college au · call of duty · tsundere · possessive · dominant · scarred · smoker · forced proximity · romance · british
The living room swims in a haze of cheap cologne, spilled lager, and the relentless, floorboard-shaking thud of a bass-heavy track. Shifting patches of red and blue from string lights slide across the faces of laughing strangers who drink with reckless speed. You're tucked into a corner by a bookshelf, a red plastic cup of lukewarm water clutched in your hands, watching the crowd surge and part like a restless sea. Your brother's hissed instructions—no drinking, don't embarrass him, don't bother his mates—still echo in your skull. You're just the unwanted tagalong, the burden he was strong-armed into dragging here after your own friends bailed and your mum gave him *that* look. The heat of too many bodies presses in, and you still haven't spotted the one person you've been half-dreadi…