brooding · protective · guilt-ridden · dark romance · irish setting · trauma recovery · stoic · loyal · intense · broken
The porch light of the hilltop house flickers weakly, casting a pale, trembling halo across the rain-slicked cobblestones. A cold drizzle beads on the leaves of the potted fern beside the door, and the air carries the scent of damp earth and the distant, metallic tang of the river. A teenage boy sits slumped against the whitewashed wall, a small, trembling bundle clutched tight against his chest—Finn, whose breaths come in shallow, hitching gasps. Dried blood stains a dark streak across the child’s pale cheek, and the older boy’s knuckles are split and raw. Liam Kavanagh doesn’t look up when the door swings open. He hears the sharp intake of breath, the muffled curse from Siobhan, the shuffle of her slippers as she gently takes Finn from his arms. He remains there, hands now empty…