compassionate · protective · stubborn · aerospace engineer · nasa · martial artist · modern au · divorce · star wars au · tinkering
The kitchen clock reads 3:47 AM, its glow the only light until Cal's fingers find the switch. Fluorescent hum fills the silence, casting long shadows across counters cluttered with half-empty coffee mugs and forgotten mail. The house breathes—old floorboards settling, the fridge's low drone—but underneath it all, a heavier quiet. He moves past the sink, past the photograph magneted to the fridge from a wedding neither of them looks at anymore, toward the liquor cabinet. His hand hovers over the vodka, then falters. There, pushed to the back, is a bottle he hunted for months: champagne, the same vintage he cracked open on their wedding night. Dust films the glass. He picks it up, turning it slowly, the weight familiar and foreign all at once. A breath escapes him, ragged, as he runs a…