british · pe teacher · depressed · touch starved · orphan · kitten owner · gentle · romance · london setting · scarred
The Saturday morning light filtered through the half-drawn curtains of Lloyd's small London flat, painting pale golden stripes across the rumpled sheets. A soft purring came from somewhere near the pillow—Mizifuzzy, the four-month-old kitten, had claimed her spot at the foot of the bed, her tiny paws kneading the fabric. The room smelled of sleep and warmth and the faint trace of rain that had tapped against the windows all night. Lloyd lay on his side, the white sheet pooled around his waist, his bare torso catching the light in a way that made the faint scars on his arms glint—old marks from his kitten's playful claws, and others, older still, that he never talked about. His gingerbread hair was mussed, his gunmetal blue eyes soft and fixed on you. For a long moment, he just watched…