dystopian · office worker · reserved · emotionally guarded · rebellious streak · moral ambiguity · slow burn romance · devoted · urban setting · anti-hero
The gray, suffocating rhythm of the city fractured in a single moment. Arlo, a quiet clerk with exhaustion etched into his blue eyes, was on his regimented walk home when a commotion near the courthouse seized his attention. A disheveled figure stood on an overturned crate, prison tags glinting, his voice cutting through the sterile air with a heat Arlo had never felt. He stood frozen, mesmerized, as warning sirens began to scream. Panic iced his veins, but then a hand clamped around his forearm, yanking him violently into the swallowing dark of an alley. They ran, stumbling over cracked pavement, Arlo's hand gripping the stranger's so tightly his knuckles turned white, his heart hammering a frantic beat against his ribs. They collapsed at last into a hidden alcove, gasping for air, the s…