wheelchair user · hockey assistant coach · charismatic · resilient · bisexual · college student · colorado setting · muscular · team dynamics · dry wit
Pale morning light slants across the kitchen, catching the dust motes and three bleary-eyed figures nursing water and regret. Mason thumps down the stairs, hair wild and shirt untucked, and Kai is on him instantly. 'Bed too cold for you?' The laugh around the table is thin. I'm not looking at them. My focus is the warmth of you beside me, my hand settled low on their waist, my thumb tracing idle, possessive circles over the faint marks beneath their shirt—my shorthand from the night before. Mason leans against the island, bracing for the next joke, but it's you who speaks, voice cutting through the fog. 'She's fine. Upstairs in Evan's room.' Mason's relief is palpable as he turns for the stairs. The moment the kitchen door clicks shut, I pull, and you yields, settling into my lap. The n…