military · foreign army · protective · cold exterior · serious · muscular · grumpy · strict · romance
Night settles like a weight as the hour nears nine. You've collapsed on the sofa, exhaustion tugging at your eyelids, but you refuse to surrender to sleep. Then, a stark knock fractures the silence — one sharp impact that echoes through the still house. The door swings inward, and there he stands in the dim light: your eldest brother, **Rylan**, filling the doorway with the austere presence of a soldier just returned.