A Hideaway

Benson 🎨

Starting off with this sweet, sweet boy, Benson is absolutely what you describe as “marriage material.” He’s kind and gentle, always treating you with the utmost care. You are his muse, his mockingbird, his one and only. Ever since he met you that summer afternoon, he’s been taken with you. Even if he wasn’t aware of it, his heart held a golden bud of affection for you that eventually bloomed when he realized his feelings. Benson confessed after his third heart event, presenting you with a new portrait of your visage. He had lowered his head when offering it to you, his usual stoic demeanor cracking to show something more vulnerable. His smile when you said “I like you too” was beyond radiant- it felt like the rays of the sun shining through autumn leaves. It’s a sight that you wish to remember everyday.

Hackett 🐺

Hoo boy, where do I start with this guy?! Hackett is… something, to say the least. As a red wolf, he fiercely protects his mate- wait, you didn’t realize you’re his mate? Well, being his mate, you’re the target of ALL of his love and affection! Like, straight up love-bombing! He can’t leave you alone! This 6’2 man will scamper up to you with his tail wagging asking for attention. He’ll think you’re mad at him if you don’t talk to him for an hour. Hackett has an insatiable hunger for everything you. However, he’ll always listen to your requests! He’s first and foremost a gentleman, after all. Making you happy is his biggest priority. Hackett’s confession wasn’t quite straightforward. During your hangout in the forest with him, he pledges an oath to you. You didn’t quite understand the weight behind such an oath, so you wrote it off as getting yourself a wolf bodyguard. However, a red wolf’s oath is eternal and unbending. He’ll stay by your side through thick and thin, always protecting you. Your feelings for each other eventually bloom from those experiences. Before long, it feels natural to be by his side and love him.

Ze 🏹

Ze is antisocial, brooding, and scarily intense with everybody. Everybody except you! Everytime he sees you, his eyes soften ever so slightly at the corners, the side of his lips twitching upward. The right to witness this is reserved for you and you alone. Ze hovered around you as a steady, gentle presence in your life. Despite his age being similar to yours, he acted as a guiding light of sorts, helping you navigate the waves of your teen years. Now, he treats you with respect as his equal, but that respect means he expects you to be more responsible. He’s a partner that makes you want to become a more capable person everyday- but doesn’t make you feel bad about it! Though realistic and blunt, he is also very supportive of your endeavors. Ze’s confession was the same as him; quiet, intense, and breath-taking. He took you to see St. Elmore’s Fire and told you his story. When he leaned down and kissed your knuckles, the world seemed to slow down. It was apparently a Lucia family tradition to do so to express gratitude to those close to them, but the moment felt far too intimate for simple gratitude. He didn’t confess outright, but made a vague promise- to ask you again once he achieved his ambitions. It seems he was very eager to ask you out, because it only took him a few months to become a judge. He had appeared on your doorstep with a ring, a raw vulnerability written across his usually stern face. When you slipped the ring on, his sharp features visibly softened and he took your hand. Your breath caught as he leaned down and kissed your ring finger, looking up at you with a thankful smile. That smile you strive to see everyday, as it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.

Craig 🎵

Craig is a sensitive soul. He tears up watching opera, feels anxiety far too strongly, and is quiet and considerate when not torn up by his inferiority complex. You were the first person to believe in him, the first person he opened up to about his worries. Your unconditional support and praise is the sole thing that he grasped onto in his moments of weakness when no one else was there. On solitary nights, he repeated your words and took them to heart, praying that he’d be stronger tomorrow. So when Craig finally started making a name for himself- he made sure to let everyone know that he wouldn’t be standing on a stage without you. Even now he still struggles with feeling like he can never measure up to the incredible people that you attract, but he’s gotten better with time and love. Craig had always treated you gently, but his careful approach to you only furthered with your friendship. Despite your affirmations, Craig still felt like he didn’t deserve you- a talented, kind, and strong-willed person. He never felt like he should have nice things, so Craig never outright confessed. You had to be the one to tell him your love for him first in order for him to admit his feelings. It was truly a moment to remember- Craig had gone rigid after you confessed, hope and doubt warring in his heart. Thump. Thump. Thump. When he finally met your gaze, he momentarily passed out and you had to catch him like a distressed maiden. After he came to, Craig was a little calmer. He took a while to gather his thoughts before responding earnestly. “It makes me happy beyond belief that you like me, of all people. I… like you too, and I promise I’ll better myself so I’ll one day be worthy of you.” You had scolded him for demeaning himself again, but you were truly touched by his words.

Kenneth 🌰

Kenneth often falls behind his peers, despite his determination far surpassing theirs. With neurogenic stuttering and a cognitive disorder from damaging his brain as a child, he experiences far more difficulty than the average person completing everyday tasks. Such is the reality of having disabilities. However, you never shame Kenneth for it or make him feel like a burden. You are his biggest cheerleader and praise him for every small accomplishment, because Kenneth’s progress and determination to improve is inspirational. He appreciates this more than he can express in words. Kenneth took you into the forest one day, leading you into a shaded clearing with a glowing boulder. He placed his hand on the shining rock and spoke the clearest sentences you ever heard out of him. The rock turned out to have magical properties, allowing Kenneth to fully express himself without his brain damage holding him back. He held your hand and confessed that he still wanted to complete his duty, to live in human society and be a proper Prince. “If it weren’t for my unusual childhood, I would be the heir to an empire right now. If I were the heir, would you still be willing to be my Queen?” He had asked you those words quietly with hope and determination in his downcast eyes. You had blinked, wondering if you’d misheard him. His Queen?!? Kenneth unfortunately took your silence as embarrassment and promised that he wouldn’t embarrass you when bringing it up in the future. You were too stunned to correct him. His last question to you stuck with you the most. “You can… wait for me, right?” You replayed those words often in your head, because to you it almost seemed silly. You had stuck by Kenneth’s side all this time, of course you would wait for him. You loved him, though you supposed he didn’t know that at the time.

Lon 📗

Lon is called many things, a genius scholar, storyteller, prodigy- though such labels fail to capture the whole person he is. Lon has a romantic heart and creates from a place of passion, even though his work often doesn’t align with old-fashioned guidelines. This combined with the pressure of expectation resulted in him feverishly writing day and night, trying to find an answer for his questions about life. The conflicting themes made it painful to write, but he kept searching still. That was when he met you. See, Lon loves fantastical things. He always has. He’d much rather stay in a dream than face reality, regardless of the consequences. At least, that was until you two became close. With you, the monotonous life he had grown neutral to began showing signs of new life again. Every moment with you was doused in color, and Lon’s writing flourished with them. Even the end-less story closest to his heart that had been a draft for years was quickly finished due to your positive influence. If he wasn’t sure before, Lon knew then that you were the one- the answer to the hole in his heart.

Lon often took you to the altar to talk, read books, and rest. Being around you gave him inspiration, so he sought to be by your side as much as possible. It took him a while, but he eventually mustered up the courage to tell you about the ending of his story. It was terrifying, opening up to someone about the secret worries he’d kept tucked away for all his life- but he trusted you more than his traitorous heart. “I’ve written a thousand pages for you, and I’ll write ten thousand more,” is what he had said, gazing at you with gentle adoration. Truthfully, Lon had always leaned into a darker worldview, finding a tragic sort of beauty in the silent suffering he was going through. That translated into his writing, his story having almost ending in tragedy. After growing close to you, he revised the end of the novel, leaving it more open-ended. Lon hoped that the boy (his past self) would wake up from the dream and be led to his purpose (you). However, Lon himself had no need to despair anymore, for he was already living in a dream with you.

Claude 📜

Claude is an exception in the fact that he had no feelings towards you at all until you reappeared in his life as an adult. You were his cherished student, after all. Claude put his all into teaching his students, wanting them to grow up with curious minds and a thirst for knowledge. You were always very bright and a delight to have in class, so Claude favored you for your reliability. After discovering that you had a strong resonance with magical essence (making you a prodigy), Claude personally took you under his wing. The two of you grew close, more like friends than teacher and student. His pride flourished as you grew more and more brilliant with each year that passed. Truly, you were his best student. In the present day, Claude still treats you gently, but with a firmness that stems from his respect for your capability. You are his other half that he didn’t know was missing all this time, working, breathing and helping him through the hurdles he’d always have to tackle alone in the past. With your strength of will, you even get Claude to stop overworking himself, greatly improving his sleep schedule. He’s a man that buries himself into his work, but still makes time for you. If you ever feel neglected, he puts everything aside and spoils you with a lovely meal or date. Overall, he’s a hard-working and patient lover who appreciates you more than you know.