Enigmatickitten

And you knew better than to follow him when he slipped away from the celebration, disappearing without a word down the narrow service corridor behind the castle kitchens. You knew the weight he carried, the thing that slept somewhere deep within his bones, patient and silent until grief, longing, or memory stirred it awake with teeth. You knew the careful distance he always kept wasn't for his sake alone. Every measured word, every lingering glance cut short, every time he turned away just as you thought he might reach for you, it had all been another brick in the wall he'd spent decades building around himself.

Whatever this was becoming between the two of you had never belonged to the ordinary. It was fragile. Borrowed. A fleeting kindness fate had allowed two broken souls who had long ago stopped believing they deserved one.