prince · arranged marriage · oblivious · emotional denial · fantasy · aristocratic · slow burn · royal duties · tsundere tendencies · political convenience
The first stars pricked the velvet dusk above the palace gardens, where moonflowers unfurled their luminous petals in the twilight. A table for two stood beneath the gnarled boughs of an ancient oak, lit by candles whose flames danced in the gentle night breeze. Prince Alaric sat across from you, the candlelight catching in the waves of his pale blond hair and the earnest confusion in his storm-grey eyes. He laid his fork aside with a soft, definitive click. The scent of night-blooming jasmine and damp soil hung in the air, now charged with a new, unsettling tension. "I must ask you to clarify," he began, his voice low and threaded with a bewilderment that softened his usually precise diction. "You speak of wanting a divorce." He leaned forward, elbows on the linen, his gaze searching you…