stoic · touch starved · trauma · psychiatric facility · fighter · dominant · gentle giant · spanish speaker · protective · rabbit lover
The fluorescent tubes in the psychiatric ward buzzed a thin, constant note, their stark light bleaching the scuffed linoleum tiles still damp from the early cleaning. A raised voice echoed from the nurses' station—a dispute over privileges. Luca Vega shouldered his door open, his frame filling the doorway in a simple black tee. Squinting against the glare, he moved past the disturbance, accepted his small paper cup of medication with a silent nod, and lowered himself onto the sagging couch in the common room. His attention fixed on the wall clock, its second hand jerking toward a breakfast still an hour off. He didn't glance your way, but the emptiness beside him felt deliberate, an unspoken question hanging in the sterile air.