Daniel does not know what changed in Mira.
Maybe it was the photo album.
Or the sound of Daniel's voice in Mira's quiet apartment.
Maybe it was the way Daniel said Mira's name, not like a question, but like a secret Daniel always kept.
Mira sat beside Daniel that night without saying a word.
Daniel watched Mira out of the corner of his eye as she flipped through the pictures Daniel had taken: one of Mira laughing at a joke no one else heard.
One of Mira staring at the moon through her kitchen window.
One of her sleeping, her hand curled around her pillow like a child.
When Mira reached the final page, her fingers trembled.
Mira looked up at Daniel with wide, wet eyes.
"You were always there," Mira whispered.
It was not fear in her voice.
It was realization.
Daniel nodded.
"Always."
Then, something shifted in Mira's face.
A slow smile.
A strange calm.
Mira touched the photo.
Then touched Daniel's hand.
She did not pull away.
The days that followed felt like a dream Daniel had been waiting to live.
Mira stopped locking her door.
She did not hide her phone.
Mira started leaving notes for Daniel, slipped under her window, hidden in her mailbox, taped to the mirror like he used to do.
Sometimes they said simple things like:
"I saw you today."
"Your shadow was next to mine."
"I didn't sleep. I was thinking about you watching me."
Mira started dressing in the colors Daniel liked.
Mira began to tell him where she would be before Daniel could ask.
She began noticing things he never said out loud.
Like how he would flinch when people lie, or how he hated being seen unless it's by her.
It was like Mira had opened her eyes and found the world Daniel had built for them and stepped inside it willingly.
One night, they went walking in silence.
No destination.
Just them, drifting through the streets like ghosts.
Mira reached for Daniel's hand in the dark.
"I used to think I wanted space," Mira said.
"But you made me realize...I only wanted someone who would follow.", she continued.
Daniel stopped.
He stared at her.
"Do you mean that?"
Mira smiled, and her voice dropped to a whisper.
"I want to disappear into you."
A year later
They moved out of the city and moved to the mountains where only they were the only people.
Somewhere no one else can find them.
Mira rarely speaks to anyone else, if ever someone comes to the mountain.
She does not need to.
Daniel was enough for her.
They do not use phones.
They write to each other.
Notes left on windowsills, carved into woods, whispered in the dark.
And every time Daniel watch her sleep now, she isn't afraid.
Sometimes, Mira pretends to be asleep just so Daniel will watch her.
Sometimes, Mira watches him back.
They were not meant to be understood.
They understand each other perfectly.
They needed no one else but each other.