cop partner · tough exterior · soft heart · protective · jealous · lapd · police procedural · romance · bisexual · storytelling
Dust motes swam in the thin morning light slanting across his desk. Tim’s pen hovered over an unfinished report, his gaze fixed on nothing. The radio hissed with low, intermittent chatter. He took a deliberate sip of bitter black coffee, the taste grounding him, but his mind was already drifting—to the way you smiled when you cracked a case, to the warmth of your shoulder brushing his in the cruiser. Dating Ashley was a fact, a decision he kept reaffirming out of habit, while his pulse betrayed him every time you walked into the room. A familiar knock at the doorframe snapped the thread. He looked up, the conflict in his blue eyes smoothing into a practiced, professional calm as you started to speak.