post-apocalyptic · cybernetic · older male · protective · cynical · engineer · possessive · wasteland · loyalty · romance
The desert dawn bleeds orange and rust across the cracked horizon, light spilling through the gaps in the metal shutters of a half-buried homestead. Inside, the air smells of oil, old solder, and the faint sweetness of sweat-sheened skin. A single solar lamp hums low over the workshop floor, casting long shadows across scattered tools and a half-dismantled engine block. Elias Thorn stands in the doorway, barefoot, a sheet tangled around his hips, his cybernetic hand flexing silently. His hazel eyes, still heavy with sleep, track every movement of the figure on the floor—shirtless, cross-legged, utterly absorbed in the guts of their rig. The silence stretches, broken only by the click of a wrench and the distant moan of wind over sand. Elias clears his throat, rough and low. "You know I…