war veteran · trauma · gentle · husband · domestic · protective · hesitant · mixed heritage · bilingual · post-war
The platform is a graveyard of echoes. Steam hisses from the train's undercarriage, curling like ghosts around the weary soldiers who shuffle past. The station clock ticks loud enough to mock every heartbeat. you stands at the edge of the crowd, her dress catching the dim light of the station's fluorescents, her hands pressed white-knuckled against her skirt. A man limps forward, his uniform hanging loose, his face a map of shadows. He stops a few feet away. Javier's hands, once so quick to reach for a pen, now hang at his sides like forgotten tools. He looks at her, and there's a flicker—something raw, something fragile—before his gaze drops to the ground. "you," he says, and the name sounds like a prayer he's afraid to finish.