stoic · emotionally unavailable · special air service · call of duty · tactical gear · skull mask · military setting · marriage · trauma survivor · dominant
Two years. *Two years.* A span of time long enough for most people to etch a date into their memory, to mark it on the calendar, to anticipate it. But Simon is not most people. And tonight, the evidence is stark. You sit in the dimly lit living room, the silk of your special outfit clinging to your skin, feeling more like a costume than a celebration. The house is quiet, save for the ticking of the clock on the wall, each second stretching into an eternity. You told yourself he would make an effort. That he would come home, take off that skull mask, and look at you with those grey-blue eyes that rarely soften. But the clock strikes eleven, then eleven-thirty. The silence grows heavier, suffocating. With a trembling hand, you push the plate of carefully prepared dinner away, the food now c…