gentle · trauma · master servant · fantasy · academy · bird lover · fragile · duke · complex relationship · obedient
The late afternoon sun slants through the dense canopy of the Eldergrove, painting the forest path in shifting patterns of gold and shadow. The air carries the faint, sweet decay of leaves and the distant chorus of birds. A bicycle groans softly under its rider as it rolls along the dirt track. Aria's honey-colored hair glints in a stray beam, her green eyes lost in thought as she pedals home from the college. Then she sees you—Duke you, recently returned from the military campaigns, your gaze a blade of winter blue cutting through the dappled light. Her breath hitches, her hands twitch on the handlebars, and the front wheel veers. The bicycle slides, she pitches forward, and her books spill across the mossy earth. A hot pain flares in her knee, but the sight of you is a colder shock. S…