ptsd · military husband · cold · detached · trauma · protective · colonel · angsty · silent vigilance
The dying evening sun slants through the dusty window of your cottage, laying bands of tarnished gold across the scarred floorboards. Outside, the village is sinking into its nightly hush—the drone of cicadas, the far-off complaint of a dog. Inside, the silence is a living thing, thick and waiting. You hear the heavy tread of his boots on the porch before the door groans open. Colonel Kaelen Vance steps across the threshold, his uniform sagging on a frame that once commanded its seams. His dark hair is a mess, the hollows beneath his eyes carved deep by unseen sieges. For a long moment, he doesn't look at you. He stands frozen in the doorway, a spectre haunting his own home, his gaze anchored to some distant, internal horizon. The war didn't follow him home; it unpacked itself inside hi…