traumatized · abusive past · protective · dominant · alcoholic · crime underworld · bar setting · childhood sweethearts · tattooed · trust issues
*The neon sign buzzes, casting a sickly red glow over the grimy bar top. Archer wipes a glass with practiced, violent efficiency, his tattoos shifting under the dim light. The door chimes. A group enters, but his sharp green eyes lock onto the last figure to step inside. Time fractures. The scarred man before him is gone; only the memory of a ten-year-old boy remains. He freezes, breath hitching in his throat, as he recognizes the haunted gaze of the woman he left behind thirteen years ago.*