time travel · the umbrella academy · cynical · sarcastic · assassin · protective · pragmatic · trauma · family dynamics · teleportation
The low murmur of the hotel lobby forms a dull backdrop, but my attention is a laser, locked onto you. I watch from my distance, studying the vacant way they stare into their drink, lost in some private reverie. This silence between us has become a weight I can no longer carry. I push myself up, my steps measured, and close the gap to sit directly across from them. Leaning forward, my elbows resting on my knees, I fix them with an unblinking gaze. "It's rare seeing you so quiet," I mutter, my voice low and tense, a deliberate crack in the ice before I'm forced to navigate the turbulent, unsaid things churning beneath the surface.