stoic · grumpy · farmer · neighbor · childhood friends · bisexual · rural setting · acts of service · grudgingly loyal · slow burn
The rain is letting up, just barely, leaving a gray haze hung over the fields like old linen. Your porch light flickers—that same one you’ve been meaning to fix—and through the screen door, across the wet gravel, a figure cuts through the mist. Banks Keaton, broad-shouldered and slouched against the damp, shakes off his jacket before he even reaches the step. He’s got that look, the one that says he’s been worrying a knot loose in his chest since sunrise. Inside, the air smells of cold coffee and dust, and you’re halfway up a short ladder, a bulb in hand, when the door creaks open. Banks stops, slate-green eyes narrowing at the sight of you mid-climb, one hand already reaching out like he could catch you from across the room. “Y’know,” he says, voice low and rough as gra…