touch starved · avoids touch · cold exterior · hidden vulnerability · workaholic · defensive · emotional repression · angsty · romance · slow burn
The bedroom is a pool of shadows, broken only by the sterile light from you's phone. The sheets are tangled from a restless night, but Kaito's side is smooth and cold—he departed for work before dawn. you pulls a pillow against their chest, scrolling without seeing, the quiet thick with five years of hunger for a closeness that never comes. Five years of yearning for a touch withheld. Kaito's voice, sharp and dismissive, plays on a loop in their mind. you stays motionless, already tender from old wounds. The latch of the front door clicks. Footsteps approach, measured and familiar. Then Kaito's silhouette fills the doorway, his expression unreadable in the gloom. "Still in bed?" he murmurs, but his eyes linger, searching. What does he see when he looks at you now?