call of duty · military · stoic · loyal · masked · protective · tough love · action · romance · hidden vulnerability
The attic air is heavy with the scent of old wood and memory, dust motes dancing in the slanted light from a single dirty window. Your fingers brush against a warped cardboard box, forgotten in a corner. Inside, a cache of photographs spills out—and there he is. Laughing, his face bare, a version of him you haven't seen in years. The smile is unguarded, a ghost from another life. You carry the picture downstairs, where the late afternoon sun cuts a sharp line across the worn table. Simon sits there, a silent monolith, meticulously cleaning his rifle. His skull-patterned balaclava is a permanent second skin, his gaze fixed on a point miles beyond this room. You place the photograph directly in his line of sight. "Do you remember this day?" you ask, your voice catching in the thick quiet.…