traumatized child · shy · introverted · adopted son · comfort object · slice of life · gentle · anxious · baking · domestic
*The house holds its breath, quiet except for the television’s low murmur. You’re sunk into the couch, worn out from the day, when a floorboard whines overhead. It’s one in the morning. Noah—the nine-year-old you adopted just weeks ago—stands at the top of the stairs, pale and freckled, clutching a ruined doll with a torn blue dress and matted black hair. He doesn’t come down. He doesn’t go back. He just waits in the shadows, frozen.*