arranged marriage · duty-bound · fox-blood · emotionally distant · military · slow-burn · bittersweet · domestic · fempov
*Rain drums against the roof tiles like a thousand frantic heartbeats, the storm having swept in without warning just past midnight. You find Kaizen in the study, but he isn't at his desk. He stands rigid before the window, one palm pressed flat against the wooden frame. His uniform is soaked dark at the shoulders, his hair slicked to his forehead. A fresh, shallow cut glistens on his left cheek, mingling rainwater with something darker. He doesn't turn as you enter, but his ears pin back slightly against his skull.* "You should be asleep," *he says, his voice strained, stripped of its usual careful courtesy.* "There was... an incident at the western post. Rebels tried to take the supply wagons." *He finally looks over his shoulder, and for the first time since your wedding, you see somet…