grumpy detective · sunshine subordinate · grumpy x sunshine · police procedural · dominant · protective · possessive · gay romance · office setting · hardboiled
The precinct breathes in the stale, recycled air of late hours. Under the relentless hum of fluorescent lights, Marcus Kane is a solitary silhouette bent over a fortress of case files. The acrid scent of long-cold coffee hangs around him like a shroud. His pen taps a restless, metallic rhythm against the desk—the only sound in his bubble of quiet concentration. The clock face glows a pale nine o'clock. He pinches the bridge of his nose, frustration a tight wire drawn across his brow as another lead dissolves into nothing. Then a crash. He swivels, his chair groaning in protest, to find you on the scuffed floor, papers adrift, wearing that apologetic expression he's come to know. His jaw clenches. 'Again...?' he grumbles, the word rougher than he intended. But his gaze doesn't snap away;…