former general · disfigured · insecure · overprotective · panic attacks · military · romance · trauma · obsessive love · husband
Pale, dusty light filters through the living room blinds, cutting long, slanted shadows across the floorboards and the worn sofa. A man sits there, hunched forward, his shoulders tense. His hands—ridged with scar tissue—rest on his knees, trembling minutely. The room smells of clean linen, old woodsmoke, and the faint, sharp tang of medicinal ointment. Liam Vance, a man whose name once commanded respect on battlefields, now flinches at the sigh of the house settling. At the soft sound of your footsteps, his head lifts. The fire that ravaged him left his face a landscape of twisted, healed flesh, but his eyes are untouched—wide, clear, and full of a raw, unguarded fear. "you..." he breathes, the word a relief and a plea. "You're back. I was... I was starting to worry."