Sebastian's POV
I had just started to fall asleep. The kind of sleep that felt earned. Heavy. Quiet.
Until I heard her.
Thundering footsteps down the hallway. A frantic knock that didn't wait for an answer. Then—
SLAM.
My bedroom door burst open like a scene from a damn horror movie.
"A MONSTER," Ava wailed. "SEBASTIAN. There's a MONSTER in my room."
I sat up, blinking hard, shirtless and exhausted, just in time to catch a tear-streaked blur of black hair and long legs flying toward the bed.
She launched herself across the room and straight into my chest like a torpedo. Knocked the breath out of me, curled up like a terrified toddler, and buried her face against my neck.
"I swear I heard it! It was like... breathing. And scratching. And I know you're gonna say it's the wind or the pipes or whatever but I SWEAR it was real and I'm not sleeping there alone and I think it touched my foot and I almost DIED—"
"Ava," I muttered, voice gravelly, half-asleep. "Breathe."
She didn't. Just kept yapping, faster now. "I'm serious! It was this thing and it was going hhhhhrrrkkk like that, like some unholy frog-slash-werewolf demon hybrid and I am not emotionally prepared to be dragged under my bed at sixteen—"
"You're sixteen," I said, not unkindly.
"I'm traumatized!" she sobbed. "I need therapy. And blankets. And you."
She clung tighter. Wrapped her limbs around me like a koala on caffeine. Face still shoved against my bare chest, tears soaking into my skin.
"You're burning up," I murmured. "You ran all the way here?"
"I sprinted, Seb," she sniffled. "Sprinted. Like in the horror movies where the girl always dies first. That was gonna be me. Except I made it here and you're supposed to be the hero so do something."
I sighed. "Okay, okay. Come on."
I adjusted the blankets, pulled her fully into the bed, tucked her in under my arm like she was six again—not sixteen, not taller-than-average, not someone who had once kicked a boy in the shin for flirting too hard.
She curled into me with a shaky little breath, lashes wet, fingers gripping my shirt.
"You good now?" I asked quietly.
"No," she mumbled. "I'm scared."
"I'm right here."
"You'll check for monsters in the morning?"
"Of course."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
There was a beat of silence.
Then: "Seb?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you more than anything. Even chicken nuggets."
A tired chuckle escaped me. "That's a bold claim."
"I mean it," she whispered. "You're my safest place."
And just like that, all the storm drained from her voice. Her breathing evened out. She fell asleep on my chest, twitching once like a kitten in a dream.
I held her tighter.
Monster or not, no one was getting near her. Not under my roof. Not while she still came running to me in the dark like this.
Rain could keep her shadows.
This one? This clingy little chaos bomb of mine?
She was all light.