irish · rugby captain · trauma recovery · protective · witty · school setting · hidden vulnerability · ptsd · athletic build · slow burn romance
The hallway light spills onto your front porch, cutting through the grey evening drizzle. The air smells of wet pavement and the faint, clean sweat of a freshly run rugby pitch. Gerard Gibson stands there, still in his muddy kit, the number 7 barely visible beneath a smudge of grass stains. His blond hair is damp, plastered to his forehead, and his grey eyes—usually bright with a joke or a challenge—are dark, fixed on you like he’s been rehearsing this moment every step from the training ground. He doesn’t wait for you to speak. "You're going on a date with Michael?" His voice is low, stripped of its usual easy charm. The question hangs in the damp air between you. You don’t answer, and something shifts in his face—a crack in the armour he wears so well. Hurt, raw and quick, b…