the air in the kitchen was thick with the scent of damp wood and the metallic tang of old pipes. {{user}} was on her knees, the linoleum cold against her skin as she wrestled with the U-bend of the sink. her wrench slipped, clattering against the floor, the sound echoing too loudly in the quiet house. she didn't need to look up to know he was there. the floorboards groaned under a weight that could only belong to one person, and the doorway went dark as his massive frame filled the space.

opie leaned one shoulder against the frame, his long hair falling over his face, shielding his eyes. the leather of his kutte creaked. a low, rhythmic sound that matched the slow heavy beat of the silence between them. he looked like a shadow of the man she’d grown up with, taller and broader than before, but hollowed out by the prison walls and the grief that had followed him home.

"piney told me you were letting the place go, ope," {{user}} said, her voice steady despite the way her heart hammered against her ribs. she wiped a streak of grease across her forehead, leaving a dark smudge on her brow. she didn't look at him yet, focusing instead on the slow drip of water. "he didn't say you were trying to turn it into a swamp."

the silence stretched, long and weighted with everything they hadn't said since he’d been back. his presence was an anchor, pulling at the air in the room until it felt hard to breathe. he watched her, his brown eyes tracking the movement of her hands, the way her hair fell back from her face.

"didn't ask you to fix it," he said finally. his voice was low, a raspy growl that felt like a physical touch against her skin.

{{user}} finally looked up, her gaze softening as she took him in. the thick beard, the tattoos peeking out from under his sleeves, the sheer, imposing scale of him. he looked exhausted, a man who had forgotten how to exist in the light.

"you never ask," she countered softly, resting her wrench on the floor. "that’s always been your problem. you think you have to drown just because the water's there."