Chapter 116: A Deliberate, Closed-Mouth Claim

Chapter 116: Chapter 116: A Deliberate, Closed-Mouth Claim

I looked at her.

The words try harder when Lawless is the only one on the mat were still sitting between us when my face did something I hadn’t planned. Eyes widening.

A smile pulled up before I could stop it.

"You have no idea how happy that made me."

Gianna’s hardened expression shifted, not soft, not yielding, just interrupted.

Like she had braced for defense and gotten something else.

"Try harder," she repeated, quieter.

"As long as you are here, I don’t even have to try."

I moved my arms.

She watched me do it, red eyes tracking the movement, then looked away toward the far wall as if the admission had taken up too much air.

From the opposite corner, Rei called without raising her voice much.

"If the break turns into couples counseling, I’m starting the afternoon block early."

Gianna didn’t look over.

"Stay on your timer."

"Gladly."

We stayed seated another minute in the partial quiet.

My hands stopped tingling.

The regulation load settled back into something I could carry without naming every spike.

When Gianna stood, I stood with her.

"Not the hive," she said.

"Simple movements. Pair timing only. If the dual feed comes back today, it comes back after I decide my hands have stopped wanting to strangle the schematic."

"Works for me."

I offered a single chain.

She looked at it once, then closed her fingers around the link. The connection seated cleaner than the first attempts, less static, more deliberate, primary-anchor weight without the tripping demand to drink.

"If you drag me," she said, "I’m cutting the line."

"If you flood it with noise, I’m calling it out."

"Deal."

We ran basic lines: advance, cover, switch, recover. No Fracture Step. No blood. No third feed. When she sent a telekinetic tap down the link to spoil my footing, I felt it early and spoke instead of muscling through.

"Left bias. You’re punishing the plant."

"Then stop planting like I’m going to vanish."

"I’m not—"

"You are. Tighten the step. Again."

I tightened the step. The next run landed cleaner. When I pulsed a direction change, she matched without being dragged, breath even, eyes forward.

"You’re less noisy," she said mid-sequence.

"You’re less busy punishing the channel."

"Don’t flatter yourself. I’m conserving energy for the part where she gets back on the line."

"Fair."

From the edge of the mat, Rei watched with her arms folded, ponytail severe, professional interest open and something less professional moving underneath it.

"You’re wasting essence on manners," Rei said. "Jenna scores efficiency."

Gianna kept moving.

"Jenna scores whether he can hold a partner without the hardware tearing. This is that."

"This is soft."

"This is baseline," I said, cutting the exchange before it became a second fight.

"You get contact after the pair pattern holds. Not before."

Rei’s mouth curved.

"Night terms still yours. Daytime patience is new."

"Daytime patience is the job."

"Night terms?"

"I will tell you everything later."

We kept going until the pattern sat in the body instead of the head.

Advance. Cover. Switch. Recover. Once Gianna sent a harder telekinetic shove through the link, I named the reach before the class could turn it into hunger.

"Reach."

"Throttle," she answered, and the shove became a measured test instead of a spike.

[Pair sync quality: Rising]

[Primary anchor: Stable]

[Host regulation: nominal]

Rei pushed off the wall and came fully to the mat edge.

"Switch soon," she said.

"Or admit today’s dual attempt is dead and give me a proper contact block."

Gianna released the chain and flexed her fingers. The irritation in the channel had thinned into focus.

"One more clean pair run," she said. "Then you can have your residual."

"How generous."

"How temporary."

I almost smiled. Almost. The hall still held too much unfinished history for anything that light: the video, the hallway, the snapped dual feeds, the sixty hours counting down outside the observation glass.

"Mark," Gianna said.

We ran the last sequence. Cleaner again. Not perfect. Enough that the system logged approval without demanding a triad.

[Pair sync quality: 74%]

[Primary anchor: Stable]

[Secondary candidate: Standby]

[Block status: Recoverable]

When we broke, the session clock had burned further down than it felt. Jenna’s observation tier stayed dark.

Either she was reviewing residual off-site, or she was giving us enough rope to hang the morning with. I dismissed the last chain, rolled my shoulders, and felt the day’s scratches pull tight along my arm and neck.

"Your turn after water," I told Rei.

"I’m already warm."

"Then you can stay warm for two more minutes."

Gianna picked up her jacket from the bench, then stopped in front of me.

For a second I thought she was going to talk about tomorrow’s overlapping block.

Registration.

The provisional window.

The fact that she had walked into a hall with Rei Lawless and chosen work over absence.

Instead, she caught the front of my white tank top in her fist.

She pulled me down the half-step the reconstruction height required and kissed me.

Not careful.

A deliberate, closed-mouth claim that still carried heat, held long enough to be unmistakable, angled so anyone on the mat would have to work to pretend they hadn’t seen it.

Her eyes were open just enough to find the far corner, Rei’s corner, before they shut.

The anchor flared bright and sharp under my sternum.

My hands hovered in the air for a useless fraction of a second, then settled at her waist.

Not deepening it or turning it into the hallway desperation from the night she came back.

Receiving it. Letting it be what it was.

When she released the fabric, the tank was wrinkled under her fingers, and my mouth felt marked in a way residual logs would never fully capture.

"Gia—"

"Don’t."

Final.

"You don’t get a speech every time I decide something."

Rei hadn’t moved.

Her smile had thinned into something cooler and far more interested.

Gianna held my gaze for one more second, no explanation or apology, and then stepped away to shrug into her jacket like the room hadn’t just changed temperature.

"Same hall tomorrow," she said.

"Overlapping presence. Try not to break the axle before Jenna scores it."