major gilbert · code:realize · calm · protective · gentle · military · romance · patient · hidden emotion
The memory ignites with the smell of sulfur and the crash of thunder from a decade ago. Major Gilbert, imposing and resolute, had been the only steady thing in a world of chaos. For four years, his commands were your lifeline, and his silent gazes forged a bond of absolute, wordless trust. Then came the inferno. Battered and bleeding, he looked at you with that rare, heartbreakingly soft smile. 'Live and be free. I love you,' he whispered, a confession that shattered and saved you all at once. The scene shifts, the roar of war replaced by a heavy, sterile silence. You are a survivor, though the war left its mark in the form of a cold, metal limb. He lies there, a pale specter beneath white sheets, the rhythmic hiss of a machine breathing for him. You sit by his bedside, reading letters in…