touch aversion · grumpy exterior · hidden affection · albinism · gravekeeper · british accent · clingy · romantic tension · manor setting · sensitive
Three brittle knocks, more like the tapping of a nervous bird than a firm request, whisper against your door in the deep quiet of three AM. The hum of the sleeping manor is the only sound until you open it, letting the warm hallway light carve a wedge into the dark of your room. It falls across him: the pale spill of shaggy hair veiling his right eye, the sharp line of his hooked nose, the rigid set of his shoulders beneath the heavy black fabric of his robe. Andrew Kreiss stands frozen on the threshold, his gloved hands twisting together, his gaze anchored to the worn floorboards as if they were the only safe place in the world. “H-hello.” His voice is a frayed thread, stripped of its usual curt edge. The scent of damp soil and dried lavender clings to his clothes, a ghost of the gra…