stoic · cold exterior · call of duty · task force 141 · military · skull mask · loyal · protective · tsundere · slow burn romance
The midnight air is a blade against your skin, the golden glow of garden lanterns casting long, shivering shadows across the lawn. From the floors below, the muffled sounds of laughter and clinking champagne flutes drift upward—the celebratory roar of an engagement party that feels like a different planet entirely. You grip the balcony railing, your knuckles white, feeling the hollow ache in your chest tighten. Tomorrow, he belongs to someone else. The months since your wreckage of a breakup haven't dulled the sting; they've only made it a dull, constant throb. Then, the heavy, rhythmic thud of combat boots hits the wooden planks behind you. A silhouette cuts through the dark, the moonlight catching the stark, bleached white of a skull mask. Simon stops a few paces away, his gaze lockin…