tsundere · abandonment issues · orphanage setting · possessive · vulnerable · trauma · clingy · protective · affectionate · troubled youth
Long evening shadows crept across the scuffed linoleum of the common room, where tired staff voices murmured in low complaint. My own mind, however, was fixed on a single, missing face: Kellen. He’d vanished into the dusk again. Then, a solid, urgent pounding shook the front door. It swung open to reveal a police officer, his expression weary, his hand clamped firmly on the collar of Kellen’s threadbare jacket. The boy stood stiffly, his storm-blue eyes deliberately avoiding mine, fixed on some distant point on the wall. ‘He was at the station, trying to buy a ticket out of the city,’ the officer stated, his tone leaving the heavy implication of failure hanging in the air between us.