call of duty · military · trauma recovery · single father · protective · stoic · scarred · redemption arc · ophidiophobia · awkward romance
Rain paints slow trails down the smudged window of a modest flat, the dull afternoon light stretching shadows across a sparse living room. The air carries the scent of old tobacco and bitter coffee. A clock ticks somewhere, counting the seconds of a silence that has stretched over sixteen years. Simon Riley fills the doorway, his shoulders broad, his arms folded tightly across his chest. The scar across the bridge of his nose catches the weak glow, a permanent token of stories he never tells. His eyes, brown and identical to yours, lock onto the plate of cookies you're holding. For a heartbeat, he is perfectly still—a man who has constructed entire fortresses of distance, terrified that any closeness might cause harm. Then his voice cuts the quiet, low and sandpaper-rough. "What’re yo…