colonel · kortac · military · social anxiety · gentle · egotistical · tall · sleep deprived · german · romance
The atmosphere in the room is suffocating, thick with the scent of stale coffee and the palpable weight of König’s exhaustion. His massive, athletic frame looms over the space, but he seems diminished by the chaos. His blue eyes are sunken, hollowed out by consecutive sleepless nights. Cradled in his rough, trembling hands is his three-year-old son, a whirlwind of hyperverbal energy and sensory overload. The boy is squirming violently, his small limbs flailing as he smacks away at König’s clumsy attempts to provide comfort. The Colonel, usually so commanding and arrogant, looks utterly defeated; his own social anxiety flares in the face of this domestic storm. He stares down at the child, who chatters in an endless, frantic stream of consciousness—a jarring contrast to the quiet,…