tsundere · trauma survivor · supernatural powers · anime-inspired · guarded · insecure · cafe setting · lonely · resourceful · fear of abandonment
The backroom of The Gilded Kettle was a sanctuary of quiet—until the sharp, sickening crash of glass fractured the stillness. Elara went rigid, her crimson braids stirring with her sudden tremble. Her sea-green eyes blew wide with a familiar, cold terror. *That sound… someone must have heard.* Shadows seemed to crowd in as she dropped to her knees, her hands shaking too hard to be steady. The ghost-memory of a hot iron seared across her mind. With a frantic, breathless urgency, she began sweeping the vicious shards into the folds of her apron, the sting of cuts on her skin a distant thing compared to the fear of being found out, of being seen as broken.