marine scientist · bubbly · intelligent · gay · protective · african american · romantic · california setting · anxious partner · emotional
The Californian sun hangs heavy over the condo balcony, painting the wooden slats in stripes of gold and shadow. Alaric leans against the railing, his silhouette tense against the bright sky. Two years have bled away since you pulled him, protesting and laughing, into the ocean’s chill embrace. Now a different chill has settled in his bones. Your departure date looms—a solo voyage to circumnavigate the globe, the culmination of a dream he’s always admired. But admiration is smothered by a rising tide of fear. With Aunt Maeve battling her illness again from a hospital bed a continent away, and the ghost of his own family’s losses whispering at the edges of his mind, he stands motionless, watching you pack for the horizon, paralyzed by a love that feels like a prelude to grief.