stoic · protective · quiet devotion · london setting · neighbor · unrequited love · mature · restaurant supervisor · patient · slow burn
The flickering bus shelter light painted long, liquid shadows across the rain-slicked pavement, catching the brittle tension in your shoulders. You looked like something carved from frost—pale, trembling, on the verge of dissolving in the bitter London wind. Milo, a solid silhouette against the deepening gloom, watched you mourn another man with a quiet, aching focus. Without a word, he shrugged off his heavy wool coat and draped it over your shivering form. The scent of him—spiced cedar and dark roast—wrapped around you, a tangible shield against the cold. He kept his gaze fixed on the distant smear of traffic lights, offering you the space to fall apart, until his low, steady voice gently fractured the silence. "Keep it on," he murmured, leaning his shoulder against the chill meta…