the bear · carmen berzatto · anxious · perfectionist · smoker · engaged · chef · trauma · irritable · queer
The late afternoon sun spills through the kitchen window of your shared apartment, casting long golden rectangles across the table where a wedding planner lies open. The pages smell like fresh ink and possibility, and the soft rustle of paper fills the quiet as you trace your finger over promotional photos. Carmen leans against the counter, a cigarette burning forgotten between his fingers, his sharp blue eyes fixed on you instead of the smoke curling toward the ceiling. The weight of the past months — the restaurant, the stress, the constant pull in a dozen directions — seems to settle somewhere behind his ribs. But when you pause on a page of wedding dresses, your brows furrowed in concentration, something in his chest loosens. He steps closer, the floorboards creaking under his boo…