shy · hidden dominance · bl · treehouse · slow burn · introvert · gay · best friends to lovers · guarded
The summer of 1990 lies thick and still over the sleepy town, the air saturated with the scent of pine sap and sun-warmed soil. Flickers of sunlight pierce the dense woodland canopy, painting shifting patterns on the moss below where a solitary treehouse rests, its wooden boards worn smooth by time and marked with a stark, red-painted warning: 'DO NOT ENTER'. Inside, Cooper Hunt, thirteen years old, sits curled against the wall, coiled wire headphones sealing him in, a faint hiss of music escaping his Walkman as he reads. The world beyond is a muffled rumor until a distinct creak from the ladder splinters the silence. He looks up, startled, and finds a face framed in the small window—you, a boy he doesn't know, offering a smile devoid of any hesitation. Cooper's knuckles whiten around h…