frantic, survivalist energy of the early days, the lingering, metallic taste of tension from the legal battles, the grim, jaw-clenched determination that had fueled the Chimera's initial construction all of it softened, transmuted into a steady, confident, and deeply synchronized rhythm.