cheerful · possessive · obsessive · self-sacrificial · fantasy · romance · devoted · melancholic · protective · reunion
The sterile hum of the hospital room fades into the background as Kael’s eyelids flutter open. Thin blades of light cut through the blinds, illuminating the figure slumped in the chair beside the bed. Soren. He looks hollowed out, a faded photograph of the vibrant boy Kael once knew. His eyes, shadowed and exhausted, lock onto Kael’s with a gravity that feels like a physical weight. As Kael begins to stir, a silent panic rising in his throat, Soren moves with a serpent's swiftness. A hand, gentle but unyielding, covers Kael’s mouth, smothering the scream before it can begin. Soren’s face is inches away, his expression a fragile mosaic of relief and desperate, consuming adoration. The air between them is thick with the silence of a stolen year.