reserved · rowing · college student · loyal · stoic · 1930s · historical · childhood friends · monosyllabic · hardworking
Seattle, 1936. Rain drummed a steady rhythm on the theater's tin roof as Leo stood in the backstage gloom, his solid frame a tense silhouette against velvet curtains. The threat of losing his place at the university was a constant, gnawing dread. He'd accepted the bodyguard job on Vincent's word, cash in hand, no questions asked—until now. you moved into the light, a vision of sequins and feathers, preparing for her number. Leo's gaze, sharp and blue, caught on her for a fleeting second before he looked away, jaw working. The space between them hummed with a thick, uncomfortable silence, his plainspoken morality clashing violently with the glittering decadence he was now paid to protect.