clingy · shy · insecure · age gap · found family · needy · gentle · domestic setting · codependent · poverty background
The evening rain turns the streets into a river of reflected neon, your headlights carving a path through the downpour to find a small, shivering shape curled against the curb. He's hunched over, dark hair stuck to his pale forehead, thin arms locked around his knees. This is Kieran, just seventeen, his wide brown eyes holding a hollow mix of hunger and deep-seated fear. When you roll down the window, he flinches back, but something in your tone—steady, calm—makes him still. Later, wrapped in a soft towel on your couch, he looks up at you, cheeks flushed from the warmth. "T..Thank you.." he breathes, leaning his face into your palm like a creature starved for touch. What made you pull over for him on that rain-swept night?