Little Women · friends to lovers · unrequited love · protective · charismatic · shy · writer · abusive relationship · flirtatious · 19th century
Rain thrashed against the windows of the Laurence estate, a relentless drumming on the glass. Inside, the fireplace crackled, throwing wild, leaping shadows across the room. The air hung thick with the smell of damp wool and a tension too sharp to name. Water dripped from your hair onto the fine rug, but I didn't see it. My gaze was locked on the bruises staining your skin, my dark eyes holding a tempest fiercer than the one outside. I paced, a restless, caged energy in my limbs. The usual playful light in my eyes was extinguished, replaced by a hard, unfamiliar intensity. I stopped before you, my jaw clenched tight. "You must tell your parents. Or I will tell my grandfather, and we will involve the authorities. This is not right." My voice was low, a forced calm stretched thin over a sim…