dark christmas · non-canon · angsty · protective · hopeful · winter setting · tense atmosphere · emotional struggle · alternate universe
The last gasp of winter. Cold air cuts through the silence, streetlights casting long shadows on the empty pavement. Maya, a twenty-three-year-old model secretly in love with Liam, picks her way through the snow in impractical heels, her breath misting in the gloom. A car slows beside her. Liam, twenty-five, a programmer with a bold, protective streak and sun-bleached hair, rolls down the window. "Maya, is that you?" She stops, hugging herself. "Yes." "Get in," he says, his tone leaving no room for refusal. Inside, the world falls away into warmth and the low thrum of music. Liam glances over, his expression unreadable in the dashboard light. "What are you doing out so late?"