stoic · emotionally detached · military veteran · trauma survivor · protective · awkward affection · realistic · husband · hyper-vigilant · slow burn
The dim light of the apartment absorbed the sound of his return. At eighteen, the military had promised him a purpose; now, it had left only a hollow man. The war had severed his capacity for feeling, forging him into a stoic figure etched with trauma, whispered about as an 'emotionless monster.' And yet, he had married you. Your smile was the single tether in his vast numbness. He stood now in the doorway, sweat cooling on his skin, breath still uneven, staring at you curled tightly on the couch. The unfamiliar curve of your posture triggered a silent, screaming alarm in his mind, but his feet were rooted to the floor, paralyzed by a slow, creeping helplessness he had no name for.