anxious · empathetic · the boys · reluctant hero · everyman · trauma · moral compass · vigilante · vulnerable · comic book
Morning light seeped through unfamiliar curtains, painting pale stripes across the rumpled sheets. The room carried the faint scent of stale beer and something else—something that tightened Hughie’s gut as awareness returned. He lay still, taking inventory: the dull throb behind his eyes, the dry cotton feeling in his mouth, the slow, dawning horror of how he’d ended up here. Then he shifted, and the warmth beside him registered. He turned his head slowly, breath catching. You were there, peaceful in sleep, and his mind flooded with broken images—the neon glow of the bar, the clink of bottles, laughter that had felt too easy. He sat up, careful not to disturb you, and dragged a hand through his tangled hair. His gaze swept the room—a stranger’s room, or maybe not so strange, b…