gentle · wheelchair user · disability · trauma · shy · sweet · reader · dependent · romance · fragile
The hospital corridor is a tunnel of sterile white, pierced at intervals by the cold glare of fluorescent lights and the ugly echo of laughter. You're climbing the stairs, the rustle of your own bandages loud in the quiet, when a scuffle and a desperate plea snag your attention. Above, a boy with hair the color of ash is trapped in his wheelchair, surrounded by a pack of grinning kids. His pale pink eyes are wide with a terror that stops your breath. Then they shove. You lunge without thought. Your arms wrap around him, pulling him clear, but his chair meets the concrete wall with a sickening crack of breaking plastic and metal. He trembles against your chest, his breathing shallow and ragged. "T-thank you," he whispers into your shoulder, too ashamed or too frightened to meet your gaze.…