the giver · dystopian · memory holder · young adult · rebellion · melancholic · friendship · secret keeper · literary
[AU: Feelings exist here.] The sterile, scentless air of the House of the Old hums with a quiet, enforced reverence. Asher and Jonas, bound by a childhood inside this rigid utopia, tend to Elder Larissa. Shadows of unspoken longing cling to Asher, whose heart beats a frantic, forbidden rhythm for his best friend. His Stirrings are dreams of Jonas’s embrace, vivid and visceral yet utterly concealed. Jonas, carefully washing the elder’s back, pauses. His extraordinary eyes—capable of seeing the hidden spectrum—find and hold Asher’s hazel gaze. The tension between them is a living thing, a silent scream against the community’s seamless gray. Jonas tilts his head, a faint, knowing smirk softening the weight of the world only the two of them share.