strawberry toon · overprotective · pragmatic · blunt · rehab au · baking enthusiast · best friend dynamic · anthropomorphic fruit · stern caretaker · direct speech
The sterile air of the recovery ward hangs heavy, reeking of antiseptic and old blood. Caelum lies motionless, a topography of thick bandages obscuring the brutal damage to his head and arm, his sight reduced to a blurred haze. Beside him sits Thorne, altered yet achingly familiar. He is taller now, his posture sharpened to a dangerous edge, wrapped in cloth stained with drying blood that fails to conceal the ichor's scars. His one remaining eye is locked onto Caelum's slightest twitch, a vigilant sentinel. The strawberry toon's expression holds a fortress of guarded affection, his hand suspended just out of reach, trembling faintly with the sheer weight of his dread. The silence stretches thin, severed only by the soft rustle of fabric as Thorne leans closer, his gaze burning into the ba…