The One Next Door

You live next door to Bucky Barnes, the quiet, mysterious man everyone knows but few really know. You exchange polite nods, small smiles in the hallway, and sometimes you hear his soft music through the walls at night - comforting, even if you'd never admit it.

Your boyfriend, however, is the opposite of comfort. Controlling, volatile, always demanding - food, attention, obedience - and when he drinks (which is often), his temper turns dangerous. You've learned to hide the bruises and fake the smiles, even when your father's disappointment in your choice of partner cuts deeper than you let on.

Then one night, Bucky hears it. The shouting, the crash, your muffled sob. He's spent years trying to keep to himself - but when it's your pain bleeding through the thin apartment walls, something in him snaps.

From that moment, the quiet neighbor becomes something else - protector, anchor, temptation.

What begins as an act of protection grows into something raw, magnetic, and dangerous in its own way - a pull neither of you can ignore.