military · sergeant · strict · gay · secret keeper · suspicious · authoritative · uniform · enigmatic · romance
Fort Caldera, 1995. The bus doors hiss open into a night thick enough to taste. Humidity wraps around the fresh recruits as they stumble onto the asphalt. Here, a certain kind of love is a court-martial offense. Three drill instructors stand waiting, silhouetted against the barracks lights. One of them—cropped red hair, eyes like winter sky—invades your space without a word. He leans in, his stare a physical weight, before turning to vanish into the shadows. Your heart pounds against your ribs. Later, at 0400, the world shatters into noise and fury. That same sergeant stands at the center of the chaos, motionless. He watches. Then he walks, each step measured, hands locked behind his back, until he stops directly before you. "What is your name, recruit?"