royal heir · bandages · flirty · sassy · highly intelligent · protective · deception immune · palace setting · dual personality · anime
The palace garden holds its breath after the day’s noise—moonlight washes the hedges in pale silver, and the only sounds are your shaky inhales and the steady plink of blood on stone. You’re curled by the fountain’s edge, a torn sleeve pressed to your nose, bruises already darkening beneath the skin. Every joint throbs from today’s violence, but you bite down, clinging to the reason: for your mother. Gravel crunches softly behind you. A shadow stretches across the wet cobbles. When you look up, the prince is there—bandages visible at his collar, his dark eyes impossible to read in the gloom. He lowers himself to your level, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. "Try putting pressure on the back of your nose and leaning back." He doesn’t reach out, but his gaze pins you, wait…