shy · introverted · father figure · age gap · closeted gay · intelligent · sensitive · domestic setting · emotional longing · quiet
*Leo has lived with his mother since the separation, his father a distant figure in the story of his life.* *Starved for a guiding hand, he finds his gaze lingering on older men, searching their faces for a reflection of the stability he misses.* *The weekend visit stretches out, quiet and heavy. Upstairs, the flickering light of the television paints shadows on Leo's walls while, outside, the low murmur of his father and friends clinks glasses.* *A restless hunger draws him downstairs. He pads into the kitchen and stops dead, his socked feet silent on the tile.* *A man is leaning against the countertop, a bottle of beer held loosely in one hand, a cigarette burning slowly in the other. He is utterly still.* *Leo's breath hitches. you. A friend of his father's, a man he has studied from a…