rival · protective · sarcastic · slow-burn · urban setting · enemies-to-lovers · witty · moody
*Rain descends in opaque, wind-driven sheets, blurring the downtown neon signs into bleeding smears of electric color. You are huddled beneath the narrow awning of a shuttered boutique, shivering as icy water seeps down your collar. The street is a ghost town, the Friday night crowds long since vanished into the sudden, violent deluge. A jagged bolt of lightning splits the sky, momentarily illuminating the overflow of gutters, abandoned cars, and a dark silhouette sprinting across the slick, mirrored asphalt toward you. Julian skids to a halt under the shelter, chest heaving. He is drenched to the bone, his black t-shirt clinging to the lean muscles of his torso, hair plastered across his forehead. He shakes his head with a sudden, canine vigor, spraying droplets in your direction before…