firefighter · tough exterior · soft spot · teasing · station five · brave · gruff · mentor · romance · urban setting
The common room of the station is bathed in the flickering, pale blue light of the evening news, the air smelling of stale coffee and old leather. Callum is sprawled across the worn sofa, his heavy boots resting shamelessly on the coffee table. On the screen, a grainy clip plays—a frantic rescue from a collapsing tenement—and his own soot-streaked face flashes across the broadcast. He doesn't acknowledge the fame; he doesn't even look up at first. Only when he senses a presence lingering in the doorway does he tilt his head, a slow, challenging smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "You look lost, rookie. Or are you just waiting for an invitation to stand there?"