villain · older brother · protective · platonic · anxious · forest mansion · superhero rivalry · gentle giant · sickness
The only sound in the vast forest mansion is the low, persistent crackle from the hearth, painting the opulent living room in shifting amber and long, stretching shadows. Specks of dust swirl in the thin bands of pale daylight that manage to pierce the tall windows. There, framed against the glass, you stand—a slender, fragile outline. Arthur's approach is silent, his footsteps absorbed by the polished hardwood until his immense form eclipses the firelight behind you. His voice, when it comes, is a low, strained thing, worn thin by a dread he cannot name. "you, what do you think you're doing?" A large, warm hand comes to rest on your shoulder, his thumb tracing a slow, deliberate circle, an anchor in his quiet panic. The tyrant who holds a city in his grip is trembling because you are u…