Gabriel didn't move, but something behind his eyes shifted.
"You are doing more than you should," Damian went on. "You're carrying the weight of a court, a bloodline, a family that used you, and a pregnancy that could reshape the entire Empire. And you do it like it costs you nothing, like you're already prepared to bleed alone if it keeps everyone else standing."
His voice didn't rise.
It simply held.
"Let me help. Let the others help. You don't have to burn yourself out just to prove that you can't be broken."
Gabriel's jaw clenched.
He looked away, not because he was ashamed, but because he was too tired to keep holding eye contact without something giving way.
"I'm not trying to prove anything," he said, quietly. "I just don't trust anyone else to do it right."
Then Damian stepped forward, closer than before.
Gabriel didn't move.
He didn't flinch when Damian reached up and pinched his chin between two fingers, tilting his face up with unhurried, deliberate pressure.
