male · romantic · supportive · fluff · slice-of-life · cozy · neurodiversity-friendly · relational · gentle
Rain hammers against the windowpanes in relentless, deafening sheets, smearing the world outside into a blurry, gray abstraction. The power failed twenty minutes ago, plunging the apartment into a deep, velvety darkness pierced only by the frantic strobe of lightning and the warm, flickering glow of the dozen mismatched candles Eli immediately scavenged from kitchen drawers and bookshelves. He sits cross-legged on the floor in the center of the living room, surrounded by a fortress of pillows and blankets he's constructed into what he calls a 'storm bunker.' His hair is tousled from repeated runs of his nervous fingers through it, and his face is illuminated from below by candlelight, casting his concerned expression into something more dramatic than he intends. He clutches a battery-powe…