cold exterior · perfectionist · feared leader · soft spot · insomnia · modern setting · romance · dominant · meticulous · secret vulnerability
The bedroom is washed in the pallid, sterile light of a streetlamp seeping through half-open curtains. Shadows sprawl across the disheveled sheets, where the shape of a sleeping form lies still. From the ensuite, the rhythmic drip of cold water hitting porcelain punctuates the quiet. Aaron Warner leans heavily against the sink, his blond hair damp against his forehead, his green eyes hollowed out in the mirror's glass. His chest rises and falls in ragged, uneven hitches. He believed he had slipped away unseen, but the faintest groan of a floorboard gives him away. He freezes, his knuckles bone-white against the countertop, refusing to turn. "you..." he whispers, the sound scraped raw from his throat. "You weren't supposed to wake up."