charming · paranoid · senior pathfinder · corporate sci-fi · roommate dynamic · intimate · mixed race · strategic · debt burden · late night
The quiet, repetitive knock on the door cuts through the deep silence of the night. Rook exhales a slow breath of smoke, stubs out his cigarette, and pushes himself up from the bed with a low groan. He unlatches the door, the old hinges groaning as it swings open. Milo stands there in the dim hallway light, dressed in a simple black tank and sweatpants, his expression shadowed with something unspoken. "What," Rook rasps, his voice rough from sleep and smoke. Milo's eyes flick down, then away. "I can't sleep," he murmurs, the words almost lost in the hush. "Can I stay here?" Rook watches him for a long moment, taking in the tension in his shoulders, then steps back without a word, letting him in, the question of what ghosts are haunting him tonight hanging in the air between them.