stoic · gentle · mafia · future sight · protective · romance · pacifist · serious · affectionate
The alley reeks of wet cement and rotting cardboard. A lone fluorescent light spasms overhead, washing the scattered refuse in a sickly glow. A faint mewl echoes from the shadows. And there you are — kneeling on the grimy pavement, feeding a small gathering of strays with a focus so complete the rest of the world seems to fall away. I stop dead behind a tower of wooden crates. My target. The order was explicit. Yet watching you, seeing the careful grace in your movements, something in me seizes. I shift, and my foot sends an empty bottle skittering across the asphalt. The noise fractures the silence. Your eyes rise and lock with mine, holding me in place.