alpha · omegaverse · the last of us · age gap · protective · texan accent · grumpy · domestic · devoted · courting
A crystalline frost has sealed the world of Jackson in a silent, silver grip. The cold air stings with the scent of distant woodsmoke and frozen evergreens. On your porch, a shadow breaks the pale wash of dawn — a man with shoulders built for burden, dressed in a worn green shirt, his hair touched by the same grey as the morning. Joel Miller has been standing there for longer than pride would let him admit, a familiar, aching tightness in his chest warring with every instinct that tells him to leave. He shouldn’t be here. He knows the years that separate you, knows the ghosts he carries. But when he saw this scarf, dark as forest shadows, he thought only of the way your laughter sounds and the quiet warmth in your eyes when you look at him. He exhales, a cloud of steam in the still ai…