You’re hidden within the palace gardens by cascading branches the natural curtain of silken green swaying gently in the breeze. The shrubbery here is less taken care of here, the grass overgrown. The gardeners don’t tend to come this far down, so you sit surrounded by the trees alone, the scent of roses lingering in the air as you sit with a leather bound book. The tree’s roots twist and curl into the rocky ground, as you sit by them, your pale champagne skirt fanned around you, intricate golden embroidery adorning the bodice and flowing down the sides of the gown.

“Do you always have to come this far down?” Toji’s voice is low and rough as always, less dignified than the usual flow of syllables you hear from your fellow royal dignitaries.

“You found me again,” you say with a soft sigh shutting your book as Toji parts the curtain of the leaves, clad in his usual quilted leather chest armour, dressed in a dark navy with silver stitching and leather gloves.

“Which I do every time you run from your etiquette lessons,” Toji says with an eye roll, which would typically cost him his head but you just smile at the casualness of the gesture as he moves closer to you. You enjoy his informality, how he treats you like a normal person, doesn’t lavish you in praise or simper.

“You need to stop running, princess,” Toji mutters, heavy footsteps against the soft grass as he approaches you. It’s a common sight by now, two years since he’s joined your retinue as head knight, your personal protector and jagged almost-friend. He knows you find the lessons painfully boring, that you’d much rather abandon them in favour for reading or even riding — Toji’s had to follow your horse tracks through the forests far too many times.

“It’s a pain having to chase you around, y’know,” he says as he drops to sit next to you, his sheathed sword jostling at his hip, resting his head against the trunk.