đŞđđđ đ°đđđ đťđđ đłđđđđ.
 ÝÝâ pairings: The Creature(2025) x Duke's Daughter!reader  ÝÝâ themes: Established Relationship. Friends To Lovers, Fluff, Gentle Giant, Self-Doubt (Adam), 1800s Era, Desire, First Kiss, Size Difference No use of y/n.  ÝÝâ summary: Hidden beyond the your father's manicured gardens lies a secret only you know: a towering, gentle creature who saved your life and asked for nothing but friendship in return. A/N: I am playing it safe because The Creature is precious and deserves to be loved T_T Also forgive me, it ain't proof read.
You had a friend.
A peculiar one.
A friend who is tall, broad, and unyielding as the trees itself. He is a peculiar thing, indeed, for though he is large in a manner that makes even the pines appear diminished for a heartbeat, he is gentle and shy as a fawn startled in the underbrush.
He saved your life long ago, when a pack of wolves had made sport of chasing you through the frost-bitten dark. You would have surely perished had he not stepped between you and their snarling jaws.
After he saving you, he lingered only at the edge of the clearing, half-hidden in the shadows. You had been shaking, breathless, terrified, and yet something in his stance begged reassurance, not fear.
You offered him the smallest smile you could muster and whispered, âPlease, come into the light. I wish to see the face of the one who saved me.â
It became a code. Your gentle call that told him you are safe with me.
You told him then that you owed him your life. When you asked how you might repay him, he had hesitated the way only Adam hesitates; almost frightened of his own voice.
He asked for a friend.
So you granted it.
Night after night, beneath the moonâs silver eye, you met him in the forest beyond your fatherâs gardens, arms full of novels, philosophy, and whatever academic curiosities you thought might delight him. And he always listened, knees drawn up, shoulders hunched, great hands folded as if unsure where else they ought to rest.
Tonight, you arrive early. A soldier had stopped you on the path back to the manor, handsome in a polished sort of way. He flirted boldly, bowing far too close, fingers brushing yours as he tucked a stray curl behind your ear.
You had smiled simply to be polite.
But in the trees behind him, unseen even by you, Adam watched.
He stood stiff as a plank. Unblinking. Arms tight at his sides. A strange, smouldering something burning low behind his dark eyes. He did not understand the word for it.
He only felt⌠wrong.
Later that night, the soldier forgotten, you step into your forest clearing and speak softly into the shadows, âAdam⌠come into the light.â
A breath.
A rustle.
And then he emerges, immense and hesitant, because he knows the code is only spoken when it is you approaching him.
You sit together beneath your usual tree. You finish reading to him and close the book upon your lap. The night hums. The air is velvet.
He is too quiet.
His voice breaks the silence.
âWhy did your face alter,â he asks slowly, âwhen that man laid his hand upon yours?â
You blink. ââŚMy face?â
He nods, gaze following the ground like he fears he has overstepped. âIt moved. I know not the term for it. Yet⌠it changed.â
You let out a soft, sheepish laugh. âHow so? What manner of expression did I wear?â
Adam considers the memory with earnest seriousness, brow furrowing.
âYou appeared⌠startled. And warm,â he says carefully. âAs though your breath escaped you.â He looks up, eyes gentle, confused. âDoes touch compel such a feeling? When the one touching is⌠desired?â
The laugh dies in your throat.
Your heart seizes. Because you want him. You want him in ways you barely allow yourself to think, let alone admit in the open air.
His voice lowers. Almost frightened. âTell me⌠what is it like, to be wanted?â
You freeze.
He is looking at your mouth. Or perhaps you are looking at his. You cannot tell, because the world goes silent except for your pulse.
Your breath hitches and you leanâ
No.
No.
You scoot away from him so abruptly the leaves whisper under you, because you nearly did something catastrophically foolish.
His head lifts.
âI see you look at me, at times,â he says, tone soft as moss, deeply innocent. âIt confounds me. Am I⌠displeasing to behold?â
You choke on nothing.
You are caught between Youâre beautiful and I must throw myself into a swamp immediately.
He misreads your silence. Of course he does.
âI meant no insult,â he murmurs quickly, shoulders curling inward, as if trying to make himself smaller. âI am aware my form is⌠strange. I amââ
âOh heavens,â you cry, hands flying up. âI think youâre beautiful! Inside and out. Must we suffer through this?â
He startles like youâve hurled a stone at him.
âBeautiful?â he repeats, voice a low, incredulous echo.
You bury your face in your hands. âYes. BeautifulâHandsome. Maddeningly so. Would you stop looking so wounded? You unsettle me, Adam. You unsettle me dreadfully.â
He moves then. Slowly. Cautiously. Like approaching a wild creature that might flee.
His fingers brush yours.
Barely.
Traced with hesitance, reverence, fear, longing, everything he does not yet have language for.
âThen⌠why did you draw away from me?â
Because his touch sets your world on fire.Â
Because you want him with a weight that makes the earth seem too small.Â
Because if you stay close, you might do the very thing you are terrified he will not want.
You swallow, voice a thin whisper.
âBecause had I remained⌠I fear I would have forgotten myself.â
His brows pull together. âForgotten⌠in what fashion?â
You meet his eyes.
They widen.
Very gently, he lifts your hand between both of his, treating it as though it is the most precious thing in creation.
âI wish,â he says quietly, âto understand such a fashion.â
Your breath leaves you in a rush.
You do not kiss him. But you lean just close enough that he feels the tremble of the need you carry for him alone.
And his thumb strokes once, reverently, across your knuckles.
âWould you show me?â he asks, voice unsteady. âWhat it is⌠to be wanted?â
The forest holds its breath.
You lift his hand to your lips and whisper, âPut your lips on mine, and I will show you.â
Then he leans in.
Very carefully. Very slowly. Like a man approaching fire with the knowledge it may burn him⌠yet choosing it anyway.
His lips touch yours.
A tremor goes through him so sharply you feel it in your bones.
This is his first kissâYou can sense it in the hesitant brush of his mouth, the fragile uncertainty of his breath, the reverence in the way he barely dares to touch.
You kiss him gently at first, soft and coaxing, because you do not wish to startle him, do not wish to overwhelm him. Your fingers find the side of his jaw, guiding him, telling him he is welcome in this closeness.
He answers you with a broken exhale.
Then his hand risesâslow, tremblingâand he cradles your face.
His palm is broad, slightly cold, shaking as though the moment itself is too precious, too impossible to hold steady. He cups your cheek as though you are something divine, something he fears the world might take from him at any second.
You deepen the kiss by a bare breath, only enough for your lips to mold softly against hisâand a sound escapes you.
A quiet, helpless little hum.
He startles.
His entire body jerks back as if struck.
Adam tears away from your mouth, eyes wide, chest heaving, gaze fixed shamefully on the ground.
âI⌠I did not meanââ He swallows, throat working. âDid I hurt you? Forgive me, I did not know⌠I thought⌠I feared Iââ
His breath stutters, the words entangled in panic. âYour soundâI feared it was pain.â
Your heart breaks and swells all at once.
You reach for him carefully, your fingers brushing the back of his knuckles.
âAdam,â you whisper, soft but sure. âLook at me.â
He hesitates, shoulders drawn tight, but he obeys.
His eyes lift, and the fear in them is a living thing.
You cradle his face with both hands, mirroring how he had held you moments before, and your voice steadies.
âYou could never hurt me.â
His breath shudders. âBut youââ
âThat sound,â you murmur, leaning close enough that your words warm his lips, âwas not pain. It was⌠pleasure. It was want.â
His eyes flicker.
Understanding comes slowly, uncertainlyâyet with a hunger that feels older than his bones.
You draw him nearer again, your lips brushing his as delicately as flower petals.
âThis is wanted,â you breathe. âThis is me⌠wanting you.â
He makes a low, astonished soundâand when he kisses you again, it is still gentle, still carefulâŚbut fuller. Warmer.
A trembling, reverent claiming from a man who has never dared to claim anything.
One of his hands stays on your cheek, shaking; the other settles at your waist, large enough to span nearly its whole curve, holding you.
Your lips move together slowly, sweetly, with a rising thrum of passion beneath the tenderness.
Not urgent. Not rushed. But something bloomingâdeep, molten, inevitable.
Every breath, shared. Every tremble felt. Every inch of him learning you.
And every inch of you, melting.
When you part, the air is warm between you, his forehead resting almost shyly against yours.
He whispers, voice barely more than a breath, âIs⌠is this what it is to be wanted?â
Your smile answers before your words do.
âYes,â you whisper. âThis is precisely what it is.â
And he breathes you in like a man starved.
You barely have time to savor the trembling stillness between you before he leans in againâless hesitant this time, more drawn, as though something inside him has unlatched and will not be shut again.
His mouth finds yours with new hunger. Still gentleâŚbut no longer timid. A firmer press. A seeking. A wanting he has no name for, yet feels with every part of him.
His hand cups your jaw fully now, his thumb grazing the corner of your mouth in a motion that feels almostâpossessive.
Your breath catches.
You kiss him back with equal fervor, lips parting for him just enough to draw a quiet, startled sound from his throat. He answers with a soft growl of need, the faintest hint of bite in the way he pulls you closerâyour bodies brushing, your pulse thundering.
It is slow and deep and dizzying.
A kiss that tastes like discovery and hunger and that first spark of something far too dangerous to name.
Your fingers curl into the fabric of his jacket.
His other hand hesitates at your waistâthen grips, warm and trembling, pulling you the slightest fraction nearer. The kiss deepens again, heat rising, your lips molding, parting, meeting with a rhythm that feels older than breath.
You make another soundâsoft, wanting, shameless.
He echoes it, a low, rumbling answer in his chest that sends shivers down your spine.
You are just about to lose yourself entirely in the press of himâWhen a voice in the distance calls your name.
âMy lady? My ladyâare you in the gardens?â
You freeze.
Adam stills instantly, every muscle locking beneath your hands.
Another call. Closer this time. âMy lady!â
You breathe out against his mouth, reluctant, trembling.
He draws back only a few inches, eyes wide and dark, the left iris glinting, lips parted, confused and almost wounded by the interruption.
You rest your forehead to his, breath warm between you.
âAdamâŚâ you whisper, already aching for the kiss you have no choice but to leave behind.
His hand stays on your waist, gentle, uncertain. Yours lingers on his cheek.
The voices draw nearer.
You swallow, whispering, âI will see you again soon. Wait for me.â
He nods once.
And as you rise to slip back through the brush, he watches you with lips still swollen from your kissâŚand longing blazing in his eyes.
