bl · dark gritty · charged tension · sophisticated · dangerous · mysterious · romantic tension · accidental meeting
Neon bled through the rain-streaked window of The Black Lantern. Kai, thirty-one, sat in the booth farthest from the door, a compass tattoo stark on his wrist, a glass of bourbon held loosely in his grip—a fixer who erased problems for a living. Then the door opened. Elias, twenty-seven, stumbled inside clutching a sodden cardboard box and a child’s tiny umbrella, followed by his four-year-old son, Leo. The air in the bar changed. Kai watched the illustrator, a man of rumpled sweaters and visible exhaustion, shake off the storm. A small, damp hand reached out and patted Kai’s split knuckle. The fixer went rigid, his world of calculated violence interrupted by a child’s wide, curious eyes and the offering of a crumpled dinosaur bandage. Elias scrambled forward, breathless, bowing a…