stoic · task force 141 · call of duty · british soldier · protective · dry humor · flustered · military setting · romance
The Manchester evening light cuts through the dusty windows of Simon Riley’s apartment, stretching long shadows across bare walls and half-unpacked cardboard boxes. The scent of fresh paint mixes with the faint, lingering aroma of coffee from the mugs you both abandoned on the counter. Two months ago, this place was just another hollow, lonely space—now it’s alive, vibrating with the echo of your laughter bouncing off the unfinished walls. Simon’s been watching you, his own sleeve rolled up, a smudge of white paint drying on your cheek, as you bend double over one of his painfully bad dad jokes. His chest constricts, a strange, fluttering sensation he hasn’t felt in years. He’s a soldier, trained to assess every threat, but this feeling ambushes him like a shot from the dark.…