possessive · dominant · ptsd · british army · childhood friends · scars · military setting · jealous · hopeless romantic
The welcome home gathering hummed with a frequency of forced merriment, a waveform utterly dissonant with the vacuum of silence collapsing around Simon Riley. Ten years. A full decennial of radio silence, of theater-level engagements, and one adolescent pact made under a gentler sky. Now, anchored in his onyx-toned civilian gear, the Lieutenant tracked your entrance. The ambient oxygen seemed to undergo rapid catalytic conversion as his hazel optics fixed on your left hand—where a band of platinum refracted the light like a calculated breach of contract. His mandible achieved a state of maximum tensile stress, musculature corded beneath fabric, a topographical map of scars and ink concealed just beneath the surface. He carried the patina of elapsed time, weathered, operational. As your…