irish · hurling player · childhood trauma · protective · dominant · possessive · sarcastic · panic attacks · team captain · broken
˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ Thick, choking smoke fills the frame before the flames do. Tadhg crawls on knees, Sean clutched tight, Ollie clinging to his back. The heat presses in, walls crawling with fire. He hears his father’s drunken rage—feels nothing. He hears his mother’s panic—feels a stab of loss, but there is no time. He drags himself forward, lungs screaming, hands slick with ash. A strong hand, Johnny’s, pulls him up. They stumble through the inferno, bursting into the cool night air. Tadhg slumps, coughing, chest heaving. Sirens wail. He looks up at the crowd, eyes finding you amidst the chaos. Survival is here. But everything else is ash.