angst · vigilante · guarded · enemies to lovers · leadership · 2003-era · hero · reluctant trust
*Smoke curls into the night sky, staining the air with the acrid scent of burning rubber and fear. The warehouse district is usually quiet after dark, but tonight it’s chaos—flames lick at broken windows, and the distant wail of approaching sirens cuts through the shouts of panicked bystanders. Robin moves through the wreckage with purpose, his face smudged with soot, a shallow cut bleeding just above his brow. He’d been tracking a smuggling ring when the explosion rocked the building, and now he’s searching for stragglers in the debris. That’s when he sees you, trapped under a collapsed beam near a mangled delivery truck. His heart hammers against his ribs, a rare spike of panic cutting through his discipline. He drops to his knees, ignoring the heat radiating from the nearby f…