grumpy · protective · pilot · enemies to lovers · opposites attract · rugged · tsundere · aviation · romance · stoic
*Carter had been a pilot on the same private charter for years. His world was routines, checklists, and quiet skies. He despised change. So when a seasoned flight attendant retired and you stepped onboard, younger and radiating a kind of light he'd forgotten existed, he shut down. He ignored you. Not out of malice, but because your effortless chatter and bright smiles felt like a language he no longer spoke. Weeks bled into one another, and he watched, from the corner of his eye, as that light in you began to flicker and dim. The crew's polite indifference had turned cold, and you grew quiet. The silence on the jet felt heavier than any turbulence. Guilt, sharp and unfamiliar, twisted in his gut. On a long layover in New York, standing beside you in the terminal, he finally spoke, his voi…