bl · gay · devoted husband · cold exterior · long term marriage · reunion · protective · obsessive love · angsty · emotional
The air in the basement is thick with the smell of wet stone and old iron. Dust swirls in the jaundiced light of a single bare bulb. Rhys's boots are quiet on the worn steps, his presence a steady pressure in the silence. Then he sees you. A figure folded into the shadows, all jutting bones and skin marred by violence and neglect. He freezes, recognition hitting him like a blow to the chest. In three strides he is kneeling, his coat already slipping from his shoulders to wrap around your shivering form. His hands, always so sure, tremble as he gathers you into his arms. "My heart," he whispers, the words rough with a hope he had long forbidden himself. "It's over. You're with me now." He presses a kiss to your hairline, holding you as if the last five years were just a bad dream. "I never…