here’s another prompt and its gorou <3
royal guard! and royalty!reader + canis bellatoris + nebula
really excited to see what you’ll do mwah mwah <3
request - canis bellatoris (gorou) + nebula (first moment they realized they loved you) + royal guard!gorou and royalty!reader x gn!reader
warnings - reader is already in love with gorou (he's kind of oblivious LOL), dancing, gorou gives reader a kiss on the back of their hand
a/n - i know i said one req per person but i thought this was really cute so i'll let it slide hehe >:) thank you for requesting twice lovely!! <3 i hope more people request for itto/gorou/thoma, i know i haven't written many original things for them but i absolutely adore their characters to the moon and back :D
participate here!
if there was one thing gorou disliked most about his job, it would have to be the requirement of attending royal balls.
in a room so large and vast and beautiful with all its glitter and gold and diamonds—and equally radiant guests whose suits sparkled under luminescent moonlight and ichor candlelight and whose dresses billowed and pooled above polished, marble tile—he felt suffocated.
he knew as a servant that he was never meant to shine: a sword that shone and glittered would be prized, framed, and shelved to be displayed—whereas he was a blade who cut precisely and sharply and was therefore meant to be used as a tool.
it wasn't as though he longed to belong to that world of golden glitter and sparkling diamonds—he found its light far too blinding for someone like him. it was more a longing to understand rather than to belong.
cerulean eyes trained themselves on you, dedicated and purposefully like a trained hawk. you'd been whisked off from his side by another pompous suitor and now pranced along unenthusiastically in some sort of waltz or the other with them. gorou bit back a heinous smile at every deliberate stomp of your shoes on the suitor's foot. you seemed to notice the stifle in his smile and stuck your tongue out childishly over the shoulder of your dancing partner. if "difficult" were a person, it'd be you. difficult as you may be, the swirls of diamond dust and golden mirth whirled around you as the dance ended and you stomped back to gorou's position near the side of the ballroom. an invisible yet tangible spotlight of golden light seemed to follow you with each step.
"archons, if one more person asks me to dance they'll receive a shoe to the face!" you seethed through gritted teeth.
"your highness, you know you can't just reject dance offers."
"sure i can!" your knuckles knocked twice against the breastplate of his lax armor, "after all, i've got the kingdom's most dependable knight on my side! you can just beat 'em up for me, can't you?"
for such a vulgar question, the glossed, faux innocence of your batting lashes made for an interesting oxymoron of a proposal.
"y-your highness, we both know that would be unbecoming behavior of a knight, no less your personal protector."
"you're such a bore!" you booed.
just as you were about to complain about something or the other again, another suitor approached you with the same, plastic-like smile gorou had seen you recoil at all evening.
"your highness, if you might give me the honor of a dan-"
"uhhh my apologies!" you sputtered, eyes wildly roving over the venue in search of a saving grace. once you made eye contact with gorou, he presumed his sentence had already begun to enact itself upon him. you hastily reached out to loop you arm around gorou's elbow and placed your other hand on his forearm. "my knight and i are taking a breather for the moment, you know: the air in here is quite stuffy. though i do thank you for your offer, goodbye!"
"ah- wait!" gorou pleaded, but to no avail. you had already begun dragging him off, far away from the suitor who seemed to be at a loss for words. difficult, you were indeed. gorou knew he possessed enough strength to be able to reign you in but he would never dream of enacting that strength on you, so he let himself reluctantly be dragged along as you zigzagged through the crowd and pushed open the doors to the royal garden.
you refused to stop marching until you finally came to a small clearing, shrouded in seclusion from the prying eyes of the ballroom guests by high walls of hedges sprinkled with crimson roses.
"your highness, we should really get back-"
"in a moment, we will. i just needed to get away, sorry about that." you giggled sheepishly and finally released his arm from your hold. he watched as you glided over to a beautifully protruding rose whose petals glimmered in the shine of moonlight. gorou almost mistook the milky, white light for the warmth he came close to touching in the ballroom with his calloused fingers.
gentle trails of music poured out from the open windows of the ballroom and enveloped the small clearing in a sort of distant tranquility only found in solitude, or the comfort of someone trustworthy, in gorou's opinion. he cast his gaze to the broad expanse of the horizon to offer you a respectable amount of privacy, admiring the manner in which the stars seemed to swell and shake in the inky madness of night.
"hey, gorou," you had looked up from the rose, now raising your head in something akin to an artistic admiration for the faint melody of strings and ivory keys that echoed across marble tiles from the ballroom. your eyes fluttered open and looked at him with all the grandeur of a fluttering butterfly's wings in the early morning of spring: shy, hesitant, yet curious. your gloved hand extended itself out to him in what gorou could only assume was an invitation.
"would you like to dance with me?"
of all the things he expected you to ask, to dance with you was certainly not one of them. "w-with me?"
"well i certainly don't see anyone else here." you gestured to the clearing with wide arms. "for a knight you can be quite daft sometimes."
gorou's ears flattened to match the blossom of red shame that spread across his face. "my apologies, your highness. i'll take care to be more vigilant."
"never mind that." you swatted away the invisible doubts and thoughts from his shoulders that seemed so potent enough to become visible to you, "well, shall we dance?"
gorou's mind wandered back to his thoughts of golden warmth earlier in the evening: and now here you were, the epitome of it, beckoning him closer in an invitation to understand. the biting thought of improperness bit in the back of his mind but gorou chose to neglect it just this once as he slipped his hand into yours and brought an arm around your waist.
he'd seen you dance many times: both in lessons and in practice with suitors, and the only success you held in dancing was your ability to leave your partners with numb toes and permanent scowls on their faces. this time as you danced, however, you moved as if the ground below you comprised of smooth ice and on your feet you adorned skates made of glass.
"what?" you smiled, all teeth and teasing mirth, "did you seriously peg me as a bad dancer? i thought you knew me better than that."
gorou shook his head as he spun you outward and brought you back close to his body, "i don't understand, your highness. why are you so opposed to dancing if you're this good at it?"
there was something latent, buried beneath the wry smile that crept its way onto your lips. it seemed you chose your words carefully when you finally responded and locked gazes with his own. "is it wrong for me to only want to dance properly with one person? i find comfort in you, simple as that."
you'd put it so nonchalantly as if rattling off another tea order and such, but the red that had once been shame across his cheeks soon morphed into crimson akin to the roses that surrounded the two of you as you waltzed to the faint music. gorou stuttered through his reply amidst a chorus of "ums" and "ahs" before you gently shushed him and dipped him downwards in the dance, effectively halting his pitiful reply.
"i just mean that with you i feel more at peace. those lot can be so suffocating," you jabbed your thumb towards the din emitting from the hall, "but when i'm with you everything just gets...better, somehow."
he wished himself to will away the burn from his face; a knight was never supposed to act so openly in the presence of their superior, yet here we was being waltzed away in your arms. "y-your highness, you mustn't say such things about me. people may get the wrong idea-"
"but it's not the wrong idea at all. i enjoy being by your side, gorou."
the realization to him came suddenly and hit like the determined strike of a silver sword. it wasn't the rich, golden light of beauty that he sought among the noble and aristocratic, rather it was your light all along: the light he so longed to touch just once and understand in all its glory. you were why he hated balls, having to watch you be whisked off your feet by suitors far more suitable than him to take your hand in courtship.
of all the things he thought that could have been bothering him, gorou never thought love would ever be one of them.
gorou held you closer, overcome by the emotions that swept over him in his realization: just how long had he been nursing his jealousy on the sidelines while watching others attempt to woo you for your hand? had he really been this oblivious to himself all along?
"gorou? what's wrong?" it was only your voice that snapped him out of his daze and he now realized that the waltz you'd been in had halted.
his heart threatened to leap out of his chest as his eyes roved over you, beathed in the flickering, pale, yellow glow of candlelight that echoed from the hall. eyes he had adored from afar for so long; the emotions and thoughts that he now faced felt understandable and true in his heart.
in the darkness he felt himself shining; a heart that beat too fast for the small cavity of his chest as he suddenly dropped to one knee with one of your gloved hands clasped in both of his. he downed his head to shield your eyes from the blush that spread across his face (though his wilting ears were impossible to hide).
his lips found the cool silk of your gloves, taking care to press them just above the knuckles before pressing his nose to your hand and responding, "i am yours faithfully for as long as you may need me, your highness."
he hoped it'd be forever, if you'd be kind enough to let him. gorou looked up, bashful, timid, and hesitant, only to find you with an unmistakable sparkle in your eyes and a warbly smile that ignited hope in gorou's heart.
how had he not realized he had fallen so hard for the very person he was supposed to protect with his life?
