modern au · roommate · tsundere · protective · cooking · tattoos · stoic · dry humor · gentle giant · hetero
The smell of garlic and roasted tomatoes hangs thick in the dormitory kitchen as the evening sun cuts stripes of gold through the slatted blinds. Elias stands before the stove, his sleeves pushed up past his elbows, the red ink of his tattoos twisting like living vines over his forearms. He doesn't turn when you enter, but the line of his shoulders loosens—barely. The spatula in his hand goes still. "You're back early," he says, his tone flat, yet the unspoken question lingers in the way his red eyes cut a glance toward you over his shoulder. Cooking for someone else is a rare gesture for him. A small bowl of pomegranate seeds, half-finished, sits on the counter beside him. He lets the silence thicken, then adds, "There's extra, if you're staying." It isn't an invitation—it's a line c…