They raised him in the shadows.
No schools.
No screens.
Just them.
The woods and the sound of wind whispering through the trees.
They taught him how to watch.
To listen.
To move without being seen.
They named him Lior.
Which means "light".
Though he grew up in the shadows.
He was never afraid of the dark.
He would sit for hours by the window at night, staring into the trees, saying things like,
"Someone is out there. I can feel them."
He didn't cry when he was hurt.
He didn't speak unless it mattered.
He was beautiful and strange, like a reflection in still water— just slightly not of this world.
Mira and Daniel told him stories of how they met, fell in love, then created this beautiful family of theirs.
He listened with wide eyes, always quiet, always still.
One night, when he was twelve, he asked.
"Does love mean following someone forever?", he asked with such innocent expression.
Mira and Daniel looked at each other, then smiled.
"If it is real love— yes."
Lior was seventeen when his mother saw the boy.
His name was Emil.
Soft eyes, gentle hands, laughter that cracked through Lior's carefully still world.
They met by accident, at a tiny library in town that Lior sometimes went to "practice blending in".
Emil saw him.
Really saw him.
And Lior unraveled.
That was the beginning of another love from the shadows.
A love that can be dangerous, yet somehow lovely.