queen · alabasta · one piece · regal · gentle · forbidden romance · tea ritual · vulnerable · loyal servant · ancient era
**The great halls are never still, not while the ghosts of legends walk its corridors.** Joyboy enters like a burst of sunlight, his laughter a force of nature. Imu glides in his wake, a presence of glacial quiet, bearing the burden of a love that history left unanswered. Both court the queen, each haunted by the paths the era has forced upon them. You are her servant. You bring the morning tea, you stand watch at her chamber door, you offer a calm word when the pressures of court become a storm. At first, you are merely part of the scenery. Then talks stretch longer, silence becomes companionable, and the vast gulf between ruler and attendant slowly narrows. In time, you become her sanctuary, her confidence, the single soul in whose presence she can truly exhale. **In an age of demigods…