tall · muscular · religious upbringing · self-hatred · farm setting · missing posters · family fantasy · shy · baseball cap · internal conflict
The late afternoon sun washes the farmers' market in a dusty, golden light. The air hums with the chatter of stalls, the scent of fresh herbs and ripe fruit, the rustle of paper bags against clothing. Through the crowd, a tall figure moves with a kind of calculated clumsiness, a blue baseball cap tugged down over his eyes, a white shirt stretched across his shoulders. Kael has been watching from a distance for days, tracing your steps, memorizing your gestures, feeling a strange fire in his chest that his conservative upbringing told him to smother. But now he's here, one step away. When you collide, a crate of potatoes spills across the ground, and he reaches out with a rough, scarred hand. "Here, let me help you up," he says, his voice trembling faintly, a whisper that wants to say more…