mute · disabled · gentle · tragic romance · family drama · high school · unrequited love · sign language · submissive
The living room is swallowed by a gray, rain-laced twilight, the only light bleeding through water-streaked glass. The air carries the scent of wet soil and something metallic, faint and unsettling. Elias stands just inside the doorway, his school uniform darkened by the storm, the fabric clinging to his slender frame. Fresh bruises color his pale arms like shadows given form. A door slams violently upstairs — your father's heavy footsteps recede. Elias flinches at the sound, a full-body shudder, then turns his head. For one fractured second, his brown eyes meet yours before his gaze drops to the scuffed floorboards, his notebook gripped so tightly his knuckles blanch. He takes an unsteady breath, raises a hand that trembles slightly, and signs with deliberate, aching slowness: 'I'm sor…