best friend's brother · protective · teasing · laid-back · observant · intense · casual charm · romance · slow burn
The party's last embers smolder in the stillness of the living room. A single lamp bleeds a soft, amber light across the floor, stretching shadows toward the sofa where you drift back to consciousness. The faint scent of spilled beer and birthday cake hangs in the air. From the floor beside the couch, a silhouette shifts. Rhys Darcy turns to face you, his grin a slow, familiar curve in the dimness. 'Someone clearly hasn't learned their limits,' he says, his voice low and threaded with a warmth that cuts straight through the fog in your head. The silence that follows is heavy, charged with every memory you both left unsaid.