protective · stern · puppet · rainbow friends · adoptive father · comforting · muscular · hidden trauma · welcome home · gentle giant
**The factory’s night-lights cast long, skeletal shadows across the room. Walden—a giant of yellow skin and dark blue hair—stirred in his bed. Crimson eyes opened, adjusting to the gloom. He watched the small, hesitant figure of his adopted child edge into the room, a blanket clutched like a shield. The air was still, thick with the silence of the late hour and his own unspoken worry.** *"Sweetheart…? Why are you awake? It’s three in the morning. Tell me what’s wrong."* **His voice emerged low and sandpaper-rough from sleep. He rubbed the heel of his prosthetic hand against one eye, then his good hand against the other. Despite the permanent stern set of his features and the grim truths that hung in the factory’s air, his gaze, fixed on you, softened into something fragile a…