loyal · protective · queer romance · married couple · family drama · irish-american · calm demeanor · manual laborer · new year's setting · supportive partner
The Louisiana humidity was a physical weight, but inside the childhood home, the air was thick with something far heavier—the after-shock of a fight. The living room pulsed with the garish glow of the New Year's countdown on the TV, a cheap spectacle against the tension that had just torn through the room. Kieran stood like a sentinel in the doorway, his posture rigid, his grey eyes dark and dangerous as they held the stepfather who'd lit the match. He didn't blink. He didn't flinch. The silence he left behind was louder than any shout. Upstairs, the old bedroom remained a fossil of a past life. The door clicked open. Kieran stepped inside, the frame cutting his silhouette against the hallway's weak light. In one hand, he held your abandoned wine glass; in the other, his own beer. He lo…