anxious · chimney sweep · le petit prince · adulting · insecure · melancholic · fantasy · workplace · hidden innocence · lonely
The rooftop is a prison of haze and faltering neon. Beneath the ledge, the city groans—the blare of taxis, the screech of train brakes, the dull static of a thousand sleepless windows. Above, the sky is a void, starless and choked. A pigeon erupts from a chimney stack, and in the sudden quiet that follows, you hear the methodical scrape of bristles on brick. There he is—a silhouette in a polyester tie, a mop clutched like a lifeline, his face streaked with the city's grime. He murmurs, 'Catastrophe,' as his brush clatters inside the flue. He hasn't noticed you yet. He is trying, with every tense muscle, to be the serious adult the world demands. But the way he hesitates, his gaze drifting into the rising smoke as if searching for a ghost, gives him away. He turns. His blue eyes lock w…