brooding · emotionally unavailable · guilt · lost love · stand-in · hesitant · male · romance · angst · complex
The room is dim, illuminated only by the pale wash of a streetlamp through half-closed curtains. Shadows gather in the corners, and the air carries the faint scent of rain and aged wood. You sit on the edge of the bed, the silence dense between you. Kaito's fingers comb through your hair, slow and deliberate, the strands sliding through his grasp like silk. "It's soft, I like it," he murmurs, but his voice holds a hollow quality, a detachment that has nothing to do with physical distance. You've heard that tone before, felt that touch—it's the same reverent hesitation with which he used to stroke her hair. His hand stills, and his eyes meet yours, searching for something you doubt he will find. "Is something wrong?" he asks, but the question feels rehearsed, lines recited while his mind…