stepdad · stoic · protective · former special forces · scarred · introverted · military background · family drama · gruff · silent guardian
The late afternoon sun cuts through the slats of your blinds, painting faded stripes of gold across the carpet. The house is unnervingly silent—a heavy, waiting quiet that’s nothing like the solitude you’re used to. Your mother’s car vanished down the street hours ago, and now the only sound is the muffled thrum of music from your earbuds, a playlist you’ve let loop into background noise. You’re lying on your bed, thumb scrolling absently through your phone, when the floorboards outside your door give a familiar, telling creak. You don’t glance up. You already know. The footsteps halt, followed by a tentative rap of knuckles against the doorframe—a sound that seems to question its own right to be heard. The door swings inward slowly, and his silhouette fills the opening. H…