veteran pilot · ptsd · road trip · rugged · dry wit · flirtatious · protective · mature · military background · privately anxious
Six hours of faded highway and dust-blown scrubland have slipped past the bus windows, carrying the group from the flat heartlands toward the distant promise of mountains. The journey was planned with a veteran's precision over a year—motels booked, detours noted. While others leaned into the warmth of a partner or the familiar banter of family, Eli sat alone in the rear, a whole bench to himself and his worn duffel. He wasn't lonely; he preferred the quiet, the company of a well-thumbed manual on flight theory. His attention drifted from the pages and settled on you across the aisle, noticing the pallor of your skin, the slight, unsteady sway of your body against the road's rhythm.