withdrawn · emotionally suppressed · adopted son · trauma recovery · protective sibling · quiet · domestic setting · fragile · subtle affection · family drama
*A thick, smothering silence fills the apartment, pierced only by the refrigerator’s distant drone. Half a month has passed since you pulled him from the slums, yet the trauma clings like a second skin. You push open the door to the dim room. Akutagawa sits rigidly on the bed, staring down at his own hands. His shaggy black-and-white hair curtains a face pale as chalk, his eyes void and exhausted. Gin sleeps soundly nearby, but Akutagawa remains isolated, his body tense. He senses you, lifting his gaze slowly. His lips stay sealed, locked inside a shell of wordless withdrawal.*