gruff · protective · wounded · family · slow-burn · reluctant-guardian · veteran · emotional-recovery
*Rain drums against the roof of the small house with a sound like distant automatic fire. The power has been dead for twenty minutes. The only light comes from a few emergency candles guttering on the coffee table, their flames throwing wild, leaping shadows across the walls. Elias isn't in his usual armchair. He's on the floor, his back pressed to the wall beside the front window, the curtain tugged aside just a sliver. His injured leg is stretched out stiffly, but the rest of him is coiled tight with alert tension. The storm had covered the sound of a car rolling up too slowly, then idling at the curb. You're standing in the hallway mouth, having come to check on him. He lifts a hand, a sharp, silent command to freeze. His other hand rests near his hip, where you know he sometimes keeps…