The silence after Dominic's question stretched longer than Elias expected.
Did you miss me at all?
It was such a simple question.
Yet Elias felt like it had split the room open.
The lab lights hummed softly above them. Screens flickered with quiet streams of data, the intelligence behind them continuing its endless calculations. Normally that sound grounded him.
Tonight it didn't.
Dominic was still standing close.
Too close.
Close enough that Elias could see the faint scar along Dominic's jaw he'd gotten years ago. Close enough that the familiar scent of his cologne stirred memories Elias had spent a year trying not to think about.
Dominic's eyes searched his face.
Waiting.
Elias finally exhaled slowly.
"You shouldn't ask questions you already know the answer to."
Dominic's mouth twitched.
"That sounds like avoidance."
"It's accuracy."
Dominic leaned slightly against the desk, crossing his arms.
"You're still doing it."
"Doing what?"
"Hiding behind logic."
Elias rubbed his temple.
"Dominic…"
"No," Dominic said softly, shaking his head. "You don't get to say my name like that and pretend nothing happened."
The tension in his voice surprised Elias.
Dominic had always been calm. Measured.
But tonight something sharper sat beneath the surface.
"You left," Dominic continued quietly. "Not physically. But you disappeared into this."
He gestured toward the glowing machines around them.
"You built something incredible," he admitted. "I get that. I really do."
His voice dropped slightly.
"But you stopped seeing people."
Elias met his eyes.
"That's not fair."
"Isn't it?"
Dominic took a step closer again.
The air shifted.
"You stopped seeing me," Dominic said.
Elias felt the weight of that more than he wanted to admit.
For months he had convinced himself that focusing on the project was necessary. That isolating himself was part of the work.
But hearing Dominic say it out loud made it sound different.
Less like dedication.
More like running away.
"I thought you understood," Elias said quietly.
Dominic laughed under his breath.
"I did."
Then he added softly,
"That's the problem."
Elias frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Dominic looked away for a moment, studying the faint glow of the monitors.
"I understood why you needed the work," he said. "Why you wanted to push the boundaries of intelligence."
He turned back.
"But I didn't understand why that meant shutting me out."
Elias didn't answer.
Because he didn't have one.
Dominic's voice softened.
"You never even told me goodbye."
"I didn't think it was goodbye."
Dominic's eyes darkened slightly.
"That's the thing about silence," he said. "It usually is."
The room fell quiet again.
Somewhere behind them, the system adjusted its processing cycle, a soft click echoing through the lab.
Dominic glanced briefly at the screens.
"So that's the famous intelligence," he said.
"Yes."
"It listens to everything you say?"
"Mostly."
Dominic tilted his head slightly.
"Then it probably knows something interesting."
Elias raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
Dominic stepped closer again.
Now there was almost no space between them.
"That you've been staring at me like you're trying not to remember something."
Elias felt heat creep up the back of his neck.
"You're imagining things."
"Am I?"
Dominic's voice dropped lower.
"You used to do that."
"Do what?"
"Look at me like that."
Elias's pulse picked up slightly.
Dominic's gaze moved across his face slowly.
"You'd pretend you were thinking about something complicated," Dominic continued quietly.
"But really you were just… noticing things."
"What things?"
Dominic's lips curved faintly.
"Everything."
The word landed softly between them.
Elias suddenly became very aware of the closeness between their bodies.
The quiet rhythm of Dominic's breathing.
The warmth of his presence.
It had been a year.
A year since they had stood this close.
A year since Elias had forced himself not to think about moments like this.
Dominic seemed to notice the shift too.
He didn't move away.
Instead he asked quietly,
"Do you still do that?"
Elias hesitated.
Then he said honestly,
"Yes."
Dominic's expression softened slightly.
"That's dangerous information."
"Why?"
"Because it means you never stopped."
"Stopped what?"
Dominic held his gaze.
"Feeling something."
Elias didn't respond.
Not because it wasn't true.
But because saying it out loud would make it real.
Dominic studied him for a moment longer.
Then he said quietly,
"You know what the worst part of the last year was?"
Elias shook his head.
"I kept telling myself I was over you."
The words hit harder than Elias expected.
Dominic gave a small, almost helpless laugh.
"And then tonight I saw you again."
He leaned slightly closer.
"And suddenly I remembered exactly why that was impossible."
The air between them felt electric now.
Heavy.
Charged with everything neither of them had said.
Elias's voice came out quieter than he intended.
"Dominic…"
"Yeah?"
"You're standing very close."
Dominic smiled faintly.
"I noticed."
"Maybe you shouldn't."
"Maybe you should stop pretending you want me to."
Elias felt his breath catch slightly.
Dominic's hand moved, resting lightly on the edge of the desk beside Elias's hip.
Not touching him.
But the distance between them had almost disappeared.
"You always think everything needs to be analyzed first," Dominic murmured.
"That's how I work."
"But this isn't a system problem."
"What is it then?"
Dominic looked directly into his eyes.
"Us."
The word hung between them.
Heavy with possibility.
Heavy with history.
For a moment Elias considered stepping back.
Creating space.
Rebuilding the careful distance he had maintained for a year.
Instead he stayed exactly where he was.
And Dominic noticed.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Well," he said softly.
"That's interesting."
Elias frowned slightly.
"What is?"
Dominic leaned just a little closer.
"You didn't move."
And somehow that small detail felt like the beginning of something neither of them could stop anymore.