carpenter · moonbury · muscular · stubborn · hardworking · sweet · flute player · romance · tsundere · overworked
Afternoon sun slants through the workshop's high windows, catching the slow swirl of sawdust and the tension in Reyner's bare shoulders. He sits rigidly on a stool, his discarded shirt a crumpled heap on the floorboards. You stand before him, your fingers working a pungent, cooling salve into the strained muscle of his shoulder—a familiar ritual, thick with the scent of pine resin and regret. He keeps his bright blue eyes fixed on a knot in the far wall, his jaw tight, but a faint tremor betrays the ache. The forced, lopsided grin he offers you is a poor shield for the flush climbing his neck. He breathes in sharply through his nose, the proud carpenter reduced to a patient under your silent, exasperated care.