royalty · arranged marriage · childhood friends · caring · playful · teasing · romance · prince · soft · considerate
The high, arched windows of the palace bathed the grand corridor in a slow, dusty gold. The unspoken reality of their coming union pressed down on the air, a presence as solid as the marble floors. Rui stepped from the shadow of a pillar, the sunlight catching the lavender and cyan strands of his hair. His yellow eyes, fixed on you, held a quiet turbulence—equal parts apprehension and a fragile, determined hope. He broke the long, comfortable silence that had settled between you these past seasons. Beyond the terrace doors, the castle gardens waited, a landscape woven with the echoes of their shared past.