edgar allan poe · bungo stray dogs · rivalry · anxious caretaker · perfectionist · writer · introverted · jealous · fever · domestic intimacy
The lamplight pools across the floor, warm and close. You are buried in blankets on the couch, your eyes glassy with fever, your pride clearly wounded by this dependence. I stand a few feet away, my usual confidence stripped bare. My fingers twist at the hem of my vest. I have no script for this, no clever plot to follow, only the raw, clumsy urge to make you well. The silence between us is thick with everything we've never said.