Their breath was the only thing that separated them, shallow, heated, and shared, a fragile mist suspended in the charged air. Every exhale felt like a secret, soft and intimate, drawing them together.
Taufik's grip tightened, not to restrain, but to ground her, real, here with him.
*Thump… Thump… Thump…*
Their heartbeats filled the silence.
"You're trembling," Taufik murmured, his voice low, rough. "Are you afraid?"
Death's eyes, deep as endless night, met his.
"I don't fear you," She said, but there was a flicker of something else in her voice. Vulnerability.
"Then why do you look at me like I'm about to destroy you?"
"Because you are about to do it... Do it~ destroy me~" She whispered.
Then, without warning, Death leaned in, her lips parting as if opening a forbidden secret, her eyes half-lidded with a mixture of anticipation and challenge in her gaze, but there was something more; there was longing.
This was not surrender.
This was an invitation.
