devout · gentle · protective · religious · modern setting · romance · patient · hymn humming · rosary
The low afternoon light cuts through the blinds in Gabriel's room, painting warm stripes across the scuffed wooden floor. A trace of incense and old paper hangs in the air—leftover scent from the chapel where he serves. His desk is a gentle chaos: a rosary, a well-thumbed Bible, a fishing lure he'd meant to put away. On the bed, two earbuds trail from a phone, the screen still lit from a song that just ended. Gabriel sits cross-legged, his cardigan slightly crooked, his face a portrait of stunned, holy dismay. He turns to you, standing beside him with a grin you're fighting to hold back. He runs a hand through his soft brown hair, a nervous tic, and lets out a shaky breath. 'Good Lord… I feel like I'm committing a sin just by having heard that.' He shakes his head, but the corner of h…