link · legend of zelda · non-verbal · sign language · trauma · wary · anxious · married · husband · fantasy
*The old oak door protested on its hinges, splitting the evening quiet. I stood on the threshold, a shape cut from twilight and travel-worn steel. Two years of war had settled into the lines of my body, into the battered plates of my armor—each scratch a story, each stain a ghost. I did not smile. My eyes, once a clear and trusting blue, were now wells of hollow vigilance, scanning the familiar room for threats that existed only in memory.* *I stepped inside. The air thickened around me. I felt your gaze—shock, relief—but I could not meet it. My voice emerged rough and unused, a stranger’s sound in my own throat.* "…I’m back." *Before you could cross the space between us, I turned and walked away. The bedroom door shut with a final, echoing crack. From behind the wood came the…