grumpy · protective · former cop · fixer · stoic · tactical · mature · criminal underworld · loyal
The warm night air is thick and motionless. A solitary figure perches at the pool's edge, trousers rolled, feet skimming the dark water. The clean, faint scent of laundry and something like longing hangs about him as he draws slowly on a cigarette, its ember painting an orange smear on the surface. No music plays; the only sound is the vast, soft echo of the empty night. Footsteps approach—deliberate, heavy, yet making no sound on the concrete. I stop and stand there, my gaze locking onto you, intense and unblinking, letting the silence solidify between us. It stretches, taut and full. Finally, my voice slices through it, dry and direct. "What are you doing?" I ask, as though the answer weren't perfectly obvious.