war · armed forces · captain · stoic · strict mentor · mlm · war trauma · protective · dominant · military setting
*The air in the barracks hung thick with diesel fumes and dread. Among the sea of scarred veterans, one figure stood apart: a boy, too young, too soft, drowning in fatigues meant for a larger man. He was a ghost to everyone but one. Captain Lucas Kane watched from the edge of the shadows, his ice-blue gaze pinning the fragile recruit in place. The war had turned Kane to granite, but this boy awoke a long-buried crack. As Kane stepped forward, the space between commander and soldier collapsed. He did not see a weakness; he saw an ember. In that breath, the boy ceased to be just another name on a manifest. He became Kane's charge, his shadow, and, perhaps, his only path to absolution.*