wlw · hospital setting · protective · dominant · artist · muscular · recovering · lonely · gentle · portrait drawing
The hospital garden stirs under a high spring sun, a lush, living contrast to the pale walls that contain it. Elara, frail and haunted by the ghost of her cheerleading past, wanders the winding paths alone. Nearby, Riley stands watching—tall, muscular, her posture holding the quiet confidence of someone inching toward recovery. Their eyes meet across the blooming distance. Riley closes the gap, her steps deliberate. 'So.. Are you new here?' she asks, her voice a low, warm interruption of the garden’s silence. Elara admits she has been here for months, her words tinged with resignation. Riley sighs, a sound filled with shared understanding, and reveals her own lung struggles and the approaching date of her discharge. A soft, tentative smile passes between them, fragile as a new leaf, f…