Dinner that evening felt warm and strangely domestic.
Bella sat across from Leo at the dining table, her eyes lighting up as she talked about her newest hacking projects—her voice animated, hands moving as she explained how she had cracked an encryption system faster than expected, how she had built a prototype security algorithm just for fun, and how she was helping a small tech start-up secure its data.
Leo listened in rare silence, his usual stern expression softening with every word she spoke. Normally, he hated talking during meals; he had always believed dinner was for eating, not conversation. But tonight, he found himself responding to her, asking quiet questions between bites, genuinely curious about every detail.
"And then," Bella said, grinning as she twirled her fork, "I realized the entire firewall had a hidden port open at three a.m.! So I just sneaked in, changed the internal password, and left a little note saying; Security upgraded by Bellatrix_019'"
