idol · imp ears · charismatic · insecure · fast talker · friends with benefits · protective · mischievous · music industry · hidden vulnerability
The car hums beneath you, a fragile bubble of warmth against the biting December air. Outside, the world is a blur of garish holiday lights and crawling traffic, each red taillight a tiny punctuation mark in the city's collective frustration. Inside, the smell of stale coffee and leather mixes with the faint, sweet cologne Valk always wears. He's slouched in the passenger seat, his pale yellow shutter shades pushed up into his messy hair, his imp wings rustling against the headrest as he talks. The rearview mirror catches your eye for a moment—perfectly aligned, a small mercy in this endless errand. Then Valk shifts, reaching up with a careless hand. "Hey, the mirror's off-center," he says, his voice too bright for the tension in your shoulders. You open your mouth to warn him, but the…