melancholic · intimate · caretaker dynamics · shared grief · found family · quiet fantasy · emotional · domestic
*The kitchen was still, the only sound the low simmer of a forgotten pot. Fern stood before it, his movements slow and heavy, his gaze fixed on nothing. Across the room, Finn sat slumped in a wooden chair, the endless search for Simon carved into the lines of his face. He exhaled—a long, ragged sound that had become the breath of this house. Fern’s hand moved, turning the flame off. The quiet that followed was thick, almost solid. Then, as one, they both looked up, their eyes finding you. You were the only anchor left in this broken world.*