Chapter 310: Is that what happens next? Sex?

​That night, the house was silent, but for Alias, the quiet was deafening. He lay on the mat in Maya’s room, staring at the ceiling. The air felt thin.

​Betrayal. It was a human concept he had only ever observed as a dry, clinical data point. Now, it was a physical weight in his chest, a rough obstruction that made his heart stutter.

And then there was the other word: Sex. The messy, uncoordinated, and apparently loveless act that had resulted in the small life sleeping in their living room.

​He couldn’t reconcile it. If the body were a vessel for love, how could it be used so casually? How could Theo have shared that ’heat’ with a stranger?

​Driven by a restless, aching curiosity, Alias stood up. His feet made no sound on the wooden floor. He walked into the living room and paused by the child.

The boy had kicked off his blanket in his sleep, his small frame shivering slightly. Alias knelt and pulled the fabric up to the boy’s chin, tucking it in with a lingering touch before standing and moving toward Theo’s room.

​He didn’t knock. He simply stepped inside.

​Theo wasn’t in bed. He was standing by the window, his large frame silhouetted against the brilliant, indifferent stars of the desert sky.

He looked like a man carrying the weight of the desert on his shoulders. When the floorboard gave a tiny, almost imperceptible creak, Theo spun around, his hand instinctively twitching toward the knife he no longer wore.

​But his eyes widened when he saw the silver glow of Alias’s hair in the dark.

​"Alias?" Theo’s voice was a ragged whisper, caught between hope and a deep, defensive shame. "What... What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t want to be near me tonight."

​Alias didn’t move closer. He stayed by the door, his hands clasped loosely in front of him, his expression unreadable in the moonlight.

​"I could not sleep," Alias said softly. "The words in my head are too loud. I kept thinking about the ’sex’ you mentioned. I kept thinking about how a life can be made without the heart being involved."

​He looked at Theo, his silver eyes searching the man’s tired face. "Is that what we were doing, Theo? Is that what happens next? Were you waiting to do that to me, too? To just... use the body because the heat was too much?"

Theo felt the air leave his lungs. He had expected Alias to keep his distance, to let the silence between them grow until it became a wall.

He had prepared for coldness, for the slow fade of the light he had worked so hard to keep. He hadn’t prepared for this—for Alias to stand in the moonlight, demanding answers with a logic that felt sharper than any accusation.

​"Alias, no," Theo gulped, his voice cracking. He took a step back, hitting the frame of the window. "My love for you was not just a physical thing. It involved my soul and my heart. I want to do it with you because I love you, not because the heat is too much." He explained, and Alias lowered his gaze slightly.

"Then... do it," Alias said, and Theo felt like the words had scraped at his heart.

"I... I can’t." His fists clenched at his side. "Not like this. My head is... I’m rotting with what I did. I hurt you. I lied to you. To do that now, when I feel like a dog in the dirt... It’s wrong."

​Alias didn’t flinch. He walked into the room, his movements slow and deliberate, the silver of his hair shimmering like a cold flame.

He stopped only when he was close enough to feel the frantic heat radiating off Theo’s skin.

​"Why is it wrong for me?" Alias asked, his voice low and eerily calm. "I am not the one who lied. I am not the one who hid a life in the shadows. I am merely the one left with the questions you planted."

​He reached out, his cool fingers grazing the back of Theo’s hand. Theo flinched, but Alias didn’t let go.

​"You tell me you feel guilty," Alias continued, his silver eyes locking onto Theo’s pained blue ones. "Then let that be your punishment. Carry the weight of what you’ve done while you feed my curiosity. Why should I stay in Maya’s room, crumbling under the weight of things I do not understand, while you stand here alone with your secrets?"

​Theo’s heart hammered a frantic, desperate rhythm. He looked at Alias and saw the innocence he had tried to protect now turned into a demand for truth—a physical, raw truth.

​"You want to know what ’sex’ is?" Theo whispered, his jaw trembling. "You want me to show you the part of me that isn’t about the heart? Alias, it will change how you see me. It will make me even more of a monster in your eyes." His voice came out small.

​"I already see you, Theo," Alias responded. He reached for the drawstring of his own tunic, his eyes never wavering. "I saw the love, and I saw the lie. Now, I want to see the act that made it. If you love me as you say, then you will not leave me in the dark. You will stay in the guilt, and you will teach me what it means to be used by the body."

​Theo felt a sob catch in his throat, but the magnetic pull of Alias was too strong. He was trapped between his shame and the absolute finality in Alias’s voice. He reached out, his large, shaking hands catching Alias’s wrists.

​"Fine," Theo rasped, a single tear finally escaping and tracking a long wet line on his cheek. "If this is what you want... if this is my penance... I will show you. But don’t ask me to stop feeling like I’m breaking, Alias. Because I am."

​Alias leaned in, his breath ghosting over Theo’s lips. "Then break, Theo. But do not lie to me again."