Chuckling, you jumped onto the roof of the next house with surprising ease and glanced back at him.

"Come on, grumpy!", you gestured for him to follow you. "Or have you forgotten how we play catch?"

His lips curled as Marcus shook his head, took a running start, and jumped over to you. The roof seemed to shake under the weight of his heavy boots.

"That was enough action for today.", he groaned, and wanted to climb down the ladder.

But you gave him a playful hit against the back.

"Come on, since when are you boring?"

Grinning bitterly, he glanced over his shoulder at you.

"Since I became a da-!", but he bit his tongue mid-sentence. "Since I became a damn man. Do you want me to jump over the rooftops with you and break my neck?"

You laughed.

"Have you become that lazy?"

At the question, his eyebrows drew together grimly and something flared up in his eyes. With his chin raised, he stepped toward you.

The expression on his face said it all. You had hit just the right nerve and attacked his ego.

With a grin, you crossed your arms in front of your chest and looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

"What's that, grumpy?", you asked teasingly. "Has your mind suddenly changed? How surprising..."

Again, he pulled a face, his nose wrinkled, as it always did when his lips moved slightly upward. With a roll of his eyes, he turned away again. But his gaze remained suspiciously glued to you for a long time.

Amused, you watched him try to look indifferent. But you could read it in his eyes, in the way his shoulders tensed slightly.

All at once he turned on the spot, stretched out his arm and tried to tap you.

Laughing, you jumped back and just managed to avoid him before he jumped towards you. You ducked, fire burning in your eyes, and dodged to the side, passing under his arm.

With at least as much willpower, Marcus followed you onto another roof and across the narrow plateaus that jutted out of the facades on the sides.

"Come here!", he shouted, grinning, and tried to catch you again.

But you jumped to the side and let yourself fall onto a lower roof. Sticking out your tongue at him, you whirled around and ran away.

"You are too slow!", you shouted, half laughing, half gasping.

Without losing a second he jumped after you. A grin appeared on his lips.

In the not too distant distance, the tower of the council building already appeared.

With ease you ran on, your eyes firmly fixed on the square in front of the building. There was the goal, just like back then.

Just running down the street and you would have won. You thought you were already safe, when suddenly a long shadow appeared next to you.

Thanks to his longer legs, Marcus quickly caught up to you. But not only his size, but also his stamina were a great advantage to him.

His hand reached out to you, threatening to catch you, when suddenly something in your back began to tingle.

Muscles tensed, your knees began to tremble. It felt like your spine was pressing against your skin, trying to push itself out of your body.

Startled, you stumbled and almost lost your balance.

Marcus slammed into you with full force.

A surprised gasp escaped your lips.

His arms wrapped around you, pressing you tightly against him.

The fall didn't hurt.

Instead of hitting the hard pavement, you landed directly on his chest. Eyes wide open, you found yourself above him, hands braced on either side of his head while he held you by the hips. He moved under you, probably unintentionally, and positioned himself so that you were sitting directly on top of him.

Confused, you both blinked at each other, unable to form words. When the realization hit you, you immediately jumped up. Blush covered your face.

Laughing embarrassed, you rubbed the back of your neck and offered him a hand.

Smiling, he accepted it and pulled himself up. While helping, you noticed how light he suddenly felt. His weight didn't pull you down and you didn't have to lean the other way to keep your balance.

When he was back on his feet, your hand unconsciously moved to your back. The warm tingling sensation was still there. It felt a little like the touch of hands.
Your gaze darkened.

"So that's what it feels like...", you whispered to yourself.

Marcus noticed your mood swing immediately. The grin on his face faded.

"(Y/N)?", he gave you a playful push against your shoulder. "What's wrong? Did I hurt you?"

Torn from your thoughts, you smiled and quickly shook your head.

"Don't worry, I'm tough.", you pushed back.

Chuckling, he continued to return the gesture until the two of you got carried away and tackled each other with playful force. Grabbed by his strength, you slipped back but weren't willing to loose against him again.

You dug and wrapped your arms around his broad torso to squeeze all the air out of his lungs with a hug.

But instead of fighting back, his arms wrapped around you too and squeezed tightly. Burying his face in the crook of your neck, Marcus took in your scent with a deep breath.

His fingers dug into the brown fabric of your uniform. It felt like he was afraid you might crumble to dust like a memory and disappear again at any moment.

Saddened, you smiled and hugged him tighter.

"Marcus...", you whispered and closed your eyes.

He smelled different than before but no less pleasant. The soft scent of soap stuck to his pale skin, mixed with the leather of his uniform. His dark hair felt soft as feathers as your fingers wandered through the short strands.

He took a shaky breath at the touch. But when he leaned away from you and your eyes met, the brief moment of weakness was over. He cleared his throat, his gaze darkening again.

"Sorry.", he muttered and turned away. "I didn't mean to..."

With a heavy heart, you looked away. The loss of his warmth made goosebumps grow.

"It's fine...", you put on a smile again to hide the fact that you felt like crying. "I got carried away too."