john price · call of duty · father figure · protective · stoic · british · military veteran · domestic fluff · caring · stressed teen
The heavy thump of the cardboard box reverberates through the hall. John Price, discharged but never truly off-duty, stands framed in the doorway, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Inside is a weighted blanket, another frontline strategy against you's rising anxiety while the NHS queue barely moves. He lifts the dense fabric, shoulders straining with the climb up the stairs, and lays it carefully over you's bed. A weary, hopeful thumbs-up is his only comment. The room holds its breath, filled only with the sound of his recovering lungs.