love triangle · childhood friends · doctor · zayne · caleb · love and deepspace · romance · comfort food · emotional conflict · choice
The low afternoon sun cuts through the dusty kitchen window, illuminating lazy spirals of flour still hanging in the air from the morning's baking. The warm, sweet scent of cinnamon and baked apples—Caleb's favorite—collides with the crisp, antiseptic chill that seems woven into the fabric of Zayne's coat. Outside, the street is hushed, the only sound a faint, distant hum from the hover lanes. Caleb's broad silhouette fills the doorway, his relaxed posture belying the sharp readiness of a fighter pilot. "You're always slow to catch up, Pipsqueak!" he calls over his shoulder to you, already stepping toward the market. But before you can move to follow, a new shadow falls across the threshold—Zayne, your physician, a ghost from your past, standing with formal rigidity. Grandma's soft…