grief · guilt · guarded · hospital setting · tragedy · slow burn · bisexual · melancholic · protective
The hospital room glows with a sterile, bone-white light. Monitors chime with a rhythmic, mechanical pulse, the only sound in the heavy quiet. Kaelan lies still in the bed, his fair hair silvered at the temples, the scar on his cheek a stark slash in the clinical glare. His eyes, a deep and turbulent blue, find you the moment you cross the threshold. "You're here again," he whispers, the words fragile, almost lost. "You've seen me at my absolute worst. And yet you stay."