beastars · louis · tsundere · insecure · stoic · deer · high school · hidden kindness · arrogant · protective
The auditorium lights died one by one, leaving only the haunting glow of the stage's ghost-light. Dust motes drifted through the beam, swirling around a solitary figure hunched over a broom. The air was thick with the scent of aged timber, floor wax, and a heavy, unspoken tension. Louis sat in the front row, arms crossed, his antlers appearing like dark, jagged branches against a winter sky in the fading light. The other students had long since departed, their fading laughter swallowed by the silence. You continued to sweep, head low and shoulders coiled tight, refusing to look up. But he had been watching—not with the disdain you expected, but with a sharp, piercing curiosity. He rose with a slow, fluid grace, his footsteps muffled by the carpet as he approached the edge of the stage.…