Chapter 204: Shared Stillness

Words : 1625 Updated : Sep 23rd, 2025

Chapter 204: Shared StillnessThe glass felt absurdly heavy in my hand, as if the weight of that tiny juice cup was somehow proportional to what had just happened. I blinked. The juice settled inside, not a single drop spilled. The girls stared. Camille was the first to move, stepping forward with her eyebrows raised so high they practically touched her bangs. "Okay... So... Are we just not going to talk about that?" she asked, lips curled into a grin. Evelyn, still blindfolded, sheepishly reached out as I placed the glass into her hand. "Thank you," she mumbled quietly, and then added with professional monotony, "Good reflexes." I handed it off carefully, still dazed by what I felt. It wasn’t just instinct, not exactly. It wasn’t one skill, either. It was like everything, every job, every experience, every edge, had pulled together in perfect rhythm. It was the Sync that I was looking for. I sat back down, mind still racing. Across the room, Sienna’s wooden spoon clattered gently against the pot. She looked over her shoulder at me with a knowing smile. "Dinner’s ready," she said. As if the entire room had been holding its breath, the spell broke. Alexis folded her arms. "That better not be your excuse to start pushing yourself again." "It was just juice," I replied, deadpan. "You caught juice mid-air like a sculptor with divine reflexes," Camille said. "Pretty sure that counts as magic now." I forced a laugh and moved to the table, the tension bleeding into light teasing and familiar warmth. The five of us gathered around the table, dinner steaming between us. It was strange how normal it all felt. Almost... domestic. "Hero moment aside," Camille said as she took her seat, "we seriously need to start naming your moves. Full Juice Grasp or whatever." "I vote for Sippy Reflex Mode," Sienna offered with a smile. Alexis nearly snorted into her water. "Ha ha," I said dryly, though even I was smiling. "Glad to know I’m still a source of entertainment." Sienna smiled softly as she set a bowl in front of me. "You always are." For a few quiet minutes, we ate. The food was good, Sienna always made good food, but there was an underlying quiet. The kind of quiet that only happens when everyone knows the moment isn’t going to last. I finished a bite and leaned back. "I need to figure out what that was," I said. Alexis was already looking at me. "You shouldn’t be doing anything right now." "I’m not saying I’m going to fight a bear again. I just need to understand it." "I assume it was related to your skills," Evelyn said, tilting her head slightly. "Which means it’s part of your system now. We might be able to map the brainwave patterns. I can help design the test. I’ve made some when I was an evaluator." "You are not scanning his brain right now," Alexis snapped. Evelyn turned slightly toward her. "And why not?" "Because his system is unstable, and yours isn’t exactly perfect either!" "Okay, okay," Camille interrupted. "New rule. No experiments for 24 hours." "Seconded," Sienna said. "Also," Camille added, "no checking the news until tomorrow morning. I want to digest food, not stress." Sёarch* The NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. I leaned back, raising both hands in surrender. "Alright. No tests. No politics. No war." Alexis grumbled something under her breath, but nodded. "But for what it’s worth," I said softly, "it didn’t feel like a fluke. It felt real. Coordinated. Like everything finally made sense." "Like your whole system was... synced?" Sienna asked. I looked down at my system notification again. [Full Profession Sync — Special Skill Acquired] "Exactly." Eventually, our conversation tapered off and the plates were scraped clean. We lingered a while longer, reluctant to move, as if we could stretch the illusion of normalcy a little further. But the heaviness of the day was catching up to us, threading through our limbs, tugging at our eyelids. Camille stood first, stretching with a theatrical groan, and the others followed. One by one, we filed out of the kitchen and into the hallway, like a strange little parade of exhausted rebels. Camille was the first to point something out. "Sooo... one bed. Five people. This should be fun." "You could sleep on the couch." I said. "You could sleep on the couch," she shot back with a slight mocking attitude. Within minutes, the quiet chaos of bedtime began to unfold like an uncoordinated dance. The bed, that was king-sized but still not nearly enough, quickly became a battlefield of limbs, blankets, and territorial negotiations. Camille claimed the left side with the confidence of a queen, sprawling diagonally like she owned the mattress. One leg dangled off the edge, the other draped casually across a pillow that didn’t belong to her. Her head landed right between where two people were clearly meant to sleep. "Now this is perfect," she declared unapologetically, already settling in. Sienna, ever gentle, made her way to my right. She curled up carefully, small and warm, like a cat settling into its favorite place. Her head nestled against my shoulder, and without a word, her arm looped gently around my middle. The rhythmic rise and fall of her breath against me felt like an anchor in the sea of exhaustion. She didn’t say anything, but I could feel the tension in her body slowly begin to unwind, like she’d only just given herself permission to rest. On my left, Alexis arrived with far less subtlety. She slid under the covers with a huff, snatched the closest pillow, and clung to it like it was both a shield and a weapon. Her other arm latched onto mine as if daring anyone else to claim it. Her glare scanned the room with surgical precision, silently warning the others not to encroach on her newly claimed territory. Despite the scowl on her face, the way she nestled in beside me felt instinctive and familiar. Then came Evelyn. She stood at the foot of the bed like a miscast actor who’d forgotten her line. Her blindfold still wrapped neatly over her eyes, she tilted her head as if trying to calculate the exact coordinates of a spot that wouldn’t touch anyone. After a few seconds of awkward hovering, she muttered something about "low contact preference" and folded herself onto the corner like luggage with a blanket wrapped tightly around her, back pressed to the edge. She made it work, somehow, legs tucked and hands folded, a lone outlier doing her best to coexist. It was ridiculous. Cramped. Ridiculously cramped. But strangely comforting. Like five puzzle pieces forced together in a way that didn’t fit, yet made something whole anyway. I lay still in the center, completely pinned. Sienna on one side, Alexis on the other, Camille’s arm occasionally smacking my shin in her sleep, and Evelyn’s presence gently pressing against my foot. I couldn’t move. I didn’t dare try. "I feel like one shift from me could cause a chain reaction," I muttered. "You’d crush me," Evelyn deadpanned. I let out a slow breath. Warmth. Closeness. Peace, however temporary. It was more than I expected after everything. We didn’t talk after that. Everyone slowly drifted to sleep, their breathing easing. My mind stayed awake longer. I stared at the ceiling, wondering what tomorrow would bring. In the end, the bed situation was exactly as chaotic as you’d expect when five people tried to share one mattress. There was shuffling, elbowing, and more than one passive-aggressive comment, but eventually, we settled. Bodies tangled, breaths steadied. The room grew quiet, save for the occasional creak of the frame or murmur of someone shifting in their sleep. And somewhere in that mess of limbs and blankets, I let my thoughts drift as I fell asleep. The morning light was soft and golden, filtering lazily through the curtains. I blinked awake to find Sienna still curled into my chest, breathing softly. Camille’s leg was across my knee. Alexis still clutched my arm like a lifeline. Evelyn had somehow migrated closer in the night, her head resting gently against my side. I couldn’t move. Even if I wanted to. I carefully reached for my burner phone with my free hand. A message blinked on the screen. Anthony: Got time to talk? A second later, the phone vibrated again. Incoming Call: Anthony I answered as quietly as I could. "Hey." Anthony’s voice was low, tired. "You awake?" "Barely." "Good. We’re still digging. After you declared war... let’s just say, the World President’s trail got a lot colder. Documents are being wiped. Locations scrubbed. Someone’s working overtime." "Can we speed it up?" I asked. "We’re running out of time." "I know. But right now, you’re a target. Might be better if you laid low. No one expects a world-breaking revolutionary to take a vacation." "I’m not going anywhere," I said firmly. Beside me, Camille stirred. "We should go on a vacation," she mumbled half-asleep. I sighed. "We can’t. Not yet. Also, since when are you awake so early?" She rolled slightly. "Boo...." "’Boo’ huh?" I muttered. She smirked, eyes still closed. Anthony chuckled on the other end. "Look. I’ll keep you posted. But if I were you, I’d take the peace while it lasts." "I’ll think about it." "I’m sure you will boss. I’ll see ya later!" The call ended. I stared at the phone for a long moment. Then I turned my head toward Camille, whose eyes were now lazily open. "You win," I said quietly. She raised a brow. "Hm?" I smiled faintly. "Let’s go on vacation."

Chapter 204: Shared Stillness

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