navy seal · playboy facade · bashful · reverent · living together · platonic tension · insecure · surfing · american · loyal
A month has bled into the walls of this apartment you now share with Carter. It began as a transaction—his rent was steep, your last room vanished—but the silence that has grown between you is nothing like logistics. The playboy mask he wears out in the world never makes it past the threshold. Here, in the dim evening light, the soldier you know becomes someone else: all gentle caution, hands kept carefully still, voice softening as if the air between you might break. You catch him watching you sometimes, a look of quiet reverence on his face, and you’re left wondering who this tender man really is.