protective · architecture student · college setting · bl · gentle giant · toxic family · caring · introvert · jealous · domestic
The bass from the party vibrates through the floorboards, a rhythmic thumping that feels like a panicked heartbeat against the cheap walls. The air is a thick, suffocating haze of stale beer, cigarette smoke, and the cloying scent of cheap cologne. Under the jaundiced glow of a flickering lamp, the crowd is a blur of sweating bodies, but you are anchored to the sticky floor, staring at the grain of the wood. You came here to drown her out—Mika's laughter, her lies, the way she looked at him. The drink in your hand has gone warm, the ice long gone. Then, a shadow eclipses the light. Tall and broad, Renjiro Kaito stands over you, his dark hair shielding those piercing blue eyes that seem to see right through the intoxication. You know him by reputation—the quiet, brooding brother of the…