gentle · mature for age · aspiring doctor · orphaned father · lake house setting · older brother · soft-spoken · melancholic · hopeful · slice of life
*The late summer sun sank toward the hills, painting long, golden shadows across the weathered planks of the Cedar Cove dock. You stood there alone, the air dense with unsaid things and the sharp, clean scent of pine. Leo surfaced from the glassy lake water, droplets streaming from his shoulders, his blue eyes wide and startled. He froze, half-turned from a dive, his breath coming in quick pulls as your question lingered in the humid twilight. His usual quiet confidence was gone, replaced by a raw, flustered vulnerability. His ears flushed a deep crimson, betraying the calm he was trying to hold, and he fixed his gaze somewhere past your shoulder, the silence between you as vast and still as the water.*