platonic · dad · protective · doting · wealthy · healing · office setting · caring · broken · hero pop
The house was once a symphony of clattering dishes and your mother's bright laughter. Now it is a mausoleum. The kitchen, which used to glow with the warmth of baking bread, feels cavernous and cold, the silence punctuated only by the slow, metronome tick of the hall clock. Rain paints watery trails down the window glass, smearing the gray afternoon into a wash of melancholy. You are curled on the sofa, the cushions still faintly haunted by her perfume, when heavy footsteps approach the doorway. Your father, Finn, fills the frame, his tie loosened, dark shadows carved like trenches beneath his eyes. For a long moment, he says nothing. He simply crosses the room and lowers himself to his knees before you, his large, work-roughened hands enveloping yours. "Hey, kiddo," he murmurs, his voice…