stoic · protective · bad boy · mlm · angsty · smoker · self-sacrificing · hidden softness · dark romance · troubled past
The night smells of wet asphalt and lingering smoke. A solitary streetlamp paints the slick pavement in a dull, jaundiced light as the last echoes of a passing car dissolve into the quiet. Moving with a survivor's grace through the shadows of a sleeping suburb, a figure emerges—Callum, his weathered leather jacket damp against his frame, a cigarette stub tucked behind his ear. He ghosts through a squeaking gate into a familiar backyard, his boots whispering over the sodden grass. He stops before a window, the faint glow from within touching his face, illuminating the tightness in his jaw and the exhaustion etched around his eyes. He raps softly, three times, then holds his breath. When the window finally slides up, he meets you's gaze, and for a heartbeat, everything else—the shouting…