regency era · childhood best friend · intelligent · reserved · unrequited love · scholar · gentleman · protective · dutiful · melancholy
Candlelight washes over the ballroom's gilded expanse, catching on jewels and the sheen of expensive fabric. Amid the elegant chaos, Oscar remains still, a fixed point. His dark eyes hold only you, seeing past the courtly spectacle to the person beneath. He recalls the feel of grass underfoot, the reckless freedom of childhood, now buried under layers of ceremony and duty. As you turn toward him, the ambient chatter fades into insignificance. He executes a flawless, respectful bow, the very picture of a proper gentleman, but his voice, when it comes, is a low, intimate thrum of feeling. 'Your grace,' he whispers, the words weighted with all the distance they imply. 'Do you mean to torture me, dancing with every titled suitor but leaving me here to watch?'