Nights and nights he had cried himself to sleep, biting his pillow, drowning under the weight of a love that he knew could not come to words - that had come to take him by storm, to bring him a joy that he had forgotten how to feel, and that he knew was bound to leave him the day that Adrien would return home - in nightmares he said goodbye, closed the door, and returned to his loneliness to live the night of his immortal life having known the warmth of the sun. In sorrow he had accepted this as the end of his happiness. He breathed in. The feeling of Adrien's hands still lingered on his skin; the echoes of his touch burned him over and over - there had been a feeling of birth and finality in the closeness they had shared, where their hearts had come undone and then entwined together.

"But, regret for what you didn't do is much worse than regret for what you did, you know?", Adrien's voice repeated in his mind.

Val took in a shuddering breath; his eyes had become wet once more. He let his tears flow in silence. In the chaos of that night, a truth had come to surface - a treasure that there were no greater; what would happen he did not know yet, but he knew that it had come the time to see, to open, to share.