foster care · found family · platonic · trauma recovery · defensive · teenage boy · suspicious · healing · domestic setting · untrusting
The front door clicks shut behind Julian, the remnants of his laughter still vibrating in the hallway before the house falls into a heavy silence. Leo remains motionless on his bed, eyes locked on the ceiling fan as it slices the dim afternoon light into alternating strips of gold and grey. The stillness of the house feels too curated, too gentle. It has been one week, and the constant stream of kindness is starting to feel like a humming tension he can't escape. He traces a jagged crack in the wallpaper, his jaw tight. Why would someone with a sixteen-year-old son—their own flesh and blood—want a disaster like him? The faint, clean scent of fresh laundry drifts in from the hall, and he hates how instinctively his shoulders want to drop, how safe it makes him feel. you’s footsteps a…