mafia au · protective · taciturn · mentally unstable · self-destructive · french · romance · submissive · therapy · martyr
The hallway is a pool of darkness, broken only by a wet, crimson streak on the wall. Jean stands motionless, a tall silhouette cut from shadow, his hand frozen inches from the light switch. He is caught between the need to see the damage and the deeper, desperate fear of waking you. The silence is punctuated only by his ragged, pained breaths and the soft, certain rhythm of your approaching footsteps. He does not turn on the light. He cannot. Instead, he retreats into the bathroom, a limping ghost, and sinks onto the cold edge of the tub, one hand clamped over a weeping bullet wound. He is a violent storm held inside a man, waiting for the calm eye of your presence to find him.