It started with an invitation from Bennett, a rare thing.

He stood at the edge of the Phantoms' lunch table that afternoon, keys in hand, voice smooth and precise as ever. "If you would all like, we're hosting at the Base tonight. Movie night. Food will be handled."

His tone left no room for argument. Only acceptance.

The Musketeer Base was everything the name implied: hidden, fortified, theirs.

Tucked behind an abandoned storage building, the entrance was an unassuming, rusted door, protected by a coded lock and, naturally, booby-traps. Specifically, Jordan's favourite, a spring-loaded dart rigged to fire once the code was entered.

It was, according to Jordan, "non-lethal but highly inconvenient."

Which was why, when they arrived and Tessa eagerly stepped forward, Declan reached out and yanked her back by the hood of her sweatshirt without a word.

The dart whizzed past where her shoulder had been a second earlier, embedding itself in the brick wall.

Tessa blinked. "I owe you my life."

Declan deadpanned, "I'll collect later."

Jordan disarmed the trap with a proud flourish and the door creaked open.

Inside, the Musketeer Base was nothing short of a hidden world.

Exposed brick walls, deep brown leather couches, soft yellow lights strung haphazardly across the beams. Everything looked rugged, broken-in, but oddly elegant, a reflection of the four people who spent majority of their time there.

Each Musketeer had their own bedroom tucked into the layout, personal touches hidden among the practical. From Naomi's window, a metal fire escape led straight up to the wide flat rooftop that overlooked the city.

It was there the real magic happened.

By the time the Phantoms wandered through the building, voices echoing off the walls, the Musketeers had already fallen into their assigned roles.

Bennett was stationed at the outdoor grill they had dragged onto the roof, cooking with effortless, methodical precision, assembling burgers and snacks like it was a science experiment.

Naomi was layering blankets and pillows everywhere, creating a sprawling, messy lounge. Soft fairy lights blinked overhead, adding a low golden glow.

Jordan, tangled up in cords and extension cables, was muttering under his breath as he fought with the projector set-up, cursing when the Bluetooth speaker cut out again.

Declan, true to form, was hunched over a box of movies like he was planning a military campaign. He flicked through titles with sharp, decisive movements, already rejecting anything Jordan suggested on sight.

Arya dropped onto a massive pile of pillows immediately, surveying the scene with a lazy grin. "This is the weirdest not-evil secret base I have ever seen."

Jordan shot her a crooked smile from the corner of the rooftop. "Stick around. It gets better."

Dominic wandered the edges, hands in his pockets, looking half-impressed, half-skeptical. "You renovated an entire abandoned building just for yourselves?"

Bennett glanced up briefly from the grill, voice clipped but amused. "Real estate was a sound investment."

Sky was already sprawling across a lounge chair with the most dramatic sigh humanly possible.

Tessa promptly kicked him off.

Tyler helped Daphne string up a few more lanterns, their laughter soft and easy against the quiet hum of the rooftop.

Davina perched neatly on the low wall at the edge, arms crossed, surveying the set-up like she was planning an audit.

It felt different.

Not Phantoms.

Not Musketeers.

Just friends, slowly threading themselves into something bigger, something messier, something real.

Jordan finally managed to get the projector working with a shout of victory. "Behold. My technical genius."

Declan did not even glance up. "If you short out the power grid, you are explaining it to Bennett."

Naomi tossed a balled-up sock at Jordan's head without looking.

Arya just laughed, sliding down the pillows to help Jordan fine-tune the image, their arms brushing in the low light. Neither of them moved away.

As the sun dipped behind the city skyline, the rooftop came alive.

The movie started flickering against the opposite wall, the sound crackling through the now-working speakers.

Blankets shifted. Laughter threaded through the evening air.

It should have been simple, pick a blanket, pick a pillow, sit down.

Naturally, it turned into complete chaos.

"You are not sitting next to me," Tessa said immediately, kicking Sky's pillow a few feet away.

"You wound me," Sky said, sprawling dramatically across two beanbags instead.

Arya plopped down on a low cushion near the center, tossing a spare pillow into Dominic's face when he hovered too long behind her.

Declan claimed the spot near the edge of the projector's shadow, arms crossed, expression set like someone about to watch a sports final rather than a movie.

Tyler and Daphne quietly curled up at the far side, their heads bumping together, whispering and laughing like they were in their own world.

Bennett arrived late to the blanket pile, carrying a plate of precisely assembled snacks and giving everyone the kind of look that said children before settling near Davina, not too close, but close enough that Naomi raised an eyebrow.

Naomi herself tucked in between Arya and Tessa, stealing half of Arya's blanket and pretending it was not on purpose.

Jordan dropped down next to Arya with a grin, stealing the other half of her popcorn before she could protest.

Arya elbowed him but did not move away.

If anything, she leaned a little closer.

Neither of them commented on it.

The movie started, some action-heavy thriller Declan had stubbornly chosen, but it was background noise at best.

The real entertainment was everything else.

At one point, Sky launched a handful of popcorn across the group, smacking Dominic in the forehead.

Dominic retaliated by catapulting an entire handful back, missing Sky but hitting Jordan square in the jaw.

"Rude," Jordan shouted.

Arya, absolutely useless, was doubled over laughing. "You deserved it," she wheezed.

Bennett and Davina exchanged a look across the chaos, dry, resigned, like two CEOs watching their employees set fire to the office. Then, as if silently agreeing, they each shifted slightly closer without a word.

Declan lost his temper about halfway through when Sky tried to balance a soda can on his forehead. "If you spill anything on the projector, I am putting you through the fire escape."

"Romantic," Sky said sweetly.

Arya eventually stole Jordan's hoodie when the night air turned crisp, and Jordan did not even blink, just leaned back against the cushions, his arm casually brushing hers every few minutes.

Every time it happened, Arya smiled wider.

Every time it happened, Jordan found a new reason not to look at her directly.

By the time the second movie rolled around, a bad horror flick Sky had demanded, most of them were sprawled half-asleep across each other, a heap of tangled limbs and shared warmth.

Arya's head tilted lightly against Jordan's shoulder.

Tessa and Declan were mid-argument about whether ghosts could drive trucks.

Bennett was explaining the correct method of surviving a zombie apocalypse to a very skeptical Davina.

Naomi and Dominic were sharing a bag of candy between them, their hands brushing a little too often to be purely accidental.

The rooftop hummed with low laughter, the occasional pop of a soda can, the soft shift of blankets.

The city twinkled around them, a blurred painting of gold and black.

It felt like maybe they were not two sides of a battlefield anymore.

Maybe they were something else entirely.