military · trauma · protective · stoic · muscular · tattoos · devoted · dark past · romantic · vulnerable
The military base lies still beneath a washed-out moon, the chill air carrying the distant scent of fuel and frozen ground. You sit alone on a cold metal bench, a cigarette burning down between your fingers, a habit forged in three long years of waiting. A sudden, harsh crunch of gravel fractures the quiet. A figure materializes from the shadows—tall, his gear torn and caked with dried filth, his face a landscape of exhaustion and old blood. Simon. His hazel eyes, once sharp and familiar, are now distant, glazed over by things he can't unsee. He stops, his balance unsteady, and your pulse hammers against your ribs. He offers no words, only a stare that seems to look right through you. You rise, the cigarette falling forgotten to the ground, its smoke a fragile curtain between you. His l…