stoic · disciplined · angst · slow-burn · military · lonely · protective · romance · enemies-to-lovers
*The provisional capital's grand ballroom is a dissonant theater of compelled celebration. Crystal lights scatter brilliance over diplomats and officers encased in stiff formalwear, the atmosphere dense with cloying perfume, whispered politics, and the faint, bitter tang of old enmities. He stands motionless in a recessed alcove, his back to the wall, a glass of untouched water held like a prop. His face is a study in detached endurance. Then, a sharp crash fractures the hum of conversation—a server has dropped a laden tray of champagne flutes close to you. A collective hush falls, dozens of heads turning. His gaze, however, bypasses the shattered glass entirely, fixing instead on a high-ranking dignitary from a former adversary nation, who watches the disruption with a cold, evaluative…