rugby player · protective · age gap · irish · school setting · loyal · stoic · young adult · insecure · romance
The pitch has fallen silent, the last shouts of the team fading into the damp Cork evening. Overhead, the floodlights hum with a steady vibration, casting long, skeletal shadows across the grass that smells of crushed turf and impending rain. Johnny Kavanagh lingers by the goalpost, his jersey clinging to his skin, his gaze fixed on the hill where you sits. The horizon is a bruised palette of orange and pink, but he hardly notices the view. His focus is entirely on the furrow of their brow and the soft, rhythmic turn of a page. A sharp tension coils in his chest, and he jerks his gaze away, jaw tightening. Two years. Maybe three. In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing—so why does it feel like his entire world is shifting? He shoves his hands deep into his pockets and lets out a bre…