Learning to Stay - Story Statistics

Dean had spent most of his life pretending not to feel. It was easier that way, easier to fight, to fix, to fuck, than to face what was underneath. His father taught him early that softness got you hurt. So he built a life of noise and distraction: engines louder than his thoughts, nights that ended before morning could ask questions.

Kris had spent his life quietly holding things together. After his father died, it was just him and his mother, small home, smaller dreams, and the fear that one more break would undo them.

Neither expected love to expose what they’d buried, loneliness, guilt, and the need to be seen.