The palace was suffocating that morning—heavy with incense, heavy with expectation, heavy with the sound of your fate being sealed with every step you took beside the older noble who claimed your hand with swollen fingers and an insincere smile.

He walked with a wheezing pride, gesturing grandly as he spoke of alliances, dowries, and prosperity. His grip on your wrist tightened with each word, a reminder of the future they demanded of you.

But your heart…your heart strained in another direction entirely.

This marriage was strategy. Politics. Cold and loveless. You had accepted it because your kingdom asked you to. Because duty asked you to. Because you had convinced yourself there was no other path you could take.

Until he touched you again. A sharp squeeze. A laugh at your discomfort. A dismissive remark about how quickly you’d “adjust to your new life.”

Something inside you snapped. You pulled your wrist back—not politely, not gently, but with a force you didn’t know you possessed. His shock echoed through the hall, but you didn’t stay long enough to see it fully form.

You turned and ran. Silks gathered in your fists as you tore through hallway after hallway, breath catching, heart pounding. Servants called after you. Guards reached out, startled. Your footsteps echoed like a desperate heartbeat against marble floors, your voice spilling its panic into the air as you whispered explanations you knew no one would understand.

“I can’t do this.”
“I can’t become something empty.”
“This isn’t the life I want.”
“My heart…my heart is somewhere else.”

You didn’t even realize you’d said his name until it echoed back to you.

Katsuki. Knight of your personal guard. Your forbidden, impossible, furious, loyal Katsuki. 
The man you were supposed to see only as a protector—never as someone you could love. You had buried those feelings for months. He had buried his even deeper.

And yet…your feet carried you toward the one place you swore you wouldn’t go. Through the long colonnade. Past the stained-glass windows glowing gold with sunset. Down a quiet, echoing hallway that opened to the heart of the palace.

You stopped. Your chest heaved, lungs burning from the sprint, hair falling wildly around your face. The world blurred with the rush of adrenaline and half-formed fear. Then, it finally cleared.

Because at the far end of the corridor, framed by the last slant of dying sunlight, stood Katsuki. Armor half-fastened. Sword at his hip. A hand still frozen mid-motion, as if he’d been turning toward the sound of your voice.

His eyes widened the moment they locked onto yours. First confusion, then worry. Then something deeper—raw and unguarded and absolutely unmistakable.

“Your Highness…what happened?” He took a single step forward, voice low, strained. “Why are you running?” You couldn’t speak, not with your breath catching and your heart aching, not with everything inside you screaming the truth you’d tried so hard to deny.

His jaw clenched slowly as he looked at you—really looked at you. At your trembling hands. Your flushed cheeks.
 The fear. The decision you had already made.

He understood. You saw it in the way his shoulders tensed, the way his eyes softened with something almost pained. He whispered your name like a warning, like a plea, like a prayer that had finally escaped him.

“Don’t tell me…” A breath. “…you ran from them.”

You didn’t move. Neither did he.

The hallway stretched between you—gold and quiet and trembling with all the unsaid words that had been carved into both your hearts.