I notice the change before anyone tells me. It is not announced and it is not framed as anything more than logistics, but when I step out of my new room the next morning and feel the bond shift, warm and unmistakably directional, I know immediately that Adam is close. Not nearby in the abstract way of the packhouse, not simply present somewhere within the same walls, but on the same floor, close enough that the awareness hums beneath my ribs like a held note.
I stop in the corridor, listening.
The floor smells different than the one I slept on last night, less traffic, fewer voices, the quiet more intentional, and when I turn my head slightly, I feel it, the subtle alignment of the bond settling into place like it has found a shorter distance to travel. It is not pulling. It is not deman
