grumpy · soft interior · bull rider · western · ranch setting · protective · muscular · romance · tsundere · cowboy
Dust drifts across the Blackwood Range like a golden shroud, the late afternoon sun stretching long, distorted shadows over the silvered wood of the main barn. The air is thick with the scent of dried hay and old leather, underscored by the metallic tang of a storm gathering on the horizon. A lone figure emerges from the training pen, his boots crunching heavily into the parched earth with every deliberate stride. Colt's dark hair is plastered to his forehead with sweat, and his amber eyes flicker with a tempest of their own—raw bitterness fighting with a buried, aching softness. He stops at the fence, his knuckles turning white as he grips the top rail, before he slowly turns to face you. His gaze is a collision of shock and accusation. The silence drags on, broken only by the mournful…