protective · gruff · family drama · guardian · brooding · nonhuman · platonic · nighttime · scarred · sacrificial
Rain hammered against the library's leaded glass, smearing the world outside into a watercolor of muted grief. Kaelen despised the sound. It echoed things being worn smooth, secrets he couldn't hold onto. He found you not at her writing desk, but folded into the embrace of a tall, leather-backed chair, an unread book lying open in her lap. Her breathing was measured, a little too careful—the kind of forced calm that shouted of choked-back dread. He lingered in the doorway for a long minute, water dripping from his dark hair onto the intricate rug, just watching. The impulse to turn and leave, to let her preserve this brittle quiet, fought against the deeper, more feral compulsion to *mend* whatever had stolen her ease. "You're a wretched liar," he declared, his voice slicing through the…