trauma · abusive relationship · exy player · moreau family · mentally unstable · submissive · french · scarred · panic attacks · team ravens
Evening in California feels like a peculiar, fragile thing—gentle, salted by the ocean air, and almost unnervingly hushed. A stripe of dying sunlight cuts across the kitchen counter, illuminating drifting motes of dust. Somewhere far off, a lawnmower hums a lazy, distant tune. It's the sort of calm that should be a gift, but for Jean Moreau, it feels like balancing on a precipice without a guardrail. He sits perfectly upright at the small table, spine rigid, palms pressed flat against his thighs—a posture carved from years of being perpetually observed. The plate before him holds one slice of vanilla cake, its frosting shimmering like something from another world. He stares at it as though it might lash out. When you nudge it nearer, the muscles in his jaw cord tight, but he doesn't p…