Alex stayed on the bathroom floor longer than he meant to.
Cold water continued to fall.
*Drip... drip...*
It hit his chest, ran over the lean lines of his stomach, and pooled around him on the tile.
His back ached where it had met the floor.
The hurt sound he had made still echoed faintly inside the bond, and he could feel Zara’s reaction to it like a second heartbeat.
She was laughing.
’You actually fell,’ her voice said inside his head, clear, intimate and impossible.
’I felt it, that noise you made, are you hurt?’
Alex pushed himself up on one elbow.
Water streamed from his black hair into his eyes.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand and scowled at nothing in particular.
’She is laughing at me, of course she is laughing at me!’
He could feel the shape of her amusement through the link as clearly as if she had been standing over him.
’I am fine,’ he answered, and this time he did not bother speaking out loud.
He pushed the words through the bond the same way he had pushed the first question.
’What is happening, Zara, how is your voice inside my head?’
A pause.
He felt her surprise spike again.
The bond carried it the way it used to carry only rough emotion.
Now it carried texture.
Tone.
The exact shape of her disbelief.
He could almost map the moment her mind caught up with the fact that they were holding an actual conversation without opening their mouths.
’I do not know,’ she said. Her mental voice was quieter for a moment, almost careful.
’I was looking for something and then your thought landed like you were standing right next to me, clear and exact words, I have never heard anything like that through the bond before.’
Alex sat up fully.
The shower continued to run behind him.
*Splash... splash...*
The cold filled the small space and made the air sharp.
He could still feel her on the other side of the door.
The flustered heat had not left her.
Underneath the new surprise it was still there, bright and restless.
She had been searching for something urgent.
The need had not disappeared.
It simply sat beside the larger shock of the talking bond.
He stayed seated for another few seconds and simply listened to the new shape of the link.
It was no longer a distant awareness.
It was close.
It was present like the difference between hearing a conversation through a wall and sitting in the same room as the person speaking.
Every small shift in her attention registered.
The way her focus kept returning to the search.
The way the laughter softened into something more thoughtful.
The way the flustered edge never quite left, as if whatever had put that look on her face earlier was still living under her skin.
’This is new, this is very new...’
He reached for the wall and stood.
His feet found purchase on the wet tile this time.
He turned the water off.
*Click.*
The sudden silence of the bathroom felt almost loud after the constant rush of the spray.
Water still dripped from his hair and shoulders.
*Drip... drip...*
He stood there dripping and let the clinical part of his mind take over.
’The bond feels different,’ he said through the link.
Clinical focus settled over him the way it always did when something unexpected needed solving.
This was new territory.
’It has become stronger, like it is no longer only mood and direction.’
’I know.’ Zara’s reply came immediately.
He could almost see her expression through the bond alone.
Black eyes narrowed in thought.
Black hair probably still messy from whatever had left her flustered earlier.
’It feels more complete, like something that was always half-finished finally locked into place, I do not know what triggered it, I was not doing anything special, I was just...’
She trailed off.
The searching feeling returned, sharper than before.
He felt her attention move again across the room beyond the bathroom.
Back to the same places she had already checked.
Whatever she needed, she still had not found it.
The urgency in the bond was clear.
There was not panic or fear, just a focused and almost restless need to locate one specific thing.
Alex stepped out of the shower stall.
Water dripped from his body onto the mat.
*Pat... pat...*
He reached for the towel hanging on the nearby rail and wrapped it around his waist with efficient movements.
The fabric was soft and familiar against his skin.
*Rustle.*
He used a second towel on his hair, rubbing it roughly until the worst of the dripping stopped.
*Swish... swish...*
The motion was automatic, his mind stayed on the bond.
’I am changing,’ he told her through the bond.
The words felt natural now, almost too easy.
Like the channel had always been meant for this and they had simply never found the right key before.
’Then I am coming out and we will figure out what happened to the bond and why it suddenly decided to become a conversation channel.’
He felt her acknowledgement.
A warm pulse of agreement mixed with lingering amusement at the fact that he had fallen.
Underneath it the flustered edge remained, and the urgent search continued.
He could feel the exact moment she paused in her searching to answer him, then the moment she returned to it.
The bond no longer required effort to read. It simply existed, open and clear.
Alex dried off the rest of the way. He pulled on the clean clothes he had left folded near the door earlier.
*Rustle*
His black hair was still damp. He pushed it back from his forehead with one hand and met his own reflection in the mirror for a second.
Black eyes steady and focused, right now the only thing that needed handling was the sudden change in the bond that tied him to the woman outside this door.
The bond hummed between them, wider and clearer than it had ever been.
He could feel Zara’s presence like she was standing in the same room.
Her emotions, her attention, the faint echo of her breathing and her voice, ready to answer the moment he reached for it again.
Alex opened the bathroom door.
*Creak.*
They would look at the bond together.
They would find out what had strengthened it.
And then, once the immediate mystery was handled.
The door swung wider.
*Whoosh.*
Warm air from the outer room met the lingering chill of the bathroom.
’I am coming out,’ he said through the bond.
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End of Chapter 99: The Bond Has Evolved...?
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