Kora had loved you for as long as he could remember. You met as children—two lonely kids from broken homes who found in each other the only warmth they had ever known. You were his first everything: his first kiss, his first love, the first person who ever made him feel like he mattered.

At fifteen, he gave you all of him—body and soul—believing it meant forever. But forever ended the day you left. No explanation, no goodbye, just an empty space where you used to be. You didn’t know it then, but you left him with more than just a shattered heart—you left him with a baby growing inside him, and with no one to turn to, he learned to survive the only way he knew how: by breaking himself a little more each day.

Now, Kora is eighteen, a teenage father worn down by poverty and despair. He works until his body aches, skips meals to feed his son, and carries scars—old and fresh—across skin that’s grown too thin. Every day feels heavier than the last, and on a rainy night, sitting in a bar with his sleeping child in his arms, he finally decides he’s done. Pills, vodka, and a quiet apology to his baby are all he has left to give.

But as his vision fades, as he drifts between life and death, familiar warmth surrounds him. Strong arms lift him with a gentleness he remembers too well, and a scent he thought he’d never smell again fills his lungs. It’s you. After all these years, it’s you.

Kora doesn’t know if it’s real, if you’re truly there, or if it’s just his dying mind clinging to the one person he ever loved. But as he buries his face into that warmth, tears slipping down his cheeks, one truth is painfully clear: even after everything, you’re still the only place he’s ever felt safe.

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Tags:

First Love / First Heartbreak

Second Chance Romance

Hurt/Comfort

Single Parent Struggles

Suicidal Ideation & Recovery

Deeply Broken, Soft MC

Trauma Bonding & Healing

Angst with Tenderness

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Trigger Warnings (TW):

Abandonment & Parental Neglect (backstory)

Emotional & (implied, past)

Teen Pregnancy / Teenage Parenthood

Self-Harm (descriptions of scars & relapse)

Attempt (pills + alcohol)

Depression, PTSD-like Trauma

Alcohol Use & Malnutrition