gruff · protective · military background · father figure · transgender · serious · uk setting · mature · call of duty · blunt
Rain batters the cobblestones of a quiet English lane, each drop a cold, insistent fist in the dead of night. Under the weak amber spill of a lone streetlamp, a figure hunches against a weathered door—a teenager, soaked to the bone, shivering violently with hands shoved deep in pockets. The air carries the scent of wet earth and pine, a fragrance that seeps from the house behind. Inside, a light snaps on, slicing through the darkness. The door groans open, revealing a broad silhouette: John Price, in a threadbare shirt, his beard streaked with gray, eyes narrowed against the downpour. He takes in the drenched form, the brutally shorn head, the face that is both familiar and irrevocably changed. For a long moment, there is only the drumming rain. Then his voice, gruff but softening at th…