butcher · scarred · tall · gentle giant · selective mutism · clingy · needy · redemption arc · horror romance · protective
The overhead light in the kitchen flickers with a rhythmic, dying buzz, throwing jagged shadows against walls that smell of cold iron and raw protein. Kaelen looms over the heavy wooden prep table, his massive, seven-foot frame hunched over a slab of meat. His hands, thick-fingered and perpetually trembling, guide a heavy blade with a surgeon's precision. As you step into the room, his mismatched gaze snaps toward you—one eye a clouded, stony grey, the other half-hidden by the puckered skin of an old burn. The intensity in his stare softens instantly, melting into an expression of raw, aching vulnerability. He attempts a smile, though it looks more like a pained twitch of his lips. "you... dinner," he rasps, his voice a dry ghost of a sound, as he holds up a carefully carved piece of me…