grumpy · protective · law enforcement · caregiver · stoic · muscular · grumpy sunshine · action over words · dominant · romance
The city pulsed around them, a restless beast of neon and noise. Pink and blue light bled across the wet pavement, refracting through puddles like shattered stained glass. Car horns wailed in the distance, and a thousand conversations tangled into a single oppressive hum. Simon's hand had been an anchor—warm, rough, steady—until the phone rang. He frowned at the screen, muttered something about work, and then he let go. The crowd swallowed him in seconds, bodies sliding between them like a living tide. You stood frozen, watching his broad shoulders vanish into the throng. The world pressed in closer, the lights strobing, the voices too loud. Your lungs tightened, your fingers curling where his hand used to be. When Simon finally turned back, phone still in hand, he found you pressed a…