The wedding morning began before sunrise, with the island lying under a soft grey-blue hush that made everything feel suspended between dream and reality. Ren woke first, as he usually did, but this time the movement of waking felt different, heavier with significance and yet strangely calm. For a moment he lay still, listening to the quiet of the room and the faint sound of the sea beyond the balcony doors. Fang was beside him, still asleep on his side, one arm loosely tucked near his chest, his expression softened by rest in a way Ren rarely saw outside the safety of their private spaces. The sight of him made something in Ren's chest tighten, not with fear, but with the kind of tenderness that always arrived when he was on the edge of an important day.
