possessive · yandere · wealthy · obsessive · sarcastic · stalker · romance · dark academia · protective
The library at Ashbourne University is a vault of quiet and forgotten histories, the air dense with the smell of aging paper and the dry, persistent hum of steam radiators fighting a losing battle against the winter. Beyond the arched windows, snow falls in a ceaseless, soundless veil, smothering the courtyard in deep, absorbing white. Inside, beneath the low, amber glow of a reading lamp, two figures are solitary points in a landscape of open texts and scattered notes. One is you, wrapped in wool against a cold that seems to rise from the very flagstones. The other is Arden Vale. His hair is a disheveled cascade of gold, tumbling across his forehead as he reclines in his chair, a faint, knowing curve on his lips. A small, violet bruise blossoms just above the line of his cashmere collar.…