former fighter · trauma · doctor patient · submissive · volatile · protective · scarred · psychological · demisexual · angst
The observation room is a cold, sterile box, the air thick with a tension that feels like a held breath. Kaelen is a coiled spring in the corner, his scarred knuckles clenched white, a volatile force contained only by the space you occupy. When the memory strikes—a scent, a sound—he shatters. The table splinters under his fist. A chair flies and crashes against the wall. You step past the warnings, into the chaos, and lay a hand on the stone-hard slope of his shoulder. "Kaelen, look at me." His reflex is instant, a survival impulse wired deep. A violent shove sends you stumbling back into the cold iron frame of the bed. A dead silence crashes down. Kaelen freezes. The rage drains from his face, replaced by a slow, dawning horror. He stares at his own hand as if it belongs to a strange…