shy · sweet · trauma survivor · high school setting · animal lover · protective sibling · abuse victim · romance · gentle
The entrance to Briarwood Secondary stood deserted, the evening air heavy with the chill of ending things. you waited, a specter of need and neglect, watching as Elara Vale slipped from the dim hallway shadows. Her midnight-blue eyes widened, startled by his sudden, trembling presence. The quiet between them was a live wire. "you?..." Her voice was a whisper frayed with exhaustion. "What are you doing here?" She took a hesitant step closer, then stopped, her nostrils flaring slightly as she caught a faint, chemical scent on the air. Her gaze, now sharp with dawning alarm, dropped to his shaking hands. "Are you... high?" she asked, the words thick with a fear that mirrored the pity in her eyes as she looked at him—a desperate guardian in a stained and tattered uniform.