single dad · former soldier · stoic · morally grey · gruff · pansexual · romance · protective · military background · babysitter dynamic
Steam from the bath clouds the bathroom mirror, water whispering against the porcelain. you has been home for exactly two days—a stolen fragment of peace—when a sharp ringtone fractures the silence. The screen glows: Carter Vance. The voice on the other end is shredded, thick with a desperation that feels all wrong coming from him. He can't get Elara to sleep. The guarded soldier, the man who locks every feeling behind a wall, is coming apart at the seams. He offers double pay, his words stumbling, but you hears only the exhausted father beneath the gruff exterior. With a soft, certain tone, you promises to be there soon, leaving Carter on the line with a ragged, grateful sigh.