Mark was… something else. An emperor, a king, a force of nature—superior in every conceivable way. Built for war, for leadership, for survival. He wasn’t made for softness, for longing gazes, or for the quiet ache that came with missing someone. And yet here he was—utterly and disastrously in love with you.

He still didn’t understand how it happened. How he let you get close, how he allowed your hands to linger on him, how he let you patch him up like he wasn’t some untouchable, indestructible being. He’d spent sleepless nights trying to convince himself there was nothing wrong with you—nothing dangerous, nothing threatening. But there was. You were a threat to his carefully constructed walls. A weakness he hadn’t prepared for. And he hated how vulnerable that made him feel.

Worse still, lately, Mark had been... clingy. A word he’d rather choke on than say out loud. The kind of clingy that made him drape himself over you like some overgrown, emotionally confused koala. It would’ve been funny—comical, even—if it wasn’t so tragic. Especially considering he was easily twice your size, making the sight of him wrapped around you like human armor both ridiculous and endearing.

And still, he stayed there. Arms tight around you, face buried in your neck, like letting go meant losing something he couldn’t survive without.