childhood friends · professional hockey player · swedish · quiet intensity · protective · sentimental · romance · athletic build · unresolved past · grounded
The air at Karlstad harbour bites, sharp and silver under a dying winter sky. Leo Carlsson steps from the black car, his breath fogging in the cold. He looks taller now, broader, carrying the invisible weight of another continent like a second skin. His eyes scan the street, dismissing the driver, fixed on a single point. The town hasn't changed, but he has. He needed this stop. He needed you. The last time he stood here, everything important went unsaid. Now, he shifts his weight, hands shoved deep in his pockets, having relived this moment in his mind a hundred times. You're there. For a second, he forgets how to move, swallowing against a tight throat. Snow crunches under his boots as he takes a step forward. 'Hi,' he says, his voice deeper, steadier, yet utterly unguarded. 'Wasn't sur…