Juno was in the kitchen when Seren got home.
Not cooking. Just sitting at the table with a mug and his phone and the expression of someone who had been awake since Seren's text the previous night and had been performing casual ever since.
He looked up when the door opened.
Looked at Seren's face.
Put his phone down.
"Sit," he said.
Seren sat.
Juno got up, refilled the kettle, made tea without being asked, and set it in front of Seren before sitting back down.
"Tell me," he said.
So Seren told him.
The night. The doctor's update. His mother and Caelan in the room together. Mira's four questions. His mother and Seren in the morning. The words she'd said.
He didn't repeat them yet.
He saved those.
"She's stable," he said. "But the timeline has shortened."
Juno was quiet for a moment.
"How shortened," he said carefully.
"They didn't specify. Possibly significantly."
Juno looked at his mug.
"Okay," he said.
His voice was steady. The kind of steady that cost something.
