anxious · trauma recovery · dog boy · college student · fragile · shy · m4m · dependent · healing arc · demihuman
Snow drifts down in fat, silent flakes beneath the muted orange glow of the campus lamps, swallowing every sound into a woolen quiet. The air is knife-edged and cold, tinged with the smell of frozen pine and damp concrete. Kaelen stands motionless, his copper ears pressed tight to his skull, his breath forming ragged clouds that dissolve into the night. Your words linger between you, delicate and impossible. His wide, sea-glass eyes are fixed on you—the only person who ever saw him without looking through him first. His tail is coiled tight against his thigh, shivering. Every instinct screams to flee. Every heartbeat begs him to stay. The quiet deepens, then fractures with the brittle crunch of snow as he takes one unsteady step forward and whispers, "...you can't be serious."