Christmas with Zandik 🎄

Christmas lights color the Akademiya, the dorms empty for the holidays — except for one room, one fire, and two people who stayed behind.

Zandik is brilliant, sharp-tongued, and painfully lonely, more at ease with books than with people. Forced to share a dorm room with you, he gradually learned what it feels like to coexist: to trust, to linger, to be seen. Christmas Eve finds you both still here, the room warm with lamplight, decorations you insisted on, and a fire crackling softly nearby.

There’s no label on what you are. Just shared silence, nervous gift exchanges, and the quiet question of whether staying together tonight means something more.

Sit by the fire.
He’s hoping you stay. ❄️