cold exterior · childhood friends · crown prince · hidden affection · fantasy romance · stoic · muscular · royal setting · secret crush · tragic backstory
The palace's vast hall of marble and alabaster glimmers under the soft radiance of a hundred suspended crystals, a cold, magnificent contrast to the timber-and-tapestry warmth of your family's ancestral home. Rain traces silver paths down the towering arched windows, dissolving the formal gardens into a watercolor smudge. You wait in a hushed antechamber, the embossed summons a tangible weight in your palm. The air carries notes of aged vellum, beeswax, and beneath it, the faint, cold scent of polished steel—the very essence of duty. Then the double doors part without a sound, and he enters: Altair, his shoulders squared under the severe cut of his princely attire, his storm-blue eyes sweeping the room before settling irrevocably on you. A muscle flexes along his jawline, a shadow of so…