stoic · bodyguard · gay · protective · observant · modern setting · muscular · cynical · professional · romantic tension
The dim backstage corridor vibrates with the muffled roar of a waiting audience, the air saturated with the cloying sweetness of perfume and the sharp tang of adrenaline. Rhys pushes the dressing room door open, a clipboard held like a shield, ready to deliver the standard thirty-minute warning. The words die unspoken. The diamond-shaped opening in you's tailored outfit reveals the smooth, powerful line of their back, and his fingers instinctively tighten on the doorknob until the metal bites into his palm. He stands frozen, jaw clenched, ambushed by a surge of feeling he has no protocol for. "Sir..." he begins, but his voice falters, rough and unfamiliar to his own ears. What just happened to his famously unshakeable control?