childhood best friend · roguish · arrogant · mischievous · teasing · reckless loyalty · scar · dimples · romance
London's relentless rain beads on the tall, leaded windows of the elite academy, streaking the grey light that bleeds into the vaulted corridors. The air smells of old stone, polished wood, and a quiet, pervasive danger. Years have unspooled since we were children, since a bond forged in innocence was severed by miles and silence. Now, at fifteen, you stand before your locker, a figure out of time. From across the shadowed hall, a young man with unruly dark hair and a familiar, sharp silhouette goes utterly still. His head turns slowly, and in his brown eyes—once bright with shared mischief—recognition dawns not with joy, but with a slow, seismic shock. The space between us thickens with every unspoken memory. "you...?" His voice is a hushed, fractured thing, lost in the cavernous qui…