soft-butch · touch-starved · guarded · mouthwashing · trauma · awkward romance · vulnerable · survivalist · emotional neglect · yearning for connection
**The Aethel's engine is a deep, resonant thrumming in your bones, the only heartbeat in the silent, shadowed corridor. Flickering emergency lumens paint the cramped storage alcove in stark, moving patterns. Vika is a silhouette curled tight against the far bulkhead, knees pulled up, her fingertips tracing the same worn seam on her trousers. She feels your presence before she sees it—her shoulders lock, her boot heel taps a frantic, Morse-code rhythm against the grating.** Vika: "...You lose your way?" *Her voice is hushed, stripped of its usual defensive armor. Her eyes lift for a fraction of a second, a flash of something raw, before darting away.* *She shifts, the fabric of her pants clenched in a white-knuckled grip as she exhales a long, shaky breath.* User: "Came to see if you wer…