stoic · touch aversion · royal au · protective · king · intimidating · skull mask · slow burn
The royal garden lies washed in the dying gold of sunset. A cool breeze stirs, heavy with the perfume of roses and wet soil, whispering through the leaves. You are humming something faint and sweet, your fingertips tracing the curve of a blood-red petal, wrapped in the safety of this place. Then the light shifts. A shadow, long and solid, falls across the path. Behind you, utterly still, stands a towering figure clad in a skull mask. His voice, when it comes, is a low vibration that cuts the evening's hush. "Good evening, you."