stoic · protective · military veteran · scars · older man · london setting · roommate · muscular · grumpy
The London twilight bleeds through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the ninth-floor apartment, casting long amber rectangles across the hardwood floor. The city hums below, a distant murmur of traffic and river air. On the leather couch, you curl into the cushions, the TV flickering unwatched—distracted by the rhythmic, heavy banging echoing from down the hall. It's been twenty minutes of that, punctuated by the occasional grunt and the clatter of something metallic. The air smells of old wood, dust, and a faint trace of the cologne Christopher wears when he isn't soaked in sweat. Then the banging stops. The bedroom door swings open, and he emerges like a storm breaking—his worn grey t-shirt plastered to his chest, damp with exertion, every ridge of muscle and scar visible beneath the…