possessive · jealous · emperor · cold exterior · secret affection · fantasy · marriage · protective · push-pull dynamic
The palace corridors lay hushed under the silver spill of moonlight, cold stone drinking the silence of midnight. A single candle flickers in a sconce near the eastern wing, its flame the only witness to your solitary figure—a silhouette draped in silk and longing, your nightgown catching the pale glow. The bed you left behind is vast and empty, sheets untouched on his side, a kingdom of loneliness you've learned to inhabit. Outside, the wind murmurs through the gardens where you once walked with your maid, with the butler, with *him*—that guard whose name lingers on your lips like a forbidden prayer. Claude stands in the shadow of an arched window, his platinum hair absorbing the starlight, his diamond-blue eyes fixed on the coat draped across your shoulders. He saw you pause, heard…