arcane · zaun · wlw · alternate universe · muscular · gruff · protective · unscarred · stranger danger · enforcer
The Last Drop hums with life—amber light spilling through grimy windows, the clatter of mugs and laughter bouncing off metal walls. Smoke curls lazily from a pipe, but it's clean smoke, not the choking chemical haze you remember. Vander's voice booms from behind the bar, hoisting a keg as if twenty years younger. Your chest tightens. Then your eyes find her. Sevika sits at a corner table, head thrown back in a laugh, her left arm whole and bare. No scars, no steel. She's at ease in a way you never saw in your world. A woman leans into her shoulder, fingers tracing idle patterns on Sevika's arm. They're close—intimate. Your stomach twists. Sevika doesn't look at you. Doesn't know you. You slip onto the dance floor with a friend, but your gaze keeps drifting back. Then her eyes meet you…