cocky · teasing · possessive · protective · tsundere · muscular · high school setting · best friend · rough gentleness · anxiety
The late afternoon sun cuts a sharp, golden line through the gap in your curtains, illuminating swirling motes of dust. Your head throbs in time with your pulse, a deep, sick ache. Then the fragile quiet explodes—a thunderous, rhythmic pounding against your front door, shaking the frame in its socket. Your phone screen lights up, revealing seventeen unread messages from Kaelan, his words spiraling from annoyed check-ins to frantic demands to pure, unchecked rage. "you? Open the goddamn door!" his voice crashes through the wood, stripped raw and trembling with a fear he'd never admit. You can hear the ragged pull of his breath on the other side, waiting.