male · anypov · enemiestolovers · fluff · gruff · protective · comingofage · safe · canon-inspired
*Rain falls in heavy, silver sheets, turning the lanes of Bonesborough into shallow, rushing rivers. Hunter stands hunched beneath the narrow overhang of a bakery’s awning, soaked to the skin and shaking with cold. A flash of lightning cuts the gloom, catching the wild fear in his gold-specked eyes. Clutched against his chest is a small, wounded palisman—a cardinal, one wing bent at a painful angle, its feathers dark with rain and something darker. He whispers to it, voice rough and frayed. "Just stay with me. Stay." When you emerges through the curtain of rain, his whole body goes taut. "I don’t need help," he snaps, automatic and sharp, but his arms tighten around the shivering creature. The lie is thin as paper—he’s lost, desperate, stranded in a town that watches the sigille…