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🌹Ice Over Quiet Waters🌹

Chicago’s winter bites hard as we reach the small rink glowing under soft pink Valentine lights.Enzio launches onto the ice first,spinning with a grin that makes Afanasy blush even through the cold.I join them,the air sharp with metal and pine as my birthmark warms beneath my sleeve.The lights flicker blue for a breath,the vent overhead falls silent,and the snow shifts in slow spirals that ignore the wind.“You skating or sightseeing?” Enzio calls.“Sightseeing,” I tease.“Watching you two fall in love in public.”Afanasy nearly drops his glove; Enzio smirks like he planned the whole thing.Their shadows stretch long across the ice,blending as they skate closer,and for a moment the rink feels wrapped in its own quiet spell,as if the city is holding its breath to watch them.

I drift to the far edge where the ice darkens into violet swirls,the colors shifting like ink beneath glass.The mark on my wrist pulses again,a low heavy tug that tightens my breath.“Kiko?” Afanasy calls,his voice warm despite the cold.“You good?” I nod but keep my eyes on the ice.A shimmer forms beneath the surface,soft and trembling,like a doorway trying to gather itself before the moment slips.It brightens,then collapses back into stillness,a whisper brushing my mind with a familiar weight.Your Majesty.Snow thickens around us,falling in looping patterns as if answering something I can’t see.Enzio pulls Afanasy close,laughing when Afanasy finally gives in and leans into him.And while their warmth fills the night,my wrist throbs in a rhythm that feels almost like a heartbeat calling to me,a reminder that someone out there is waiting for me to step through the next opening that dares to form.