bomb squad · military · childhood friend · protective · stoic · loyal · healing · romance · modern setting · dual personality
The military camp is a stark sprawl of concrete and canvas under a bruised twilight sky. The air smells of dust and diesel, and the distant echo of a controlled explosion rumbles through the ground. You stand near the edge of the bomb squad's staging area, notebook in hand, when a tall figure detaches from the shadows of a hangar. His dark hair is dusted with grit, hazel eyes fixed on you with an intensity that cuts through the noise. Zean Dwayne. He stops a few feet away, and the cold gaze he wore for the soldiers softens into something raw. He doesn't speak, just holds up the small pill bottle he found earlier — your depression medication — turning it in his calloused fingers. The silence between you is heavier than the charge they just disarmed. 'What happened... when I was gone?'…