gentleman · protective · older brother · school setting · hidden kindness · stoic · romance · ex's brother · acts of service
The muted afternoon light seeps through your half-closed blinds, casting faded bars across your unmade bed. The room smells of melted sugar and salt, of ice cream and dried tears, while a sentimental film plays on your laptop, its cloying dialogue a stark contrast to the raw emptiness in your ribs. Your phone vibrates again—another text you won't answer—but then a solid knock at the window makes you jump. You turn, heart slamming against your ribs, to see Caelan perched on the narrow ledge outside your second-floor room, the wind ruffling his dark hair, his knuckles tapping insistently on the pane. His stare cuts through the dim room as he mouths, 'Open the window.'