Episode 5

The breathing was labored.

Luiz opened his eyes suddenly, his heart racing. He was lying in bed next to Andressa, who was sleeping soundly. The room was silent, except for the faint sound of rain against the window. He ran his hand over his sweaty face and sat up, trying to understand why he felt... disturbed.

The dream was still vivid in his mind. Hot, intimate. Almost real.

He was in a place he couldn't identify — a room with soft light, open windows, curtains swaying in the breeze. And he wasn't alone.

A man.

He couldn't see his face clearly, but he felt everything. The warmth of the skin, the texture of the touch, the urgency of the kiss. And, mainly, the look. That look full of contained passion, pain, and longing.

Luiz, in the dream, was saying his name. He felt it in his chest. A name whispered, almost a cry.

"Braian..."

That name followed him upon awakening.

"Braian?" he repeated in a low voice, frowning.

He got up and went to the kitchen, pouring himself some water. His reflection in the window glass seemed disturbed, as if he had lived something forbidden. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to understand what it meant. The taste in his mouth was strange, almost sweet, almost bitter. The touch still lingered on his skin as if it had been real.

It was just a dream. Just that…

But why did it seem so real? Why did his body still feel that touch? And why did guilt burn his neck, as if he had betrayed someone — or something — much bigger than he could understand?

Luiz looked at the dark living room, then at the hallway that led to the bedroom. Andressa was there, sleeping with the peace of someone who didn't carry ghosts.

And him? He carried something he didn't even know how to name.

Later, at the joint operation headquarters

Luiz was in an impeccable suit, as always. He entered the conference room and saw Braian talking to one of the newly arrived foreign agents. The man — tall, blond hair, and a strong accent — seemed clearly charmed by Braian's manner.

They were laughing, laughing together.

Something inside Luiz... tightened.

He didn't understand, why did that scene bother him so much?

Braian was relaxed, with a cup of coffee in his hand, gesturing as he told something funny. Luiz watched for too long. His eyes focused on the way the other man touched Braian's arm during the conversation. A casual touch. Too intimate for his taste.

Without realizing it, Luiz frowned, clenched his fist, and crossed his arms.

"Are you okay?" asked one of the Brazilian agents next to him.

Luiz blinked, dropping his expression.

"Yes. Just… waiting for the meeting to start."

Liar. He was trying to understand why the hell he felt bothered by the laughter of a man who should only be a colleague.

He looked away, but his eyes insisted on returning.

And then Braian looked in his direction. And smiled, slightly. That familiar, gentle smile... like the one he saw in the dream.

Luiz looked away immediately. His heart beat fast, as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't.

Something was starting to crack inside him. A barrier, a protection... or maybe, a lie he told himself every day.

The rest of the meeting was a blur. The data, the maps, the strategic plans — everything seemed distant, muffled by that fog of thoughts and sensations that he couldn't name.

When Braian took the floor to present an analysis, Luiz tried not to look. But his voice was like a magnet. Calm, firm, with a touch of irony in the right pauses. The kind of voice that settles in one's mind.

And Luiz felt that he already knew that voice, from other moments, from other times.

Or from other lives.

(Luiz's thought):

"Why... do you appear in my dreams, Braian? Why does the sound of your name send shivers down my spine? And why the hell does seeing another man touch you make me so beside myself?"

Underground parking lot of the operation headquarters – end of the day

The sound of footsteps echoed through the cold concrete. Luiz walked to his car with his jaw clenched, trying to ward off the discomfort that had accompanied him since the damn meeting. The image of Braian smiling at that agent still hammered in his mind.

He unlocked the car, but didn't get in.

He stood there, leaning against the door, staring into the void. His cell phone vibrated in his pocket — a message from Andressa: "We're already heading to dinner at your mother's house. Don't be late, love."

He ignored it for a moment.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes. And there it was again: the touch. The kiss. The name.

Braian.

"This is crazy..." he whispered to himself. "I'm married. I have a daughter. There's no reason for this to be happening. There's no reason for me..." he interrupted himself, squeezing his eyes shut, as if he could expel the thought with physical force.

But it was no use.

Because the truth was that he felt it. When he saw that other man approach Braian, talk to him, crack jokes, lean in more than necessary...

Luiz felt jealous.

Not envy, not strangeness.

Jealousy. Burning, throbbing.

"What the hell is going on with me?" he murmured.

He opened the car door angrily, sitting behind the wheel. He stayed there, with his hands on the steering wheel and his eyes lost. His wedding ring shone discreetly in the dim light of the garage.

He closed his eyes once more, and was invaded by flashes of the dream. The touch in his hair. The smell of his skin. The warm whisper near his ear: "I missed you..."

He put his hand to his chest, as if he could contain the avalanche. As if it were possible to pretend that it was just imagination.

But it wasn't.

It was remembrance. Even if he couldn't understand why.

"Why do I feel like Braian is someone who already belonged to me?"

"And why does looking at him make my heart twist... as if it were trying to remember the way home?"

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