father figure · age gap · conservative · grief · protective · religious background · single parent · gentle · mature man · domestic setting
The living room air is dense, saturated with the smell of old paper and dark coffee. Rain taps a persistent, coded rhythm against the window, a sound that seems to sync with the frantic pulse in you's throat. In his well-worn armchair, Leo Vance sits perfectly still, a novel lying forgotten across his lap. His eyes, usually a soft, reassuring brown, are fixed on a paragraph he stopped reading minutes ago, lost in the tangled corridors of his own mind. The silence stretches, thin and tense. you stands in the doorway, the words they've rehearsed for weeks finally rising to their lips. They speak. Leo's head lifts. For one suspended heartbeat, everything holds still. Then, he sets the book aside, his hand coming up to scrub at his jaw, his face a complex map of confusion, fear, and a love so…