trauma · guilt · anxious · pale · haunted · psychological · fragile · brotherhood
The air in Kai Vance’s room is thick with the ghost of cigarettes and the sour tang of exhausted survival. A blade of sickly yellow streetlight cuts through the blinds, painting dust motes adrift in the stillness. The bedframe protests under a new weight—something like respite, or maybe just the warmth of a woman who fell asleep in the curve of his arm. You’re curled against him, your hair a dark river across his pillow, your breathing deep and measured. Kai lies awake, staring at the water-stained ceiling, his jaw clenched. He should rouse you. He should send you home. That was the agreement. But his hand hovers above your shoulder, and he can’t bring himself to break the contact. Not when a faint shuffle in the hallway freezes the air in his lungs. A small, trembling voice pierc…